lean startup customer discovery tips
DESCRIPTION
For those of you interested in Lean Startup and Lean User Experience, here's a one-pager about what to do when you're "getting out of the building." I created this for the LUXr mini-retreat in San Francisco, November 13-15, 2010. http://www.luxr.coTRANSCRIPT
Lean UX Customer Discovery What to do when you’re “getting out of the building”
http://www.slideshare.net/lanehalley http://www.luxr.co License: Creative Commons Attribution-‐Share Alike 3.0 United States
What can we learn from users?
• Where will our product fit in their work or life? • What problems will our product solve? • When and how will our product used? • What features are important?
How to frame an effective conversation
Before • Identify who do you want to talk to and what you want to learn
During • Use conversation starters instead of prepared questions • Listen more than you talk • Capture your observations (index cards work well) • Collect artifacts (photos, screenshots, work product) • If you have something to show/demo, do it after the open-‐ended conversation
After • Debrief and share what you’re learning with your team
DO’s and DON’TS
• DO Spend time with your users “early and often” • DO Create a conversation, not an interrogation • DO Maintain a “beginner’s mind” • DO Use your visits for multiple purposes • DON’T Ask what features people want • DON’T Ask users to talk theoretically about what they might do
Identify the need behind the feature request
• User: What I really need is feature x…” • You: “If you had feature x, what would that allow you to do?”
Where do you find users to talk to?
• Licensed/registered users • In-‐line Web recruiting • Conferences and industry events • Special interest groups/user groups • Market research firms • Craigslist • Friends and Family