The talk I gave at WebExpo 2014 in Prague! Slides only. Here is the abstract: Usability testing, focus groups, interviews, contextual inquiry, customer development - there are many names and techniques for gathering insights from your users, your customers. In recent years, agile software development and lean startup have changed how research is conducted, and have raised awareness of how important it is to understand who you are building your products for. In this talk, Johanna will cover best practices for gathering insights in the context of product development. Her session will address questions such as: * What techniques are best at the early stage of a product? * What exactly is customer development and how is it different? * What are the skills you need to turn research results into actionable insights that inform your product strategy? Johanna will share her own story of being a researcher and product manager, how and why her practice has changed, and provide actionable advice on embedding research in your process.

1. Customer
Insights
for
Product
Strategy
h"ps://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/10225205296/
Johanna
Kollmann
~
@johannakoll
WebExpo
2014,
Prague

2. “product
architect”
“product/UX/technical/delivery
person”
Photo
by
Shahar
Nechmad

3. Customer
Insights
!
“Customer
insight
is
an
oft-­‐used
buzz-­‐word
covering
the
process
of
using
internal
or
external
data
to
describe
and
predict
customer
behaviour.”
Deloitte
website
business
pitch
speak.

4. Generative
Evaluative
Quantitative Qualitative
Contextual
inquiry
Mental
models
Interviews
Diary
studies
Adapted
from
Eigures
by
Janice
Fraser,
Nate
Bolt,
Christian
Rohrer
Surveys
Interviews
Automated
card
sort
Surveys
Automated
studies
Analytics
A/B
Testing
Multi-­‐variant
testing
Usability
testing
Moderated
card
sort
Wizard
of
Oz

5. Product
Strategy??
https://flic.kr/p/nEao4R

6. Existing
product New
product
Quant
data
to
find
out
WHAT
!
Qual
data
to
investigate
WHY
Limited
quant
data
!
(Contextual)
qual
insight
to
observe
WHAT
and
understand
WHY
data mission

7. 1)
Challenges
2)
Skills
3)
Opportunity

8. 1)
Challenges
2)
Skills
3)
Opportunity

9. Lean
Startup
https://flic.kr/p/cfkUz7
Customer
Development??

11. Agile
Lean
Product
Innovation
Consulting

12. New
=
risky
!
Often a lot at stake for the owner/instigator.
Hard to determine scope.
Hard to plan.
New tech/data structure/processes.
Change (management).

13. Research
=
tricky
!
Customers can be hard to find/access.
Lack of data.
What to test with?
Can’t be planned as well (no ‘agile recipe’).
Research as a safety net, a crutch for making decisions.

14. 1)
Challenges
2)
Skills
3)
Opportunity

15. Generative
Evaluative
Quantitative Qualitative
Contextual
inquiry
Mental
models
Interviews
Diary
studies
Adapted
from
Eigures
by
Janice
Fraser,
Nate
Bolt,
Christian
Rohrer
Surveys
Interviews
Automated
card
sort
Surveys
Automated
studies
Analytics
A/B
Testing
Multi-­‐variant
testing
Usability
testing
Moderated
card
sort
Wizard
of
Oz
Know
research
techniques
!
Pick
up
new
ones

18. Product-­relevant
insights
!
What we saw
What it means
Why it matters

19. Product-­relevant
insights
!
What are they doing now?
What mental models do we have to be aware of?
What competitors do we have to be aware of? What is of value to
them about the competitors?
What are their needs and how do our value proposition and
features match these?
Which attitudes and needs are standing out across all people we’ve
seen?
What are we worried about now?
….

20. by
@lukew
Set
your
product
up
for
insights
from
day
one

21. 1)
Challenges
2)
Skills
3)
Opportunity

22. 
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23. Thank
you!

!
Say
hi:
@johannakoll
!
