Starting and Scaling Customer Discovery at Your Organization

Transcript

1. Starting  and  Scaling  
   Customer  Discovery  
   at  Your  Organization
   D e c e m b e r   1 5 ,   2 0 1 6
   M e g a n   G r o c k i
   

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2. Customer  Insights  at  Nasdaq
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   Brief  History
   • Pre-­‐Product  Design  team  (2011)
   • Nasdaq  product  managers  would  ask  customers  what  they  wanted,  what  features  
   would  be  useful
   • Little  exploratory  or  discovery  phases:  very  tactical
   • Little  or  no  usability  testing  of  products  prior  to  releasing  to  market  (or  after)
   • Little  or  no  sharing  of  findings  outside  of  individual  teams  
   

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3. Customer  Insights  at  Nasdaq
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   2011
   • Introduce  designers  to  listen  first  hand  to  customers  describe  their  problems,  diagnose  solutions  via  
   prototyping,  then  revisit  those  ideas  with  clients
   • Cross-­‐teams  of  designers  interviewed  clients,  and  results  were  shared  to  business  leads  and  
   executives    (via  audio  clips,  video  shorts,  transcripts)
   • Partnered  with  sales,  service,  and  support  to  create  a  relationship  across  teams
   2014  -­‐ Present
   • Scaled  well  but  needed  specialization  as  demand,  complexity,  scope  increased
   • Now  executives  expect  research  and  make  critical  business  decisions  based  on  findings
   

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4. It’s  not  IF  you  should  talk  to  customers,  but  WHEN  and  HOW
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   Talking  to  Humans,  Giff Constable  &  Tom  Fishburne
   

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5. Establishing  (and  agreeing  on)  research  goals
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6. Research  goals
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   Use  customer  interviews  to  get  answers  to  specific  questions  that  are  tied  to  
   business  objectives*.  
   Before  conducting  the  interviews,  gain  consensus  on  these  topics:
   • What  is  this  project  trying  to  accomplish?  
   • What  are  we  trying  to  understand?  
   • How  will  this  new  knowledge  help  our  team  and  stakeholders  make  meaningful  changes  to  the  
   business  or  product?  
   

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7. Research  goals
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   Broad  goals  are  less  useful: For  example.  “understand  the  user’s  workflow”
   Specific  goals  are  easier  to  measure:
   Understand  how  
   investor  relations  
   teams  are  structured
   Learn  about  why,  when,  and  how  
   IR  teams  work  with  PR  teams
   Identify  pain  points  in  
   their  typical  workflow
   

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8. Choose  a  research  method  based  on  goals  
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   Surveys
   • When  we  need  a  large  sample  size  for  hypotheses  validation
   • Use  responses  to  focus  subsequent  interview  guides
   • Relatively  simple  questions  (multiple  choice,  yes/no,  rate  importance,  sentiment)
   

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9. Choose  a  research  method  based  on  goals  
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   Semi-­‐structured  interviews
   • Go  into  interviews  with  hypoteheses,  this  is  the  opportunity  to  dig  further
   • Don’t  always  get  the  answers  to  questions,  just  by  asking  point-­‐blank
   • We  use  a  broad  series  of  open-­‐ended  questions  including:
   • Describe  their  workflow,  sequence  of  events,  “what  do  you  do  next?”  or  “ok,  and  then  what?”
   • Ask  probing  “why”  questions  to  give  them  the  opportunity  expand,  “tell  me  a  little  more  about  
   that”  or  “why  do  you  think  that  is?”  
   

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10. Choose  a  research  method  based  on  goals  
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    Usability  Testing
    • Not  testing  the  user,  testing  the  concept
    • Specific  scenarios  and  tasks  we  hope  they  can  complete
    • Listen  for  any  confusion  or  excitement  that  they  express  along  the  way  (unprompted)
    • Make  every  effort  not  to  give  them  answers  to  their  questions,  but  rather  turn  their  questions  back  to  
    them  “is  that  important  to  you?”  or  “what  would  you  expect  to  see  if  you  clicked  that?”
    

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11. Identify  your  audience(s)
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    Who  do  you  want  to  learn  from?
    • Existing  Customers
    • Prospective  Customers
    • Investors
    • Stakeholders
    Ensure  a  representative  sample
    • Geographic  location
    • Industry
    • Company  size
    • Roles/responsibilities
    • Experience  level
    • Technology  needs/devices  
    • Buyer  types  (B2B)
    

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12. Recruiting
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    “Everyone  wants  to  feel  connected.  When  people  
    know  that  they’re  actually  helping  to  grow  a  product,  
    that  we  want  their  personal  experience  to  be  as  great  
    as  possible,  it  gets  them  really  excited.”
    —Dan  Levine,  CTO  of  StyleSeat
    

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    • Go  beyond  “Friends  and  Family”  but  use  those  contacts  to  find  
    people  outside  of  your  circle
    • Keep  the  request  professional  and  the  commitment  small
    • “Fish  where  the  fish  are”
    • Maintain  relationships  with  participants  over  time
    Recruiting
    

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14. Have  a  plan
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    Project  Approach
    We  will  conduct  [METHOD]  with  [AUDIENCE], with  a  particular  focus  on  [FOCUS  AREA]. Our  findings  will  
    inform  and  influence  [ARTIFACTS]  and  design  decisions  for  [TEAM/COMPANY]  efforts.
    Research  Goals
    • Understand  ___________________.
    • Uncover  opportunities  for  _________________________.
    • Determine  how  [TOOLS/PRODUCTS/FEATURES]  are  used  by  [AUDIENCE].
    • Understand  the  potential  interest  in  and  value  of  [CONCEPT/IDEA].
    

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15. The  plan  (continued)
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    Audience(s)
    • We  will  gather  feedback  from  the  following:
    o Customers  in  the  Americas  [TARGET  %]
    o Customers  in  Europe/Middle  East/Africa  [TARGET  %]
    o Customers  in  Asia-­‐Pacific  [TARGET  %]
    o Prospects  in  any  geographic  location  [TARGET  %]
    Project  Logistics
    • Scheduling  participants  [NAME(S)]
    • Facilitating  research  sessions  [NAME(S)]
    • Observation  [NAME(S)]  
    • Note  taking [NAME(S)]  
    • Findings  report  [NAME(S)]  
    

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16. Stay  (or  get)  organized
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    Research  Topic  _______________
    Organization  ________________
    Participant  Name(s)  ____________
    Approved  by  Account  Team  Member(s)
    Meeting  scheduled  in  Outlook,  inviting  all  relevant  
    internal  participants
    Meeting  added  to  common  calendar
    Meeting  entered  in  CRM
    Interview  conducted  on  _________________
    Interview  recorded    Y  /  N
    Thank  you  email  sent  to  customer  participant(s)
    Brief  notes  entered  in  CRM,  summarizing  highlights
    Recording  file  sent  to  transcription  service
    Recording  uploaded  to  research  asset  repository
    Interview  summary  complete,  including  one  quote
    Transcript  received
    Master  Research  file  updated  to  reflect  completion  of  
    interview
    Customer  Research  Checklist
    

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17. Acknowledge  and  Minimize  Your  Biases
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    Talking  to  Humans,  Giff Constable  &  Tom  Fishburne
    

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18. Best  practices  for  anyone  doing  research
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    • Start  small  and  generalize  research:  everyone is  a  researcher
    • Reach  consensus  on  goals
    • Determine  the  right  methodology  for  the  goals
    • Find  the  right  people  to  interview
    • Have  a  plan,  and  keep  everything
    • Neutralize  your  biases
    • Ask  open-­‐ended  questions
    • Shut  up  and  listen!
    • Use  research  to  build  bridges  across  teams  or  different  disciplines  (even  small  startups!)
    • Treat  research  as  a  practice  and  a  skill  that  can  be  improved
    • Record,  transcribe,  summarize  individual  interviews  and  then  identify  patterns  in  reports
    

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19. Customer  Insights  Findings
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    • Influence  product  design  decisions  
    • Help  keep  product  management  priorities  in  check
    • Inspire  marketing  messaging  
    • Identify  potential  reference  customers  or  notable  quotables
    • Clarify  market  segmentation  
    • Pinpoint  new  markets
    

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20. Scaling  the  research  effort  across  the  organization
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    Find  people  who  WANT to  talk  to  customers,  and  
    empower  them  
    EVERYONE  should  be  required  to  participate  in  
    talking  to  real  people
    

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21. 21
    Scaling  the  research  effort  across  the  organization
    Coach  novices,  offer  critique  and  praise  
    improvement
    Offer  concrete  best  practices  and  examples  for  
    non-­‐researchers  to  use
    

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22. 22
    Mosaiq -­‐ http://nasdaqdesign.com/mosaiq
    

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23. 23
    Books  I  Keep  on  My  Desk
    

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25. Thank  You!
    Megan  Grocki
    Director  of  Customer  Insights
    megan.grocki@nasdaq.com
    646-­‐207-­‐7726
    

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