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When you have a spark of brilliance it can be easy to get caught up in the excitement and start building something before you’ve validated your thinking. This can be a costly mistake. By interviewing the kinds of people you think will use your product you can check that you haven’t made any invalid assumptions and set yourself up for success.
If you haven’t researched your target audience first you can burn through resources very quickly. In our experience, it’s cheaper and faster to invest in some research to make sure you’re meeting your users’ needs from the get-go, rather than building something and then finding that people aren’t clamouring to use it the way you’d hoped.
But user research isn’t just finding a bunch of people and going and talking to them. You’ve got to ensure that you’re asking the right people the right questions. Here are some of the most common user research mistakes we see, along with our advice about what to do instead:
Asking this question is going to get you the answer you want to hear, not the information you need. People don’t want to hurt your feelings. They want to be nice and, in turn, be accepted – it’s hardwired into us! This means people who are asked this question are more likely to tell you they like something even if they actually don’t.
Rather than asking people if they like a product, we craft interview questions that explore their expectations and examine their responses to things. People will voluntarily tell you the things they really like and the things they don’t – this is a far more reliable indicator of how they truly feel about your product.
If you are putting a prototype in front of people, try out the following questions:
Pay attention to their reaction when they tap on (X). Are they surprised? Confused? Disappointed? Elated? Be honest – is it what they actually expected or wanted?
This is a tempting question to ask as it feels like it would give you an idea of what the potential demand for your product might be. Unfortunately, asking this question won’t give you reliable data.
As humans, we’re notoriously bad at predicting our own behaviour. I bet if you cast your mind back, you can think of a time where you said you’d start some new healthy habit or set up a new routine only to put it off or stick with what you were already doing. The same goes with interview participants. Just because they have said they’ll use your product, doesn’t mean they will. Remember, they’re nice and want to be encouraging.
By researching peoples’ current needs, pain-points and behaviours before floating your idea in front of them, you’ll quickly get a strong indication if there’s an unmet need or unsolved problem that your idea can help with.
Never ask your Mum. Remember, this is the person who once described your scribble drawing as a Picasso. Friends and relatives are the last people you should ask. In fact, don’t ask them at all – they’re more likely than anyone else to give you positive feedback and be encouraging. It’s always easier to get honest feedback from a stranger. Test your ideas with people who don’t know you, but are your intended users. Even better, get someone else who is removed from your product or idea to do that research for you. They’ll be better placed to analyse the results of your research without bias creeping in. When we’re attached to an idea, it can be easy to latch onto the information that confirms what we already believe and disregard the rest. In addition, it can be easier for people to speak openly when the person interviewing them hasn’t also created the product.
It’s really easy to make the mistake of designing for yourself – especially if your idea solves a problem that you’re personally experiencing. But remember – you are not your user! There’s no point in building a product that only you will use.
Even if you avoid the pitfall of designing for yourself, it can be easy to fall into the next trap of just talking to people like you in the assumption that they are your target market. Instead, take the time to properly identify and understand who your users are or are likely to be. If you haven’t clearly identified who you think will use your product and what their key attributes are, you risk talking to people who aren’t your target audience, leaving you with research findings that might not be relevant.
While no single user interview can give you all the answers, research that’s done well can save huge amounts of time and money by identifying ways to improve or refocus your idea before you build it. Knowing to avoid these common mistakes is a great starting point. But if you want to know more about how to set your idea up for success get in touch!
New digital project? Keen to optimise your existing digital project? We’re always keen to talk.
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