Decoding Your Customers
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Cognitive biases create the difference between 'what people SAY they want' and 'what they will actually use or buy'. In this talk I explain common biases and how to hack them.
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Decoding Your Customers
- 2. HAHAHA! Our brains play tricks on us
- 3. Cognitive biases make us bad at predicting what we’ll use, love, buy
- 4. So what can we do… when customers ask for features? to validate that our idea is something people might want?
- 6. Cognitive dissonance The uncomfortable feeling of holding two opposing ideas in our heads
- 7. Embrace the uncomfortable belief “Assuming X is true…”
- 8. Keep digging… “Tell me about why you did ____...”
- 9. Confirmation bias Looking for evidence to prove ourselves right (and forgetting or ignoring information that doesn’t)
- 11. Don’t ask yes/no questions “Tell me about how you are currently doing _______...”
- 12. Prompt for a story “If you already had ____, how would it make your life better?”
- 13. Anchoring The first piece of information we see irrationally biases what we think
- 14. Don’t show your product first!
- 15. Abstract up a level “How do you make sure things get done at work?” (not: “What project management software do you use?”)
- 16. Choice-supportive bias We defend decisions we’ve already made or things we do regularly (Related: “the IKEA effect”)
- 17. Ask procedural questions “How do you ___? What happens next? Who gets involved? How long did it take?”
- 18. Shift their perspective “If you had a new coworker, what advice would you give to help them be productive quickly?”
- 19. Projection bias We project that our future selves will behave like we are currently feeling
- 20. Ask about past, not future “In the past year, how many new tools, languages, or frameworks did you try out?”
- 21. Social desirability We say things that make us look good, rather than what is accurate (Sometimes on purpose; often not!)
- 22. Don’t ask questions that will be perceived like this!
- 23. Make it okay to be ‘imperfect’ “Last month, how many times did you drive more than 5km over the posted speed limit?”
- 24. Ask for the impossible “If you could wave a magic wand and change anything about ____, what would it be?”
- 25. But wait – Won’t I be biased in what I (choose to) hear?
- 26. Hindsight bias We tend to think ‘we knew it all along...’ (ignoring the changes, pivots, and mistakes along the way)
- 27. Write down your starting assumptions!
- 28. Work with a partner (to take notes, or second-guess you)
- 29. Share what you learn regularly (even if just with yourself!) I started out believing… Here’s where I was wrong… Here’s where I was right… Here’s where customers were really emphatic… Here’s what I’m going to ask/do next…
- 30. Thank you! I’m Cindy Alvarez Ask me questions (get the slides) – cindy@cindyalvarez.com Help me help Microsoft build better developer tools – bit.ly/oredev17