User research in a little over 1 hour (watch these before Tuesday's interviews!)


Conducting the research

The starting point for any business design/development activity is to do your user research well. Qualitative and quantitative user research are two different research "strategies". Early user research mostly used qualitative research methods. As you get to understand your user better and research more specific questions, quantitative methods come into play. In this video you learn the basics about these two methods (10 minutes)

https://youtu.be/RYmLE8UqCXU

In-depth user research typically starts with Qualitative user research. It is all about understanding the user’s experience. (30 minutes)

https://youtu.be/v1KKsLukIBE

Interviews are an important tool for early user research. Asking the right questions in the right manner is key to a successful interview (10 minutes)

https://youtu.be/8tiuWYs5Z-A

Does your interview technique pass the "Mom test"? (5 minutes)

https://youtu.be/Hla1jzhan78

The most powerful way to study users is to study them in their own (and relevant) environment. This is not always possibly but you should always strive for it. A study done in the user’s real environment or context is called a “Contextual inquiry”. Here are some tips how you do it (5 minutes).

https://youtu.be/mOWeNnSY5M0

Once you know your audience, you can find quantitative information with a good survey. But remember, you should never start with a survey, you need to do your basic user research first (5 minutes).

https://youtu.be/bi2JMRpL9Ik


Applying the research results

User research is not an end goal. Your goal is to learn how to apply your user data to build your business.  Now it is time to turn your user research insights into Business insights! Let’s first set the context. The tools in this section are used as part of an iterative process of trial and success/error (yes, sometimes there is success!). This process was defined by Eric Ries. Let’s first find out what the Lean Startup is all about! (10 min)

https://youtu.be/jBlrLqsjIDw

User research is an important part of getting new information into one of the lean startup cycles. The next step is apply your user data to building your start-up. There are two important tools for “defining” a start-up: the Business Model Canvas and the Value proposition Canvas.

The first step towards building a business is to take your user research and turn it into an understanding of what customer needs you will serve. For this, we use the Value Proposition Canvas (VPC). Your user research will provide the information you need to develop the VPC.

The purpose of the VPC is to help you drill deep into the needs and desires of your customer. Once you understand those (right side of the Canvas), you can then match your offering (left side of the VPC) to your customers’ needs and achieve good customer satisfaction (5 min)

https://youtu.be/D254suPMpwY

Perhaps the most important element of the Value Proposition Canvas is the customer’s (or user’s, these might be different entities) “Job to be done”. Clayton Christensen originally introduced the concept. It is a very effective way of thinking about the needs of your customer (5 min).

https://youtu.be/RQjBawcU_qg

Once you understand what customer need you serve, you can start to think about how an organization (for example your start-up) can fulfil the user needs and do it in a sustainable way.


Last modified: Sunday, 23 August 2020, 4:35 PM