The Love Letter & Breakup Letter

The love letter and the breakup letter are two design research methods that allow people to express their genuine thoughts and emotions about a product/service.

Attitudinal, Qualitative, Innovative, Exploratory, Self Reporting, Phase 1/2/5

The Love Letter communicates the magical moment when people feel a connection with their product and gives insight as to what products have a competitive advantage.

The Breakup Letter provides context to an experience with a product turned sour and insights about why they abandoned it. It also articulates what new product replaced the abandoned product.

How?

• use in a group setting: design workshop, group interviews, etc.
• participants personify the product and write a letter to it for 10 minutes
• record participants sharing their letter to take note of nonverbal cues (facial expressions, voice)

Love Letter Example

Breakup Letter Example

Results

• participants share unexpectedly deep and revealing accounts about the relationships people have with the products and services in their lives
• participants put surprising care into letters, communicating sentimentality and depth
• participants share stories situated in real-life experiences: telling of the meaning and place the product plays in one’s life
• recording participants provide valuable insights in multidisciplinary teams
• these research methods build empathic knowledge of product and conveys important insights to increase loyalty to the product/service