This document discusses the challenges of customer research and insights. It notes that humans are unpredictable and our biases can limit useful insights. Product teams often feel they lack enough time, methods, or ways to prove the value of customer research. The document provides recommendations for overcoming common problems like prioritizing desired outcomes over solutions, asking how decisions would differ with more information, and treating customer insights as products that need packaging and an explanation of why they should be acted on. Framing insights as problems to be solved, quantifying potential risks of inaction, and getting 1% better at applying insights each week can help convince teams to incorporate what they learn from customers.

1. UNPREDICTABLE
INSIGHTS
Using what you learn about customers to drive
decisions and reduce risk
Cindy Alvarez (@cindyalvarez)
Director of Customer Research, GitHub
ProductCamp Brasil – Dec 2021

2. TALKIN
G TO
HUMAN
S IS
RISKY

3. Humans are
unpredictabl
e
Our brains are full of cognitive
biases
We struggle to predict the
future
We don’t recognize familiar
problems

4. We constrain research to make it more
predictable (and less useful)

5. We love NPS and
5-star ratings
because they’re
predictable (not
useful)

6. What does this tell us?
What should we do
because of this?

7. PRODUCT PEOPLE FEEL THE GAPS
IN WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW

8. We have research envy

9. How similar are our goals?
What differences are
there between our
customers and theirs?

10. Every product person has the same
complaints
■ “We don’t have enough time to talk to customers”
■ ”How can we prove the value of talking to customers?”
■ ”What’s the right method to use?”
■ “But we already build what customers are asking for…”
■ “Even when we have customer insights, we ignore them…”

11. Desired outcomes >
Solutions
■ What do we need to know?
■ How likely are we to
challenge assumptions or
change decisions?
■ What might convince
stakeholders?

12. ASK WHAT
WE’D DO
DIFFERENTLY
IF WE KNEW…

13. What every product person should
know about their customer(s)
Current
behavior
Problems / pain
points
Motivatio
ns
How they
decide

14. HOW DO WE
OVERCOME
THE
COMMON
PROBLEMS?

15. “We don’t have enough time”
Start
Start with just
one ‘why?’
Continue
Continue
conversation
with customers
who are talking
to you
Partner
Partner with
account
managers and
sales

16. “HOW CAN WE PROVE THE VALUE OF TALKING TO
CUSTOMERS?”

17. “What’s the
right
method to
use?”
■ Surveys: when you know the questions
AND the potential answers
■ Interviews: to uncover behaviors,
assumptions, mental models
■ Sales feedback: single-customer
specific, tied to a deal
■ Usability testing: can customers
complete task (doesn’t reveal if they
want to)
■ Usage metrics: after launch AND
significant number of customers
■ A/B testing: proves a change ‘worked’,
requires high usage

18. “But we already build what
customers ask for, and they’re still
not happy…”
“If we already had
[feature], how would
that make your life
easier?”
Because we do not
have [feature], what
are you unable to do
today that you wish
you could do?”

19. “Well, [your competitor] has
[feature]…”
“You’re right – if you
were able to use
[feature] with our
product, what would
that allow you to do
differently?”
“You probably know
other people who
are using
[competitor] – what
are they able to do
better or more
easily?”

20. Tell me about the last time
you [used feature]…
How does [feature] fit into
your usual
habits/workflow?

21. “EVEN WHEN
WE HAVE
CUSTOMER
INSIGHTS, WE
IGNORE THEM"

22. “EVEN WHEN WE HAVE
CUSTOMER INSIGHTS, WE
IGNORE THEM"

23. A (new) customer insight is a
product
■ Why should I pay attention?
■ Is it packaged well?
■ How should I use it?
■ How will it make my life better?

24. Start with why
■ Here’s the problem we’ve seen [problem]
■ We know it’s a problem because [evidence]
■ If we don’t fix it, we risk [consequences]
■ When we fix it, we hope to get [benefit]
■ We’re going to try the experiment of [solution attempt] for [time period]
■ We’ll know we’re on the right track when we see [success metrics]
https://bit.ly/anticipate-whys

25. Get 1% better
each week
■ This takes practice!
■ Build skills
■ Convince others to join
you
■ Make it a part of your
routine

26. THANK YOU!
MUITO
OBRIGADO!
Cindy Alvarez (@cindyalvarez)
Director of Customer Research, GitHub
ProductCamp Brasil – Dec 2021