This worked for me:

Add view_ids to your action, as follows

<field name="view_ids" eval="[(5, 0, 0),
    (0, 0, {'view_mode': 'tree', 'view_id': ref('xml.id.of.tree.view')}),
    (0, 0, {'view_mode': 'form', 'view_id': ref('xml.id.of.form.view')})]"/>

Please check this code from product module. This should answer the question.

<record id="product_variant_action" model="ir.actions.act_window">            
    <field name="name">Product Variants</field>
    <field name="type">ir.actions.act_window</field>
    <field name="res_model">product.product</field>
    <field name="context">
        {'search_default_product_tmpl_id': [active_id], 
        'default_product_tmpl_id': active_id}
    </field>
    <field name="search_view_id" ref="product_search_form_view"/>                         
    <field name="view_ids" eval="[(5, 0, 0), 
        (0, 0, {'view_mode': 'tree'}), 
        (0, 0, {'view_mode': 'form', 'view_id': ref('product_variant_easy_edit_view')}),                           
        (0, 0, {'view_mode': 'kanban'})]"/>
    <field name="help" type="html">              
        <p class="oe_view_nocontent_create">                
            Click to define a new product.
        </p>
    </field>
</record>

You can in the action specify search_view_id, form_view_id and so on

<record id="action_res_usuarios" model="ir.actions.act_window">
            <field name="name">Usuarios</field>
            <field name="type">ir.actions.act_window</field>
            <field name="res_model">res.users</field>
            <field name="view_type">form</field>
            <field name="view_id" ref="view_usuarios_tree"/>
            <field name="search_view_id" ref="view_usuarios_search"/>
            <field name="form_view_id" ref="view_users_simple_form"/>
            <field name="help">Create and manage users that will connect to the system. Users can be deactivated should
                there be a period of time during which they will/should not connect to the system. You can assign them
                groups in order to give them specific access to the applications they need to use in the system.
    </field>
        </record>

The easiest way is if you define additional ir.ui.view, separate for tree and form, like this (in effect three records):

     <record model="ir.actions.act_window" id="test_action"> 
       <field name="name">A Test Action</field> 
       <field name="res_model">some.model</field>
       <field name="view_type">form</field>
       <field name="view_mode">tree, form</field>
    </record>

    <record model="ir.ui.view" id="some_name_form">
      <field name="name">some_name_form</field>
      <field name="model">some.model</field>
      <field name="arch" type="xml">
        <form>
            <field name="name"/>
        </form>
      </field>
    </record>

    <record model="ir.ui.view" id="some_name_tree">
      <field name="name">some_name_tree</field>
      <field name="model">some.model</field>
      <field name="arch" type="xml">
        <tree>
            <field name="name"/>
        </tree>
      </field>
    </record>

I'll explain with an example:

This is a menuitem with an action associated to it.

<menuitem name="Measurement Sheets" id="cirem_measurements" parent="cirem_proposition" action="action_measurements" sequence="540"/>

..but it's not a simple xml-defined action:

    <record id="action_measurements" model="ir.actions.server">
        <field name="name">Measurement Sheets</field>
        <field name="model_id" ref="sale.model_sale_order"/>
        <field name="state">code</field>
        <field name="code">action = self.my_measurements(cr, uid, context=context)</field>
        <field eval="True" name="condition"/>
    </record>

you see, it refers to code, which uses another action as a template for creating a custom action that has specific views assigned to each particular view type (kanban, tree, form)

so, firstly, here goes an action used as a template:

        <record id="action_measurements_base" model="ir.actions.act_window">
            <field name="name">Measurement Sheets</field>
            <field name="type">ir.actions.act_window</field>
            <field name="res_model">sale.order</field>
            <field name="view_type">form</field>
            <field name="view_mode">tree,form,calendar,graph</field>
            <field name="domain">[('state', 'in', ('sent', 'draft', 'sale'))]</field> 
            <field name="help" type="html">
                <p class="oe_view_nocontent_create">
                    Click to fill in a new measurement sheet based on the measurement template.
                </p><p>
                Odoo will help you efficiently handle the complete sales flow:
                quotation, sales order, delivery, invoicing and payment.
            </p>
            </field>
        </record>

The most interesting part is the code that sets different view ids to each view type (based on the template-action):

(notice how one can redefine other action's properties too)

    def my_measurements(self, cr, uid, context=None):
        IrModelData = self.pool['ir.model.data']
        actionObject = IrModelData.xmlid_to_object(cr, uid, 'cirem.action_measurements_base', context=context)
        action = actionObject.read(['name', 'help', 'res_model', 'target', 'domain', 'context', 'type', 'search_view_id'])
        if not action:
            action = {}
        else:
            action = action[0]
#        action['name'] = 'Measurements'  SET OTHER PROPERTIES LIKE THIS
        tree_view_id = IrModelData.xmlid_to_res_id(cr, uid, 'sale.view_order_tree')
        form_view_id = IrModelData.xmlid_to_res_id(cr, uid, 'cirem.measurements_view')
        action.update({
            'views': [
                [tree_view_id, 'tree'],
                [form_view_id, 'form'],
                [False, 'graph'],
                [False, 'calendar'],
                [False, 'pivot']
            ],            
        })
        return action

Ta-Da! Please let me know if I can be of any more help to you :)