Why, as a researcher, I can’t just “ask them if they would use it”

Earlier this week I was talking to another product researcher about some of the frustrating parts of our work, and we started to quote some of the classics we hear from stakeholders when planning our research.

“Can’t we just ask them if they like it?”

“Can’t we simply ask them if they would use it?”

“Can’t we just cold call some people to validate this?”

We usually answer those questions with a polite “no”. And if you ask one too many times, we might add a subtle eye-rolling to it.

God knows researchers can seem a bit unyielding sometimes. And for sure we should be committed to smart and logical research. But if we said yes to all those previous questions, our research would lose impact, and relevance and wouldn’t reflect reality.

And why is this?

How we ask things impacts what we learn

So whenever a stakeholder gives me those suggestions, I ask them what are they hoping to learn. Because If I ask users a subjective and declarative question, I will get subjective and declarative learnings/insights.

They might look good

“80% of our users said they liked our online payment solution”

But they won’t work good.

“In reality, none of the users would ever change to online payment solution because all their clients pay by wire transfer and don’t really have credit cards”

That's why I can’t simply ask people if they would use something or not. Because the answer I would get from it holds very little value. It is very likely that most people will tell us that they like something even though they don’t. It is also probable that people actually like it, but the solution is completely useless for them.

Plus, it is very unlikely that simply knowing “if a user would use your solution or not” is the insight you are looking for. It lacks context. It lacks “why”.

That is not an insight that builds a product.

And that's why the wrong question can lead to the wrong product.

Product teams shouldn’t be focused on validating their ideas and using research as a “seal of approval”.

Product teams should be deeply and truly committed to building valuable, usable, and desirable products. And for this to happen we need to be willing to ask the right questions and work with the true answers.

Researchers can’t “simply” ask users if they would use a solution, or if they like an idea, because— trust me — you don’t truly want us to.