getting user research right

Dr. Edward F. Staiano Ph.D

….wireless personal communications network designed to permit any type of telephone transmission—voice, data, fax, or paging—to reach its destination - anywhere on earth.

SATELLITES !!!!

CASH!!!!

!!!

?

LOL

Sounds like they should have done some customer research

23,000 customers surveyed

42 countries

It is possible to do a load of user research and still get it wrong.

Lemmings off cliff

GETTING USER RESEARCH RIGHT

How not to blindly follow your users

off a cliff

@jontheexiled

“we want better search!”

You took on Google?!?!

BWAHAHAHAHAAH

“we want better search!”

“we want better search!”

=

“we want better results!”

Above all else, understand your users workflow.

johnpeltier.com/blog/2011/11/16/product-management-and-solution-design

johnpeltier.com/blog/2011/11/16/product-management-and-solution-design

johnpeltier.com/blog/2011/11/16/product-management-and-solution-design

johnpeltier.com/blog/2011/11/16/product-management-and-solution-design

To understand workflow, we need to be in the problem

space.

1. Find some users.

Sod that. Just do a survey.

NO SURVEYS!!

Existing Customers

Potential Customers

Ex Cus-

tomers

1. Find some users.

2. “tell me about a time when”

Listen.

Sounds like too much work.

Just ask them what features they want.

1. Find some users.

2. “tell me about a time when”

3. Let them lead you to the problems they have

“if you had a magic wand, what would you change about the process you just talked me

through?”

1. Find some users.

2. “tell me about a time when”

3. Let them lead you to the problems they have

outcomes

pain points

cadence

workflow

Write up call notes and

ready for next call

Confirm customer is happy and

end call

Walk through solution with

customer, solve problem

Confirm symptoms

with customer

Search for symptoms to problem to

find potential fixes

Triage and define

problem

Answer call, get customer

details

Write up call notes and

ready for next call

Confirm customer is happy and

end call

Walk through solution with

customer, solve problem

Confirm symptoms

with customer

Search for symptoms to problem to

find potential fixes

Triage and define

problem

Answer call, get customer

details

Write up call notes and

ready for next call

Confirm customer is happy and

end call

Walk through solution with

customer, solve problem

Confirm symptoms

with customer

Search for symptoms to problem to

find potential fixes

Triage and define

problem

Answer call, get customer

details

Write up call notes and

ready for next call

Confirm customer is happy and

end call

Walk through solution with

customer, solve problem

Confirm symptoms

with customer

Search for symptoms to problem to

find potential fixes

Triage and define

problem

Answer call, get customer

details

Write up call notes and

ready for next call

Confirm customer is happy and

end call

Walk through solution with

customer, solve problem

Confirm symptoms

with customer

Search for symptoms to problem to

find potential fixes

Triage and define

problem

Answer call, get customer

details

Write up call notes and

ready for next call

Confirm customer is happy and

end call

Walk through solution with

customer, solve problem

Confirm symptoms

with customer

Search for symptoms to problem to

find potential fixes

Triage and define

problem

Answer call, get customer

details

Write up call notes and

ready for next call

Confirm customer is happy and

end call

Walk through solution with

customer, solve problem

Confirm symptoms

with customer

Search for symptoms to problem to

find potential fixes

Triage and define

problem

Answer call, get customer

details

Write up call notes and

ready for next call

Confirm customer is happy and

end call

Walk through solution with

customer, solve problem

Confirm symptoms

with customer

Search for symptoms to problem to

find potential fixes

Triage and define

problem

Answer call, get customer

details

Write up call notes and

ready for next call

Confirm customer is happy and

end call

Walk through solution with

customer, solve problem

Confirm symptoms

with customer

Search for symptoms to problem to

find potential fixes

Triage and define

problem

Answer call, get customer

details

Write up call notes and

ready for next call

Confirm customer is happy and

end call

Walk through solution with

customer, solve problem

Confirm symptoms

with customer

Search for symptoms to problem to

find potential fixes

Triage and define

problem

Answer call, get customer

details

- Search generally starts with google – very rare that user uses internal knowledge bases

- User is very adept at search operators to refine searches fast – has list of ‘go to’ sites

- Often maintains a repository of articles in a word doc on their computer as ‘short cuts

Write up call notes and

ready for next call

Confirm customer is happy and

end call

Walk through solution with

customer, solve problem

Confirm symptoms

with customer

Search for symptoms to problem to

find potential fixes

Triage and define

problem

Answer call, get customer

details

User Story: What is the overall task the user is trying to achieve?

Write up call notes and

ready for next call

Confirm customer is happy and

end call

Walk through solution with

customer, solve problem

Confirm symptoms

with customer

Search for symptoms to problem to

find potential fixes

Triage and define

problem

Answer call, get customer

details

User Story:

When a customer calls me with a problem about their phone that I do not know the answer to

Write up call notes and

ready for next call

Confirm customer is happy and

end call

Walk through solution with

customer, solve problem

Confirm symptoms

with customer

Search for symptoms to problem to

find potential fixes

Triage and define

problem

Answer call, get customer

details

User Story:

When a customer calls me with a problem about their phone that I do not know the answer toI want to find a correct and comprehensive answer to that problem as fast as possible

Write up call notes and

ready for next call

Confirm customer is happy and

end call

Walk through solution with

customer, solve problem

Confirm symptoms

with customer

Search for symptoms to problem to

find potential fixes

Triage and define

problem

Answer call, get customer

details

User Story:

When a customer calls me with a problem about their phone that I do not know the answer toI want to find a correct and comprehensive answer to that problem as fast as possibleSo that I can fix the customer’s problem, make them happy and keep my call times down

Write up call notes and

ready for next call

Confirm customer is happy and

end call

Walk through solution with

customer, solve problem

Confirm symptoms

with customer

Search for symptoms to problem to

find potential fixes

Triage and define

problem

Answer call, get customer

details

User Story:

When a customer calls me with a problem about their phone that I do not know the answer toI want to find a correct and comprehensive answer to that problem as fast as possibleSo that I can fix the customer’s problem, make them happy and keep my call times down

Outcomes / Deliverables: If the user is successful in this task, what will be the end results?

Write up call notes and

ready for next call

Confirm customer is happy and

end call

Walk through solution with

customer, solve problem

Confirm symptoms

with customer

Search for symptoms to problem to

find potential fixes

Triage and define

problem

Answer call, get customer

details

User Story:

When a customer calls me with a problem about their phone that I do not know the answer toI want to find a correct and comprehensive answer to that problem as fast as possibleSo that I can fix the customer’s problem, make them happy and keep my call times down

Outcomes / Deliverables:

• A happy customer with a working phone• Increased knowledge• A short phone call within my targets• A happy manager

Well that cannot possibly work.

Everybody has a different workflow!!

Are you going to document each one?!

Workflows differ by many things.

Workflows differ by many things.

Job and Level Manager ICvs.

Workflows differ by many things.

Job and Level

Skill / Experience

Manager IC

Beginner Expert

vs.

vs.

Workflows differ by many things.

Job and Level

Skill / Experience

Geography

Manager IC

Beginner Expert

Lives in NYC Lives in rural WA

vs.

vs.

vs.

Above all else, understand your users workflow.

Pragmatic Marketing Rules

Pragmatic Marketing Rules

Only build solutions for problems that are urgent, pervasive and that the market will pay to solve.

HAPPY ENDING!!

Smug guy

I don’t.

HAPPY ENDING!!

It is possible to do a load of user research and still get it wrong.

Above all else, understand your users workflow.

1. Find some users.

2. “tell me about a time when”

3. Let them lead you to the problems they have

Write up call notes and

ready for next call

Confirm customer is happy and

end call

Walk through solution with

customer, solve problem

Confirm symptoms

with customer

Search for symptoms to problem to

find potential fixes

Triage and define

problem

Answer call, get customer

details

User Story:

When a customer calls me with a problem about their phone that I do not know the answer toI want to find a correct and comprehensive answer to that problem as fast as possibleSo that I can fix the customer’s problem, make them happy and keep my call times down

Outcomes / Deliverables:

• A happy customer with a working phone• Increased knowledge• A short phone call within my targets• A happy manager

Build bridges gif

@jontheexiledslidesha.re/1z7RSR3

jon@moz.com