Bob Boehringer, Director of Strategy, Elsevier

Carol Righi, UX Consultant

Collecting Actionable Customer Insight

What’s the Advantage of Customer Discovery?

• If you don’t address a customer need, you don’t have a product or service to sell

• Validate a product concept to determine whether investment is appropriate

• Gain a clearer picture of how your product / service can and should more impactfully support your customers’ workflow

• The purchasing and adoption decision process is influenced by the customer, NOT your internal staff

What Stages of the Product Development Cycle Are Most Dependent on Research?

Idea GenerationBusiness CaseProduct Testing / Design Refinement

Possible Impediments

Lack of fundingLack of buy-in / acceptance on the part of key stakeholders

Ensure that everyone is on the same page and wants to move forward with being a data-driven organization

UX versus Market Research

Although both strive to learn about customer wants and needs, they go about it differently, resulting in different types of data

Typical Market Research Typical UX ResearchLarge samples Small samples

What people say What people do

Focused on Opinions About a Product

Focused on How They Use a Product

Opinion based Observation based

Content used by permission of Gina Bhawalkar, Scottrade

Key Components of a Successful Research Plan

Clearly defined objectiveTargeted customer sample(s)The right methodologyQuestions that get to meaningful, predictive dataAnalysis – interpretive and contextual

Clearly Defined Objectives

What is your overall goal?What questions do you need answered?

Targeting Customer Samples

Define target audience Segment as appropriateEvaluate your ability to reach your targetDetermine target sample size

QualitativeQualitative QuantitativeQuantitative

AdvantagesGreat complement to

quantitativeOffers more detail and contextLimitationsCan be costlyBecause samples are smaller,

generalizations can not be formally made

Unless themes emerge, data can be complex to analyze

AdvantagesFindings can be used to make

assumptionsFairly easy to analyze resultsCost efficientLimitationsLimited context

Methodology

Provides narrative color and context;smaller sample

Provides larger scale; more statistically relevant; typically used in latter stage of research

The Best Research is a Multi-Step Process

UnderstandingOf Customer

Workflow

What PainWill You

Address?

FormulateHypotheses

Test Hypotheses

CrystallizeProduct Concept

ShapeBusiness

Case

Good Questions = Good Data

Discussion GuidesQuestions should align with objectivesAvoid questions that ask customers to predict what they

might do; the only thing that predicts future behavior is past behavior

Ask questions about current and past behaviorAsk the “why” behind a response as appropriateDevelop questions with an eye toward how data will

reported

Good Questions = Good Data

SurveysQuestions should align with objectivesSelect your questions judiciously; fewer is betterCraft and pilot questionsToo many open-ended questions will typically decrease

response rates; multiple choice/scenario questions can get to similar data

Develop questions with an eye toward how data will be reported

Analysis: Going Beyond Data

Straight data reporting is of limited useIdentify common themesFindings should ultimately answer key business questionsOrganize findings in a way that tells a compelling story;

“package” your data in a way that resonates with your audienceIncluding verbatims can add credibilityOnce product is defined and designed, UX can inform all

aspects of product development

Moving Beyond the Business Case

Understand customerconceptual models

Test the prototypes

Createlow-fidelity prototypes

Flesh out the detailed design

Test the detailed design

Document styles,Templates,conventions

About the Presenters

Bob Boehringer Bob Boehringer has been involved in developing

marketing strategies for twenty years. He’s been involved in customer-facing strategies throughout the span of his career, including marketing campaigns, branding initiatives, longitudinal customer pulse studies and product research. He is currently a Director of Strategy, Educational Digital Solutions, for Elsevier.

About the Presenters

Carol Righi Carol Righi hold a PhD. in psychology and is a

professional human-computer interaction designer and researcher. Carol has close to 20 years of consulting experience, including a stint for IBM Global Services. Carol currently runs her own User Experience consulting company, CarolRighi.com.

Carol’s publications can be found at:http://carolrighi.com/about_pubs.htm