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.com
Wednesday, December 5, 2012

@lauraklein

You Suck At Talking To Users
For example, you probably think you’re supposed to
talk to users.


@lauraklein

Sometimes You Suck At Validating
Your Ideas


@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.


@lauraklein

You Lead The User

You should: Let the user lead.

Bad: Aren’t dogs the best?
Good: How do you feel about dogs?


@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?


@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 think


@lauraklein

Sometimes You Suck At Getting
Feedback On Your Product Or
Prototype


@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.


@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?


@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.)


@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?


@lauraklein

Sometimes You Just Suck


@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.


@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]


@lauraklein

You Ignore Results You Don’t Like

You should: Design your test in a way that will force
you to believe your results.


@lauraklein

You Don’t Act On Your Findings

You should: Implement critical changes before you see
the problems over and over again in testing.


@lauraklein

You Talk Too Much

You should: Shut the hell up.


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.


@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!


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