Build Better Products and Avoid Costly Mistakes
Make time for user research
Marty Cagan, author of Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love, writes that “Winning products come from the deep understanding of the user’s needs…” Why then are organizations opting out of user experience research and not engaging with their users? Lack of understanding and a misconception about cost and time.
Sometimes executive leaders who drive strategy for less mature products may need to learn more about what research means to realize its benefits. In large organizations, the focus might be on the bottom line and there is a perception that user research costs too much money or takes too much time. The truth is that conducting user research could actually save money in the end. I’ve seen this first-hand.
User-centered.
As technology professionals, we strive to build software solutions that people want and need. We aim to delight our users and create loyalty. In order to do this successfully, we must talk with actual users to better understand their behavior, needs, and motivations. We must understand their environment and gather feedback to build usable, valuable products that people love.
As a leader in design and research, I’ve observed that user conversations are happening inconsistently. The reasons I’ve heard are that senior leaders think they are just like their users and therefore qualified to speak on their behalf. Or that they know better than their users and will make decisions for them. Those reasons don’t often hold up. People are more complex than we give each other credit for.
Even as a design professional with 20 years of experience I don’t proclaim to know better than my users. I make design decisions on the basis of my expertise and best practices but always expect the chance to validate my work with real people who will ultimately use the product I’m helping to build. This is what user-centered design is all about.
Research focuses on understanding human behavior and reduces uncertainty about a particular product. By conducting research early you’ll have proper data to inform your product strategy and can make the most informed decisions. This paves the way for successful products.
Listen. Design. Test. Repeat.
Wondering where to start? Here’s what you need to know.
Begin by identifying your user base and talk to as many people as you can fit on your calendar. Ask them questions. Listen — not to respond but to truly understand. Be real so that you can earn their trust. Watch them use their tools. Observe their process. Note their distractions. Listen more. Do a lot of listening! Get comfortable with silence. Eventually, that silence will break with a nugget of wisdom about how you can make their lives better.
The design phase can begin once you’ve listened to a multitude of users. When research precedes strategy discussions it helps to eliminate assumptions from the design process. A design vision is most successful when it’s informed by narratives told by end-users.
Ready to test? Hopefully, by now you understand that research is more than testing! I’ve heard from some senior leaders who thought user research was only about testing design prototypes and it’s during this phase when they’re first hearing from their users. There is significant value in performing usability testing, and it’s better than doing nothing. But if this is the first time you speak with or observe your users then you’ve missed out on an opportunity to learn even more about what they want and need.
Even more importantly, you may end up solving the wrong problem. Or one that didn’t exist. Cagan writes that the key to building products people love is “all about solving problems, not implementing features” (Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love). Early research helps you prioritize your users’ biggest unmet needs, so you can design the most impactful solutions.
Test early and often. You can uncover 80% of problems by testing three to five users. Some advance planning allows for testing iterative design changes until you’re confident in the solution and have minimal uncertainty.
Some of my most successful product designs came from testing initial designs, rapidly redesigning, re-testing, and so forth until we got it right. This process doesn’t have to take a lot of time. By iterating in 24-hr increments we ran through four usability tests and were finished in less than a week, proving that conducting research doesn’t have to be an impediment to moving swiftly. When laser-focused on identifying your audience, methods, and goals, rapid research gets you the answers you need without delays.
Risky business.
Did you know that (according to Usability.gov) at least 50% of a developer’s time is spent on rework that is avoidable when research is conducted? Rework increases costs and delays project timelines.
In my experience, when senior leaders opted to skip research and testing, despite strong conviction from the product design team, a newly launched app turned into a “live” testing scenario. The launch surfaced usability issues that would have been easily identified had we conducted usability testing prior to implementation. We didn’t completely understand our users’ needs and therefore didn’t provide them with a delightful experience. Help Desk was inundated with unhappy customer emails and phone calls. And what about those frustrated customers who didn’t bother to provide feedback? Most unhappy customers won’t take the time to provide feedback. They just go elsewhere.
We iterated on the design, partnered with our development team to rework the code, and released version two. But in the process, we tested the loyalty of our customers and it cost more money.
While it might be cheaper to avoid conducting research in the short term, the long-term ramifications are clear. Skipping over the research phase puts you at risk for product failure.
You could end up with a final product:
- Where initial assumptions are partially or completely wrong.
- That is not user-friendly.
- With features that are confusing.
- Offering an amazing feature that no one uses or wants.
It doesn’t matter how elegant your product looks or how seamless the interactions are. If customers cannot do what they want or need to do, you have failed them. They will remember.
5 Tips for Success
Look past the idea that research is a nice-to-have and embrace the fact that it is integral to product development for product success.
- Listen to your UX champion. If you’re lucky enough to know someone like this, listen to them. Let them prove to you the importance of user research.
- Involve your power user or subject matter expert in strategy workshops.
- Allocate time for research early, and then usability test later.
- Study real users through direct observation in their natural environment performing their usual tasks.
- Sit in on a user interview. Seeing and hearing from an actual user is more impactful than reading a report about findings.
https://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/benefits-of-ucd.html
https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2018/09/ux-research-is-essential-to-product-success.php
