Golden question — not only for Product Management.
One of the best practices to get real qualitative feedback about your product is by interviewing your customers. It might seem to be a simple task but it is much more complex that one might think.
Interviewing a user is an art that must be crafted and it requires a lot of practice. We are dealing with humans that behave so differently from each other and have completely different needs, so how come can we create solutions that will satisfy such a diverse spectrum of demands?
The key question is how to reach the root of all the requests or problems presented by our users. How can we make sure that we understand the problem that is being presented to you by the user, the sales or the customer success team?
Very often I hear someone from the sales team saying that if we had the feature [x] we would be selling like crazy. Does this feature come to solve a root problem or only a symptom? Are we asking the right questions?
I find that the feedback that usually arrives at my desk is very often only the symptoms and not the root cause of the problems.
It is not my intention to list all the main questions that should be asked in a user interview as there are so many variables to the equation. However, there are ways to ask questions, that independent of what field, B2B, B2C, etc. will help you to reach the root of problems.
First, a very common method is the ‘3 Why’s’. Of course, you should avoid being too annoying to the user but asking the ‘why’s’ will funnel you to understand the real cause of the issue raised by the user.
Second, my favourite method, is to ask a very simple but important question: What if we could stop developing whatever we are doing now and only work on one feature, what would that be? Why?
This question is important because the user has to stop for a second and prioritize. Prioritization is not easy and when the user has to do it, it puts all his needs in perspective. Once you understand what is the most important feature that should be developed, the next step would be to make sure that this feature would solve the real problem that the user is facing. Again, using the ‘Why’s’ method can be very helpful.
In addition to asking well-defined questions, an important tool is to verify that you understand what the user is telling you. Repeat what you understood from the user to verify that you are getting the right picture. It may sound disturbing at the beginning, but when the user understands that you are both on the same page, it comforts and reassure the user. It makes the user feel that you understand what he/she is feeling.
So why the title of this article is: Golden question — not only for Product Management.
The question ‘What if we could stop doing something in order to do only one task can be applied to many areas in our lives. For example, if money was not an issue in your life, what would you be doing in a day to day basis?
The answer to this question puts everything in perspective and should be a compass in our lives. If we are not moving towards this main objective it means that we are not prioritizing correctly.
As it was mentioned before, prioritizing is not easy but answering this golden question can change our lives drastically, both in the professional and personal level.