Just a few years ago, creating a user research repository meant spreadsheets, dropping folders into a disorganized Google Drive account, or using WordPress themes to build an entire website of searchable content for your team. You’ll do all that, and still have your research team constantly checking in with you to ask where such and such file or bit of qualitative data is hidden.
Today, there are UX research and market research project management solutions that act as their own repository, allowing you to add global tags to video, audio, user tests, and so much more. Whether you’re using an intuitive market research project management solution or not, global tags are a way to keep all of your user research organized, and even add a bit of automation.
Below, we’ll cover the benefits of using a market research repository with global tags, why they aren’t just normal tags, and how to start using them to organize your B2B market research.
What are global tags?
Global tags are simple words or phrases used across your entire organization that act as categories for events, audio and media files, and other aspects of your research. This is one of the best ways to organize all of your product and B2B Market Research because it essentially makes every element searchable.
For instance, you’ve recorded dozens of screen share UX tests, but they’re spread over several months and buried under mounds of other research. Simply search for “usability tests” and the system will filter the data tagged as usability testing and it’ll display on a single screen.
Some of the most common global tags for user research are:
- Usability testing
- Pain points
- Competitors
- Goals/ objectives
- Research questions
- Survey templates
- Feature requests
The difference between global tags and normal tags
There can be a bit of confusion about global and program tags, especially if you’re more familiar with using them within a single project or study, or if you’ve never used a research repository before.
Truthfully, the two aren’t much different from each other. They’re both categories or sets of words such as onboarding, card sorting, and field research used to manage projects and organize research into a central location.
There is a simple distinction though:
Global tags are used by everyone across the organization and are valid for all company research and product development projects. Once you create them, you can use these same tags again and again. Or, use them for simplified onboarding or stakeholder reporting.
The main benefit of having global tags is in gaining the ability to see patterns across your projects or research over time.
Project tags or just plain tags are specific to a particular project or prototype. When you search for these project tags, even if they’re the same or similar to existing global tags, only the research for that project will appear.
Of course, this does depend on what research repository or user testing platform you use.
The benefits of creating a B2B market research repository with global and project tags
One of the biggest benefits of using project and global tags is that you can easily spot trends and look at all of the necessary data at once, but it’s not the only reason to use them.
Some of the biggest benefits include:
- Making all of your research searchable, which somewhat automates organization
- Better collaboration with your entire organization and stakeholders, eliminating the time-to-market slowing department silos.
- You’ll spend less time digging for the user insights you really need, and you’ll always find the most recent study rather than waiting for updates from whomever “owns”- or is in charge of- the repository
- It’s much easier to analyze both quantitative and qualitative data. Particularly qualitative though, which is generally much harder to assess since the data is often task-specific, or may include notes from individuals that may add their unintentional biases.
The benefits of global and project tags do extend, but they depend a bit on the B2B market research project management platform you use.
If you’re creating a repository on your own, tags will be a lifesaver for everyone on your project.
Using global tags in your B2B market research repository
If you’ve created your own research repository, creating tags is as simple as using hashtags. Unfortunately, you still have to organize all of that content yourself. It’s easier if there’s one person in charge of managing the repository- usually the project manager- but without consistent use of tags, you’re bound to lose a few items.
If you’re using a WordPress website to organize your user testing and field research, the tagging feature is built-in. It’s a little easier that way, but you still face the challenge of making sure everyone else knows where to find the information they need.
On the other hand, an online repository through a B2B Market Research tool is much easier to use, and your team can see the various tags (as well as tag the research themselves). That being said, there are a few categories of global tags you might need.
Workflow global tags: “create account”, “product search”, “invoices”
Workflow tags are basically tags that identify the various steps along with the buyer and research lifecycle. They help define context around an end user’s answers to surveys, or around notes from field research and interviews.
They’re especially useful for specific tasks given to the user during UX testing, and for the hypothesis and goals, you set ahead of the research.
Journey tags: pricing page, profiles, and login pages
Journey global tags essentially help you organize all the background information that gives you context around answers from respondents.
If your B2B market research platforms include things like profiles or messaging, this is also a great place to store them or highlight specific details.
Sentiment tags: emotions and reactions
You may not have a need for these tags, depending on the type of research methods you typically utilize in your user research and feedback loops.
But if you use video, audio, or in-person interviews, you may find these tags helpful for context building and for understanding bias based on word phrasing or types of questions asked. This can help you optimize studies for future research.
Using tags in B2B market research like a pro
Building a research repository organizes all of your content into an easily digestible and searchable format for your entire team.
But even a repository can be disorganized and unsearchable.
Vancery is a B2B Market research and project management platform that also acts as a user research repository, allowing you to tag and store all of your research into convenient folders you can share with your team, stakeholders, or organization.
