Great products and services start with a deep understanding of your user’s needs and behaviour. This workshop will share some tips on how to frame your questions to get better insights, and the types of questions to ask to undercover user motivations and behaviours. --- Presented at Echelon 2015 Workshop, Created by Minitheory

1. Jun 24, 2015
Understanding Users
Echelon 2015
Prepared by Minitheory Pte Ltd

2. Charmaine Low
Interaction Designer, Minitheory
I understand user needs &
behaviours to create
useful & intuitive products.

3. Minitheory is a digital design studio, based in sunny
Singapore. We make software simple, based on how
people think and behave.

4. Make something people want
Paul Graham
Y Combinator

5. Understanding users
helps you figure out
what they want
Talk to your users!

6. How well do you know your users?

8. Some Grocery Delivery Startup
My customers…
○ 20 - 40 years old
○ income of $2500 - $5000
○ shops at supermarkets
○ female
Bad Example

9. Focus on behaviours & needs
instead of demographics

10. My customers…
○ buy groceries regularly for
their household
○ live with family of 4 or more
○ working adult
○ does not have a helper
○ probably does not have a
car
○ could live far away from a
grocery store
Good Example
Some Grocery Delivery Startup

11. Learn about your user
✓ problem
✓ context
✓ existing behaviour
✓ goals & needs
TAKEAWAY

12. Tips for talking to users

13. Tip 1

14. Questions that produce not-so-helpful answers
● Would you use this app?
● What do you want from product X?
● Do you like this?
● If you had this problem, would you use X

15. Why? (or, Human Behavior 101)
● (most) people are too polite to say ‘no’
● People can’t imagine technologies that don’t exist yet
● people overestimate how much effort they’re willing to
put into something
● people think incremental, not disruptive
http://www.cindyalvarez.com/communication/customer-development-interviews-how-to-what-you-should-be-learning

16. A better format
● Start off with a general question like
Tell me about the last time [insert context where
problem occurs]
● Ask for details about the problem and pain
What took you the longest time to do? What was
hard to figure out?
● Find out how they are currently solving the problem
Why do you…? How do you…?
● Figure out what is important to them
If you had to pick only one thing… What is most
important to you...

17. Avoid Yes/No,
use open-ended questions
Tip 2

18. Avoid Yes/No questions
● restricts answers to 2 options, which may not be the case
● implies an option
Examples
Do you go to the gym regularly?
Do you use your phone to buy X?
Do you use loyalty cards?
Do you have trouble booking flight tickets?

19. Using WWWWH qns make it open-ended
Do you go to the gym regularly? → When was the last
time you went to the gym?
Did you buy X online? → Where do you go to buy X?
Do you use loyalty cards? → What loyalty cards do you
have?
Do you have trouble booking flight tickets? → How was
the last time you booked a flight?
TAKEAWAY

20. Tip 3
Ask for specific instances
instead of generalizations

21. Generalizations lose details of how people
make decisions
You: “Do you go to the gym regularly?”
User: “Yeah I usually go to the gym maybe once a month, and do the
treadmill.”
You: “Oh, tell me about the last time you went to the gym.”
User: “Hmm that was… oh actually 2 months back. I missed last month
because I was sick for a while. And I think the month before the gym wasn’t
open when I went so I didn’t. So in March I went after work on a Wednesday,
and did the treadmill. Oh, and also the weights - my friend...

22. Use this magic question
“Tell me about the last time you…”
TAKEAWAY

23. ● Focus on behaviour & needs instead of
demographics
● Learn about user’s problem, context, goals etc
● #1 One does not simply ask a user what they want
● #2 Use open-ended questions
● #3 Ask for specific instances
SUMMARY

24. Thank you!
Feedback? Questions? Coffee?
charmaine@minitheory.com
Minitheory
@MinitheoryHQ