4 Components of a UX Improvement Action Plan 🎬

What's a UX Improvement Action Plan?

An Improvement Action Plan is a tool that breaks down the prioritized UX recommendations (tasks) into specific, measurable actions (to-do's) to be tackled by the organization.

In our last article, 5 methods of Prioritizing UX Recommendations 🤓, we learned how to rank and sort recommendations into hierarchy of importance. The purpose is to identify the most valuable recommendations to tackle. This prioritization process establishes the ordered list of major tasks to accomplish. Examples look like: 'Do [X]', 'Change [Y]', 'Consider [Z]' to solve for [User Need].

An Improvement Action Plan (IAP) double-clicks on the ordered list of tasks. IAPs outline all of the specific actions necessary to accomplish each task. Another way of thinking about actions, is they're organizational to-do's. Essentially, the process is creating a cross-functional to-do list to make sure UX recommendations are seen through to completion. A to-do list that's specific and measurable. Because — often times — if you don't do this, it ain't gonna get done.

From where do actions (to-do's) come

Improvement Action Plans make things stupid simple. The measurable nature of the to-do's allow for project managers to easily delegate the work to appropriate parties. Therefore, you don't have to be there 🎉. You can move on to other pressing UX research work in various stages (planning, analysis, synthesis, etc.). But where do these actions originate?

Process of breaking down UX recommendations (tasks) into actions (to-do's).

The to-do list within the Improvement Action Plans can be tied all the way back to the original user insights. That's the beauty of the TurboUXR process. There's clear documentation from beginning to end. Each of the 11 processes within the research system of operations flow from one to the next. At the beginning, there's the user insights. At the end, there's the UX Improvement Action Plan.

Insights ➡ Insight Theme ➡ User Story ➡ UX Recommendations ➡ Prioritized Recommendations (tasks) ➡ Improvement Actions Items (to-do's).

Invariably, an assortment of research activities will generate the raw user data. That data is analyzed through various methods to churn out insights. Many related insights are synthesized into Insight Themes. Insight Themes produce a User Story and related UX recommendations. Prioritization of the recommendations, leads to the list of ordered tasks. And the final job of the Improvement Action Plan is to break down these tasks into tactical to-do's 🔧.

1) Action item — specific, measurable to-do's

What exactly needs to get done? Action items are individual to-do's that are specific and measurable. They expressly detail all of the internal, cross-functional work necessary to accomplish a larger task 📝. For example, action items from our previous work include: "Devise 3 options for new copy that increase user positivity", "Develop A/B test parameters to quantify design decisions", "Update code to remove interstitial pages by April 10th". Typically, 3–10 action items are produced for each UX recommendation. Lastly, utilize dates, numbers, and percentages within each — where possible — to ensure measurability.

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2) Lead — designated stakeholder(s) to lead the work

Who is going to lead the work? Designating a point-person for each action item establishes ownership. Without someone on the hook 🪝, the work tends to fall to the wayside. Therefore, always make sure there's at least one stakeholder identified who'll be accountable. This very well might be a lead from Design, Product, Ops, Eng, Marketing, or you!

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3) Progress — necessary steps to complete/completed

What are the sub-steps to completion? Have the lead stakeholder help to make a bullet-point list of the sub-steps necessary to complete each action item. Outline the major checkpoints ✔️ and work to be done. By doing this, you'll help the team establish a sense of progress. Even better, have the project manager cross them off as the work gets done. This will increase project clarity as you manage both up, and down.

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4) Recommendation — for which it solves

To which UX recommendation does this align? Lastly, indicate for which UX recommendation this action item is solving. This will help with tracking from where work came, and how it backtracks 👣 all the way to the end-users' needs. Each action item points to its respective UX recommendation. That UX recommendation points to the associated User Story. And that User Story lives within the Insight Theme which highlights the original user insights, quotes, and video. All-in-all, anyone can easily see how each action item ties back to the original user-centered insights and opportunities.

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How Action Plans fit within the broader UXR process

Implement phase — within the 5-phase UX Research Process Guide

The process of planning actions for UX improvements exists within the Implementation phase of a UXR project. As we just learned, the Implementation phase is all about making real changes come to life.

This phase is truly critical in terms of follow-through. Last does not mean least. Recommendations lead you to actions, and actions lead you to changes / testing of the user experience. Without seeing these processes through to the end, your research will not have the significant impacts necessary to keep a UXR job on the long-term. Ultimately, a UXRr needs to show tangible results and improved metrics as a result of UXR. So, get to action!

See our End-to-end UX Research Project Guide to learn more about the additional phases that prelude Implementation.

Templates to assist in action planning

UX research template toolbox for guided approach to projects.

Need help getting started? Check out our online repository of user experience research templates. This UXR toolbox has specific templates for all phases of a UX research project. Examples include a UXR project brief template to get research projects started on the right foot, a user insight theme presentation document to deliver actionable insights and recommendations to Product teams, and relatedly a UX Recommendation Prioritization + Action Plan framework for increasing Product adoption and action.

Looking for other UXR templates and tools? We've got more, but they might not be published yet. Reach out to us @TurboUXR to start a conversation about which UX research ops process you're looking for guidance. We'd be happy to tailor a template or work with you to create something wholly new ✨.

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