Research Objectives
We are conducting generative and evaluative research in the same pass. The goal is not to confirm what we think — it is to find out what is actually true for people navigating estate administration while grieving.
Does Settle reduce the overwhelm of estate administration — and does it do so in a way that feels emotionally appropriate to people who are actively grieving?
Generative Goals
- Understand the emotional and cognitive texture of the first 30 days after a loved one's death — what does the paperwork reality actually feel like?
- Identify where people get stuck, give up, or make costly mistakes in estate administration.
- Understand what trust looks like: what would make someone hand a sensitive document to a piece of software?
- Learn how people currently get help (attorneys, family members, Google, "just figuring it out").
- Understand the financial context: who is paying out of pocket, who has estate funds, and what price signals feel fair vs. exploitative.
Evaluative Goals
- Does the intake experience feel gentle? Does it feel like a form, or like being heard?
- Does the Daily Three reduce cognitive load, or does it create anxiety about what is being hidden?
- Do people actually use the phone call scripts, or do they skip them?
- Is the information architecture legible to a 71-year-old with limited tech literacy?
- Does the overall experience signal trustworthiness around sensitive estate information?
Business Validation Goals
- Validate or invalidate the $199–$399 price range.
- Understand whether attorneys would recommend or refer this product to clients.
- Identify which features families value most and which they could live without.
Key Assumptions to Validate
These are the five beliefs the product currently rests on. Each one could be wrong. This research exists to test them before we build further.
Research Personas
These three personas represent the range of users Settle must work for. The hardest test is the aunt. If the product fails her, it fails its mission.
If the intake feels like a government form to her, it will feel that way to many grieving people regardless of age. Her experience should drive the tone of the entire product, not be treated as an edge case.
Target Participants: Bereaved Families
Screener Criteria
We are looking for people who have navigated estate administration in the last 18 months, or are currently doing so. The experience needs to be recent enough to be vivid but not so acute that participation is harmful.
Mix to Recruit
- 3 participants like Diego — First-time executors, 30–45, comfortable with technology.
- 3 participants like Sandra — Experienced executors, 55+, have navigated this before.
- 2 participants like the aunt — 65+, limited tech confidence, supporting a family member through the process.
- 2 wildcard — Anyone who does not fit the above but has strong feelings about the experience. Diverse backgrounds, non-traditional estates, LGBTQ+ families where legal complications arose.
Where to Find Them
Before posting in any grief support community, read the community rules and — where possible — message a moderator first. Introduce yourself honestly. Never use grief community language as targeting copy. Never post in a thread where someone is in acute crisis. A good post reads as an offer, not a pitch.
Example: "Hi. I'm a product designer building a tool to help families with estate paperwork after a loss. I'm looking for people who'd be willing to share their experience in a paid 25-minute conversation. No selling, no pitch — just listening. Happy to answer questions."
Target Participants: Estate Attorneys
Estate attorneys are not our users. They are our referral channel and our competition check. Their insights about client pain points are worth more than almost any user interview, and they will give them freely if you approach them as peers.
Screener Criteria
- Active estate planning or probate practice (minimum 3 years).
- Currently serving individual family clients, not only institutional work.
- Willing to speak candidly about client experience challenges, not just their own workflow.
Where to Find Them
- Local and state bar associations — estate planning sections.
- LinkedIn search: "estate planning attorney" + "[city]".
- Martindale-Hubbell and Avvo directories.
- Cold email from a personal email address with a short, honest ask. No marketing language.
- Warm referrals from anyone in your network who has recently settled an estate.
Do not pitch Settle. Say: "I'm researching what's hardest for families navigating estate administration after a loss — not the legal work, but everything around it. You see this all the time. I'd love 30 minutes of your perspective." Attorneys are more candid when they're the expert, not the audience for a pitch.
Target 5 attorney interviews, minimum 3. These do not require the same emotional scaffolding as family interviews, but they do require genuine curiosity about their clients' experience, not their own.
The First 10: Specific Sourcing Strategy
These are not hypothetical participants. These are real people who can be found through Reddit search and grief community activity in the last 90 days. The approach requires care, patience, and a willingness to have no ask at all in the first message.
Never DM someone who posted in acute grief ("I can't do this anymore," "I don't know how to go on"). Only approach people who have posted practical, problem-solving questions about estate tasks. Lead with empathy, not the ask. If they don't respond, do not follow up. One message only.
Example first message: "I saw your post about handling your dad's accounts. I'm sorry for your loss. I'm working on something that might help people in your situation, and I'd love to hear your experience first — with no agenda. Completely voluntary, paid $50 for 25 minutes. No pressure either way."
Recruitment Ethics
This is not a standard user research population. These are people who have experienced a significant loss. That context changes how we recruit, how we compensate, and how we conduct sessions.
Compensation
$50 Amazon or Visa gift card for 25 minutes. This is the right number. It is respectful of the participant's time without being so high that it feels coercive to someone in a financially vulnerable moment. Do not offer cash Venmo or Zelle — gift cards are easier to accept without awkwardness.
Right to Stop
Every participant must know — in writing before the session and verbally at the start — that they can stop at any time, for any reason, and still receive full compensation. No prorating. No questions asked.
Informed Consent
The consent form must clearly state: (1) what we are testing, (2) how the recording will be used, (3) that no personally identifiable estate information is requested, and (4) contact information if they want a copy of their data removed. Keep the consent document to one page, plain language, no legal jargon.
Researcher Self-Care
Conducting grief-adjacent research is emotionally taxing for the researcher too. Plan for no more than 3 family interviews per day. Schedule a 30-minute debrief after every session. If you are the sole researcher, designate a colleague to check in with you weekly. Secondary trauma in UX research is real and underacknowledged.
Trauma-Informed Research Principles
These are not guidelines. They are non-negotiable constraints on how every family interview is conducted.
Every family interview begins with exactly this sentence, spoken slowly and sincerely:
Do not paraphrase. Do not shorten. This sentence exists to set a genuine permission structure, not as a legal disclaimer.
Core Principles
- Never push for emotional details. If a participant shares something difficult, respond with brief acknowledgment ("That sounds really hard") and wait for them to choose whether to continue. Move on when they signal readiness, not when you've gotten what you wanted.
- Never follow up on tears. If a participant becomes emotional, pause. Offer water. Say "We can take a break or move on to something different — whatever feels right." Do not treat their emotion as data to probe.
- Keep sessions to 25 minutes maximum. Cognitive fatigue in grief is real. A grieving person at 30 minutes is not the same person who started the session. Set a visible timer if needed.
- Offer phone, not just video. Video calls require emotional performance. Many grieving people find them exhausting. The phone removes the expectation that they look "okay."
- Have grief resources ready. Print them out. If a participant mentions feeling overwhelmed, isolated, or unable to cope, you offer them these resources unprompted before closing the session. See the Grief Resources section.
- Do not record without explicit verbal and written consent. If they say they'd rather not be recorded, take notes by hand. Their comfort matters more than your transcription convenience.
Family Interview Script
This script is for bereaved family members who have navigated estate administration. Total time: 25 minutes. The script is intentionally gentle. Silence is allowed. Not every question needs to be asked if the conversation flows elsewhere.
Read the questions as written for the first two sessions, then adapt. The exact language matters here more than in most UX interviews. Words like "estate" and "assets" can feel cold. Words like "paperwork" and "accounts" are warmer and more accurate to how people describe the experience themselves.
Part 1: Opening (3 min)
Part 2: Experience (10 min)
"Can you tell me a little about what the first couple of weeks looked like for you — not the emotional side, unless you want to share that, but the practical things that needed to get done?"
"Was there a moment where you felt most lost or most unsure of what to do next?"
"How did you figure out what you needed to do? Was there a resource, a person, or a document that helped?"
"Was there anything you had to do — like call a company or a government office — that felt particularly hard? What made it hard?"
"Did you ever wish you had a guide — something that just told you what to do next, one thing at a time?"
Part 3: Prototype Walkthrough (8 min)
"Just take a moment to look at this page. What's your first impression?"
"What do you think this is? What is it asking you to do?"
"If you were actually in the situation you just described — the early days after a loss — how would this page feel to encounter? Does the tone land right?"
"Is there anything about this that makes you uncomfortable, or that you'd want to be different before you'd trust it with real information?"
Part 4: Closing (4 min)
"Is there anything about this experience — the paperwork, the calls, the whole thing — that you wish someone had warned you about beforehand?"
"If a tool like this had existed when you were going through it, what would have made you trust it? What would have made you not?"
Say: "I want to make sure you're okay. We can stop here — you've been incredibly generous with your time and I have everything I need." Then share the grief resources below. Do not try to finish the interview. Do not express frustration. Do not reschedule unless they initiate it.
Estate Attorney Interview Script
Attorneys are subject matter experts, not grieving users. This interview is structured differently: more direct, more confident, more curious about their clients' experience. Total time: 30 minutes. No emotional scaffolding needed — but genuine curiosity about their clients is essential.
These are professionals who will size you up immediately. Do not be deferential, but do not oversell. Come in as a peer who wants to understand the gap between what legal services provide and what families actually need. That framing will open them up far more than any pitch.
Opening (2 min)
Core Questions (22 min)
"When a client comes to you shortly after a loss — especially someone who's never done this before — what are the things they're most confused about that aren't strictly legal questions?"
"What do you find yourself explaining over and over to clients that you wish they'd already understood before the first appointment?"
"Is there a moment in the process where clients typically hit a wall — where they stop making progress or start making mistakes?"
"How do clients currently handle the non-legal administrative work? Do they do it themselves, hire someone, or just let it pile up?"
"Have you ever referred a client to a tool, a service, or a resource specifically for the administrative side — not the legal side? If so, what was it? If not, why not?"
"What would concern you about a client using a tech product to guide them through estate administration? What would make you comfortable recommending one?"
"If you imagined the ideal non-legal estate guide for a grieving family — something that complemented your work rather than competing with it — what would it do?"
Prototype Reveal (5 min)
"Is there anything here that would create a conflict — either legal or in terms of client expectation management?"
"What's missing that you'd expect to see?"
Closing (1 min)
Prototype Walkthrough Protocol
The prototype walkthrough is embedded in the family interview. The sequence matters. Always lead with the intake screen. The first impression of tone is the most important data point in this entire study.
Prototype Order
| Order | Screen | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Intake — settle.coreyschuman.com/01-intake.html | Tone. Does it feel like a form or a conversation? Watch reading pace, facial expression (video), hesitation on sensitive fields. |
| 2nd | Daily Three — /02-daily-three.html | Does the "just three things" framing feel reassuring or infantilizing? Do they look for a "see all" option immediately? Assumption A2. |
| 3rd | Task Plan — /03-task-plan.html | Does the call script read as something they'd actually use? Watch for whether they scroll past it or stop to read it. Assumption A3. |
| Screen | What to watch for |
|---|---|
| Benefits — /04-benefits-lofi.html | Awareness gap: do they know they might be entitled to survivor benefits? Surprise is a data point. |
| Documents — /05-documents-lofi.html | Trust signals: does the document storage concept feel safe or alarming? Note specific language reactions. |
| Notifications — /06-notifications-lofi.html | Frequency and tone: does "gentle reminders" land as caring or nagging? |
Tone Check Questions
Use these after each screen. Pick the most relevant one; do not ask all of them:
- "What's the first word that comes to mind looking at this?"
- "Does this feel like it was made by someone who's been through this?"
- "Is there anything about the language that feels off?"
- "If this were a person, what kind of person would they be?"
Usability Tasks
Three tasks. Keep them realistic and grounded in the actual experience of settling an estate. The third task — the call script — is the most critical test in this study.
| Task | Scenario | Success criteria | Assumption tested |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | Intake completion. "Imagine you've just been named executor of a parent's estate. You've arrived at this website. Go ahead and begin filling out what you can." | Completes at least 3 sections without prompting. Does not stop at a sensitive field and abandon. Does not express confusion about purpose. | A4 — Intake tone and trust |
| T2 | Daily Three navigation. "You're back the next day. You want to know what you're supposed to do today. Find out." | Navigates to Daily Three without help. Does not immediately look for a complete list. Expresses relief or neutral reaction, not anxiety. | A2 — Daily Three reduces overwhelm |
| T3 | Call script use. "You need to call your parent's bank to notify them of the death. The app says it can help you with that call. Show me what you'd do." Then: "Would you actually read this on a real call? Walk me through how you'd use it." | Locates call script without help. Reads it aloud (even partially) when asked to demonstrate use. Can answer: "What would you say first?" | A3 — Scripts get used on real calls |
This is the highest-stakes usability task in the study. If participants skip or skim the script, that does not mean the feature fails — it means we need to understand why. Ask: "What would make you more likely to actually use a script like this on a real call?" The answer will inform the design more than the behavior alone.
Observation Guide
For each task, note:
- Time on task — not for scoring speed, but to identify friction points.
- Verbalized confusion — any "huh," "wait," or question asked aloud.
- Reading behavior — do they read or scan? Stop or skip?
- Recovery behavior — when stuck, do they explore or give up?
- Emotional response — particularly on the intake screen. Note the quality, not just the presence.
Post-Interview Survey
Send this within 30 minutes of the session ending. Keep it short. They've already given you 25 minutes. Aim for 5 minutes to complete. Use Typeform or a Google Form with no account-creation requirement.
Analysis Framework
With a small qualitative sample (10 family participants, 5 attorneys), the goal is pattern confidence, not statistical significance. We are looking for themes that appear in 3 or more sessions and strong signals from single sessions that point to fundamental rethinking.
After Each Session (Within 24 Hours)
- Write a 3-sentence "headline" summary: what surprised you, what confirmed your hypothesis, what you need to watch for next time.
- Tag every verbatim quote with: [Task] + [Assumption tested] + [Sentiment: positive/negative/neutral] + [Persona type].
- Note any moment where you, the interviewer, felt the urge to explain or defend the product. That urge is a signal that the participant found something broken.
After All Sessions
- For each of A1–A5, tally: Confirmed / Disconfirmed / Inconclusive
- Mark any assumption with 3+ disconfirmations as a blocker
- Mark any assumption with 0 confirmations as unresolved
- Collect all Q1 tone-check responses
- Map first-impression words to a spectrum: Cold → Warm
- Any clustering toward "cold" or "formal" is a design sprint trigger
- Mark each task: Complete / Partial / Failed / Abandoned
- Any task with <70% completion rate requires UX review before next round
- Note time-on-task outliers
- Tabulate Van Westendorp responses from Q5
- Identify "acceptable range" overlap
- Note any extreme outliers and their persona type
- Do attorneys name the same pain points families name?
- Where they diverge, family experience wins
- Note any referral or partnership signals
- Segment every finding by Diego / Sandra / aunt persona
- If the aunt struggles with something, it goes to the top of the fix list
- Note any unexpected persona behaviors
Decision Criteria: When to Build vs. Rethink
- Build with confidence if an assumption is confirmed in 7+ of 10 sessions.
- Refine and retest if an assumption is confirmed in 4–6 of 10 sessions with identifiable friction patterns.
- Stop and rethink if an assumption is disconfirmed in 4+ sessions OR if the aunt persona fails Task 1 or Task 2 consistently.
- Escalate immediately if the trust question (A1) surfaces strong discomfort in more than 3 sessions — trust is load-bearing for everything else.
Research Timeline
This is a 6-week plan. The recruiting takes longer than the interviews. Start there first.
Share rolling findings after every 3 sessions — do not wait until the end. Interim insights prevent you from building in the wrong direction while research is still underway. A "Week 3 interim read" after 5 sessions is often more valuable than the final report.
Grief Support Resources
Have these available in every session. If a participant shows signs of distress, share them without being asked. Print this list. Keep it somewhere you can access quickly during a session.
- Crisis & Grief Line 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988 (also serves grief-related crisis)
- GriefShare griefshare.org — local support groups nationwide, searchable by zip code
- What's Your Grief whatsyourgrief.com — free articles, courses, and community for bereaved people
- The Dinner Party thedinnerparty.org — community for people in their 20s–40s who've experienced significant loss
- Grief in Common griefincommon.com — free online community, peer support, searchable by loss type
- Alliance of Hope allianceofhope.org — support specifically for suicide loss survivors
- Hospice Foundation hospicefoundation.org — bereavement resources and professional referral directory
Know the boundary. Your role is to listen, acknowledge, and connect people to the right support — not to provide that support yourself. Sharing resources is an act of care. Attempting to process someone's grief during a research session is not appropriate and can cause harm. If a participant is in crisis, end the session and share 988 directly.
Settle User Research Plan — Version 1.0 — April 2026
This document is part of the Settle product development suite. Back to mockups — Product vision — UX journey map