Customer Research & Persona Development
Will Evans | @SemanticWill

“Life is too short to
design & build something that no one wants” - Ash Maurya LEAN USER EXPERIENCE Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Mantra: You are not the
user. Only through research can we uncover people’s pain, needs, and goals, in context. Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Why Customer Research? “Insights about
your customers or users were never discovered sitting at your fucking couch”. - me Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Malkovich Bias The tendency to
believe that everyone uses technology the same way you do. Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Personas, WTF? • Personas are
an archetype of your actual, validated customers based on research • Personas are not a sheet of paper • (Just) making personas up is useless • BUT – creating persona hypotheses gets the ball moving… to do research Will Evans | @SemanticWill

“Personas are to Persona Descriptions
as Vacations are to Photo Albums” Will Evans | @SemanticWill

My bullshit customer insights graph
People 0 Insights Will Evans | @SemanticWill

My bullshit customer insights graph
12 People The most striking truth of this curve is that zero users give zero insights 0 Insights Lot s Will Evans | @SemanticWill

“Your responsibility is to step
out of your own perspective, to really exercise empathy and completely immerse yourselves in the point of view, and the psychological state, of the person your hoping to design a solution for” - me Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Lean Principles • Context First
• Hypotheses, Not Requirements • Opinions = Guesses • Visualize your work • Validate customer needs • Reduce cycle times • Last responsible moment Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Will Evans | @SemanticWill

HOW TO DO IT Will
Evans | @SemanticWill

Before Interviews • Identify who
you interviewing • Articulate customer hypotheses • Craft a topic map for your sessions • Write down your prompts Will Evans | @SemanticWill

9 Keys to Customer Research
1. One at a time 2. Always pair interview (if you can) 3. Introduce yourself 4. Record the conversation 5. Ask general, open ended questions to get people to open up 6. Ask questions around the problem space “Do you often encounter a problem like X? 7. Then ask: “Tell me about it…” 8. Listen more than talk 9. Separate behavior from narrative Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Guidelines • It’s about empathizing.
Listen, even when people go off topic • Context is King – document it, and make sure the context of research maps to that of problem space • Start from the assumption that everything you know is wrong Will Evans | @SemanticWill

You need to gather: •
Factual information • Behavior • Pain points • Goals You can document this on the persona validation board As well as… Photos, video, audio, journals…document everything Will Evans | @SemanticWill

During the interview DO Take
notes Smile Ask open-ended Don’t questions Talk about your product Get their story Ask about future behavior Shut up and listen Sell Ask leading questions Talk much Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Ways to start • Tell
me about … • How so … • What are your thoughts on … • Could you elaborate on … • Give some examples of … • What are your thoughts on … • Tell me the last time you … Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Caveat Qualitative research cannot be
used to unequivocally prove or disprove a hypothesis about the customer or solution. Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Analysis “We tend to project
our own rationalizations and beliefs onto the actions and beliefs of others” - Don Norman So… be weary of these… Will Evans | @SemanticWill

5 Common Biases in Customer
Research • Confirmation Bias • Framing Effect • Observer-expectancy Effect • Recency Bias • False Consensus Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Confirmation Bias Your tendency to
search for or interpret information in a way that confirms your preconceptions or hypotheses. Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Framing Effect When you and
your team draw different conclusions from the same data based on your own preconceptions. Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Observer-expectancy When you expect a
given result from your research which makes you unconsciously manipulate your experiments to give you that result Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Recency Bias This results from
disproportionate salience attributed to recent observations (your very last interview) – or the tendency to weigh more recent information over earlier observations Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Will Evans | @SemanticWill

False Consensus The tendency for
you to overestimate the degree to which others agree with you. Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Analysis • Single customer storyboarding,
and then… • Multiple customer analysis – Write all insights on post-its – Affinity map into facts, behaviors, needs, goals – Identify types of potential customers – Name them – Fill out the persona validation board Will Evans | @SemanticWill

What next? The point of
the research is to seek insight into user behavior, goals, and needs that might be supported by the design of a product or service. so… Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Demand Creation • How will
your customer segments hear about your product? • How does market type impact your strategy? • How much will it cost to acquire customers using these strategies • What does the lifetime customer value need to be to justify these strategies? Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Enough Theory! “Insights about your
customers or users were never discovered sitting at your fucking desk”. - me Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Will Evans | @SemanticWill

Thanks! Will Evans | @SemanticWill
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