Shut The Hell Up & Other Tips for Learning From Users

Shut The Hell Up and other tips for testing your product Laura Klein @lauraklein laura@usersknow.com http://www.usersknow.comWednesday, December 5, 2012

@lauraklein You Suck At Talking To Users For example, you probably think you’re supposed to talk to users.Wednesday, December 5, 2012

@lauraklein Sometimes You Suck At Validating Your IdeasWednesday, December 5, 2012

@lauraklein You Sell Your Idea You should: Allow the user to tell you what she thinks the product does and what it could do for her.Wednesday, December 5, 2012

@lauraklein You Lead The User You should: Let the user lead. Bad: Aren’t dogs the best? Good: How do you feel about dogs?Wednesday, December 5, 2012

@lauraklein You Make A Lot Of Assumptions You should: Ask a lot of questions. Bad: You love walking your dog. Good: How do you feel about walking your dog? Even Better: What was it like the last time you walked your dog?Wednesday, December 5, 2012

@lauraklein You Make The User Imagine You should: Give the user something to react to Bad: How would you feel about a product that blah blah blah? Good: Take a look at this picture/prototype/product and tell me what you thinkWednesday, December 5, 2012

@lauraklein Sometimes You Suck At Getting Feedback On Your Product Or PrototypeWednesday, December 5, 2012

@lauraklein You Give A Guided Tour You should: Let the User explore! Bad: Let me show you how this works. Good: Take a few minutes to play with it and tell me what it does.Wednesday, December 5, 2012

@lauraklein You Help The User You should: Let the user fail. Bad: No, you click on this button. Good: What do you think you should do?Wednesday, December 5, 2012

@lauraklein You Sound Kind Of Defensive You should: Make sure the user doesn’t feel judged. It’s not her fault your product sucks. (I think we all know whose fault that is.)Wednesday, December 5, 2012

@lauraklein You Ask Yes Or No Questions You should: Ask open ended questions. Bad: Do you love my product? Worse: Don’t you love my product? Good: How do you feel about this product?Wednesday, December 5, 2012

@lauraklein Sometimes You Just SuckWednesday, December 5, 2012

@lauraklein You Talk To The Wrong People You should: Recruit and screen participants to make sure you’re talking to people who will be helpful with the type of research you’re doing.Wednesday, December 5, 2012

@lauraklein You Don’t Follow Up You should: Understand why your user feels the way she does. User: This is cool! You: What’s cool about it? User: [Something incredibly useful and insightful]Wednesday, December 5, 2012

@lauraklein You Ignore Results You Don’t Like You should: Design your test in a way that will force you to believe your results.Wednesday, December 5, 2012

@lauraklein You Don’t Act On Your Findings You should: Implement critical changes before you see the problems over and over again in testing.Wednesday, December 5, 2012

@lauraklein You Talk Too Much You should: Shut the hell up.Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Questions? You know where to ﬁnd me... @lauraklein laura@usersknow.com http://www.usersknow.com pssst...this will all be in the book! To be published by O’Reilly in early 2013.Wednesday, December 5, 2012

@lauraklein Exercise! •Form Groups of 3 •First person interviews second person for 5-10 minutes •Third person takes notes on any mistakes & gives a critique •Switch roles (everyone interviews, is interviewed, and critiques) •Ask for help if you need it •Please be nice to each other. This is hard!Wednesday, December 5, 2012

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Shut The Hell Up & Other Tips for Learning From Users

by Laura Klein on Jun 08, 2012

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