The debrief session

A lot of people will roll their eyes when they hear about a debrief session and see it as a waste of time, if all it is is a debrief. We see it as much more: It is a chance to introduce the original stakeholders, as well as additional stakeholders, to the findings of the study. It's a beginning rather than an end in collaborating with design, production, marketing, and development teams.

The debrief session can be made more engaging by using a lot of visual and not too much textual material. Studies that included video recordings can be presented using a highlights reel containing the most interesting findings, or by showing short video clips illustrating the key points throughout the session.

The most enjoyable debrief sessions are those where the product under testing was a pure delight to use and the bottom line of the report is very positive. In rare cases, the study sponsors might be a bit skeptical of positive results, especially if they had specific concerns that...