Customer Discovery
I really enjoy talking to end-users or potential end-users of a product. Success for me is to see delight on their faces when we designed a product right and eased a struggle. A lot of the time, the person who I am interviewing does not even realized there might be a way to address a work problem.
When interviewing them, they are often delighted and very happy to be part of coming up with a solution. They often thank me to let me know that they appreciate that they can give insights and/or feedback that can help addressing the issue.
Identifying who the customer actually is takes a bit of effort. A lot of upfront research has to considered to make sure that the breakdown of the user types reflects the actual breakdown of a particular type of user. For example, if we are talking to nurses, research should be conducted on the age, male / female ratio, etc. for nurses in a particular area of specialization or environment. Demographics are a small part of the process. Psycho-graphic information is just as important. Things such as personality traits, lifestyle habits, attitudes, their personal values, interests, and beliefs will affect which people to use to represent a sample of a particular user type of user.
Interviews are just one way of helping to understand how a user interacts with a device or application. Other ways are to actually observe how they use a product. Tools such as drawings of a user interface, mapping the process, or paper prototypes can also help provide input on how a product can be used.
Once research, interview questions, and other information has been gathered from enough users, it is sorted and analyzed to test assumptions and refine the findings so that they can serve as input into the process and any decisions that will be made regarding the product. This part of the process always a while. Patterns are identified and documented. From here, good decisions can be made on what to include or improve for the project. This process is ongoing as the product is being built. Assumptions that were made early in the process may need to get tested again as the product begins to take shape. As more features are incorporated, new assumptions are made and these assumptions should get tested with new users. As this process continues, we learn more specific information to incorporate into the product.
I have found that following a good customer discovery process is the only way to ensure that the right product is being built and that it will delight the end user as we have worked towards a solution using their input.
