Gathering insights into the needs of customers and opportunities in the market is a crucial function that product managers and marketers rely upon to drive decision-making and create innovative solutions.

1. INSIGHTS EYECHART
where to look for insights and how to organize them
INSIGHTS
IMPLICATIONS
I An insight is to see what
everybody else has seen,
and to think what nobody
else has thought
secondary
SCANNING
STEEP Get out from behind
the mouse
secondary
TREND PRECURSORS
SWIPES The future isn’t often at the
end of a trend line
contextual primary
OBSERVATION
AEIOU Assume a beginner’s mindset
contextual primary
OBSERVATION
P O E M S Never underestimate your
own ignorance
contextual primary
OBSERVATION P O S T A Where there is a workaround
there is often an innovation
contextual primary
OBSERVATION W H Y Saw what? So what?
BUSINESS
OPPORTUNITY I M P A C T Is there a there, there?
secondary Secondary research is,
SCANNING S P E C T A C L E S secondary
secondary The better you know a domain
SCANNING P E S T L I E D
the less ‘scan-hits’
you will encounter
Wayne R Pethrick | wayne@pethricks.com

2. Insights Eyechart
The Insights Eyechart presents a range of different acronyms, each serving as a framework or ‘lens’,
with the purpose of guiding the framing and focusing of insight gathering and then the subsequent I
development, sharing and remembering of the insights that emerge from this work.
STEEP
The acronyms represented here have been drawn from the disciplines of foresight, design, anthropology
and business development, and cover both primary and secondary approaches to gathering data. SWIPES
The ‘Eyechart’ is based on the following assumptions: AEIOU
1. Insight discovery, while sometimes serendipitous, can be routinized and enhanced by simple P O E M S
yet powerful tools and frameworks P O S T A
W H Y
2. Whether exploring an area that is new or familiar, approaching the space with a different
perspective can yield insights that are both fresh and provocative I
S P
M
E C
P
T A
A
C
C
L E
T
S
P E S T L I E D
It is envisioned that by using this tool, the product manager will be prompted and inspired to look
beyond the areas where they customarily acquire information, findings and insights. The eyechart
symbology serves as a metaphor for clarity and perfect vision which, although not likely to be achieved,
is something that we, as product management professionals, hopefully aspire to.
I Insights (and their implications)
STEEP Social Technological Economic Environmental Political
SWI P E S Statistics Written and broadcast materials Intense focus Pitches and promotions
Exits and entrants Superhits
A E I OU Activities Environments Interactions Objects Users
P O E MS People Objects Environment Messages Services
P O STA People Objects Settings Time Activities
WHY What How WhY
I MPAC T Idea Market size Positive net present value (Opportunity Costs)
Acceptance by customers Competition Timing Speed
S P EC TAC L E S Social Political Economic Cultural Technological Aesthetic
Customer Legal Environmental Sectoral
PESTLIED Political Economic Social Technological Legal International
Environmental Demographic
Contextual Research Hints
When you are visiting customers and users for the purposes of gathering insights, it’s unlikely that you will get to the
actual answer without asking a few different questions a few different ways. The following are a range of tools and
techniques that can be deployed to keep moving forwards when feel when you haven’t got to the real answer yet.
Involve Participants in Activities
Demonstration “Show us how you send an invoice.” or Ask for a demonstration of invoice sending
Tasks “Can you draw me a flowchart of how you plan an event?” map of your computer network?”
Participation “Can you show me how I should find this customer’s name?”
Role-playing “I’ll be the customer and you be the helpdesk representative, show me how they should respond.”
or Role play the ideal interaction between customer and helpdesk representative
Types of Questions to Ask
Sequence “Walk me through a typical day… then what do you do next?”
Specific Examples “What software did you use this morning?”
Peer Comparison “Do the other operators do it that way?”
Project Ahead “What do you think it will be like in 5 years?”
Look Back “How are things different than they were last year?”
Quantity “How many customers fall into that category?”
Suggestive Opinion “Some people really don’t like using this product, others love it. What are your feelings about it?”
Relationships “How do the different departments work together?”
Organizational Structure “Who is your boss’s boss?”
Product Comparison “What’s the difference between receiving that information by fax or email?”
Explain It “If you had to tell your wife how to change this ink cartridge, what would you tell her?”
Wayne R Pethrick | wayne@pethricks.com