4 Fundamentals for Product Managers related to User Experience
Four fundamentals for Product Managers to consider for user experience for products:
1. Instead of asking customers what they want, focus on what they actually do.
About three weeks ago I was sitting in on a meeting of a product manager for a web-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) product and one of their potential customers. The product manager was asking their customer what they would want given different situations and scenarios.
From a user experience perspective, the challenge here is human psychology. Humans innately are bad a memory recall. Respectfully, human wants are also limited by our pre-existing knowledge of what is possible. A better approach would have been to provide the customer with a prototype, even paper-mockups could suffice, to ask them to walk-through a real-world use case / scenario to observe if they would be able to successfully and efficiently complete the scenario. Then after completion of the walk-through, ask follow-up questions about the accuracy of the scenario to real-world situations they encounter or ask questions if anything confused them during the scenario. Although the team members observing could potentially see if they were confused or frustrated during the walk-through of the scenario.
2. Avoid copying your competitors’ solutions. Instead, create solutions tailored to the specific needs of your customers.
When working on user experience designs and user interface designs, I’ve often been asked to copy the interface of a client’s competitor.
There are several fundamental shortfalls here. This would just be providing a regurgitation of what already exists in the marketplace rather than being a thought-leader and innovator. Is it even known if the competitor’s interface is providing the right solution that your customers need?
From a user experience perspective, determine the processes your customers are currently performing, then expand from there with opportunities for product differentiation and innovation.
3. When conducting customer interviews, avoid asking “yes/no” or leading questions that limit their responses.
During the meeting mentioned in #1 above, the product manager asked the client whether they liked a specific icon. As well as questions essentially stating “you would do it this xyz way, right?”
From a user experience perspective, this is providing useless information. Yes/no questions provide very little insightful information and details. Let alone a question requesting one individual’s opinion if they like or did not like a visual element of a product. Compared to all the individuals, customers, who will be using the product. Is this one individual’s opinion representing all your customers? Asking an open-ended question related to real-world use cases would have provided more insightful and useful information. A question posed to the customer asking if they would perform a specific task with what could be inferred as a condescending “right?” afterwards, requesting another yes/no response and leading their response towards a specific answer.
4. Don’t survey customers with preconceived notions of their answers, or you’re likely to run into confirmation bias.
Collecting feedback and the “voice of your customer” is research. When conducting research, presenting your personal or your team’s internal pre-existing assumptions of their responses can lead you down the wrong rabbit-holes. “Confirmation bias” is defined as “the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories.” Simply put this is not gaining feedback or insights from your customers; it is a poor attempt at validating the results you wanted to receive.
For product managers it is important to stay in-tune with the needs of your customers to help shape the vision and roadmap for a product. However, there are proper ways to collect this feedback and information to meet and hopefully exceed the needs of your customers while offering product differentiation and innovation.
About Garofalo UX
Garofalo UX (www.garofaloux.com) is a user experience (UX) strategy and creative problem-solving consulting agency helping organizations to create engaging and innovative experiences. User Experience as a Service (UXaaS). Proudly located in San Diego, California.
