How to talk to your users

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HOW TO TALK TO YOUR USERS DROIDCON TURIN 2016 Alex Florescu  @ﬂor3scu YPlan

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HOW…

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HOW…

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▸ do we build X? ▸ do we solve problem Y? ▸ do we architect/test/design? HOW…

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HOW…

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WHAT & WHY

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WHAT & WHY ▸ What features do we build ▸ What features do we remove ▸ What apps do we work on ▸ Why is this feature/bug important

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WHAT & WHY ▸ What do users care about? ▸ Why do users care about this?

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NOT TECHNICAL NO CODE

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POINTS ▸ How do you ask your users about new features ▸ No magic wand, just methods & principles ▸ How do we ask questions ▸ What are the right and wrong questions

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WHY?

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NOT MY PROBLEM?

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WHAT & WHY MATTER! ▸ Avoid useless features ▸ Avoid building apps that never get downloaded ▸ Avoid building solutions in search for problems ▸ Understand the user needs ▸ Be part of the conversation

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WHAT QUESTIONS DO YOU ASK?

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EXAMPLE!

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COFFEE TRACKING APP ▸ Uses magical new technology to precisely track your caffeine intake ▸ You can see just how much coffee you had ▸ Patterns of caffeine spike/drop

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DOES IT SOUND LIKE A GOOD IDEA?

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WOULD YOU WANT IT?

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WOULD YOU PAY FOR IT?

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HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY FOR IT?

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FEATURE QUESTIONS ▸ Would you want to set a caffeine limit? ▸ How do you want to track your drinks? ▸ What graphs would you want to see?

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EXAMPLE #2

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RIVER BUS APP ▸ River buses come every 20ish minutes ▸ Schedule is a big table ▸ This app tells you when the next ones departs

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WOULD YOU WANT AN APP FOR READING THE SCHEDULE?

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WOULD YOU WANT TO KNOW WHEN THE NEXT BUS COMES?

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WOULD YOU WANT TO GET SERVICE UPDATES?

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WHAT’S WRONG? ▸ Leading questions ▸ No commitment required ▸ No risk to user ▸ Personal involvement ▸ Selling, not learning

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WHAT’S WRONG? ▸ Problem & solution together ▸ The questions assume people care & need ▸ People wrongly report their habits ▸ Personal bias

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HOW DO WE FIX THIS?

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FIRST RULE

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RULE #1 ▸ Don’t mention the app / new feature / idea ▸ Don’t describe what you’re building ▸ Don’t even say you’re building something NEVER MENTION THE APP

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NEVER MENTION THE PROBLEM ▸ Don’t mention the problem you’re trying to solve ▸ Don’t describe what you think are the issues ▸ Don’t say you’re building a solution RULE #2

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DISCOVER THE USER ▸ Learn the user’s habits that are relevant ▸ Create a portrait of the user ▸ The person matters

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DISCOVER THE USER ▸ Do you drink coffee? How many coffees a day? ▸ What coffee do you like? ▸ Do you track calories? ▸ What was the last app you used today? EXAMPLE

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▸ How do you commute to work? ▸ How do you go around on weekends? ▸ How do you kill time on your commute? ▸ Are you a morning person? DISCOVER THE USER EXAMPLE #2

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DISCOVER THE PROBLEM ▸ Test your assumptions about the problem ▸ Try to determine how people perceive it ▸ How big of a problem is it? How painful?

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DISCOVER THE PROBLEM ▸ Do you worry about drinking too much coffee? ▸ Do you have trouble sleeping? ▸ Has your doctor asked you to limit caffeine? EXAMPLE

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▸ How long do you usually wait for a river bus? ▸ What do you do when you wait? ▸ Do you know what time your usual service is? ▸ When did you last narrowly miss a bus? DISCOVER THE PROBLEM EXAMPLE #2

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DISCOVER THE SOLUTION ▸ Work your way towards your solution ▸ Start with the problem and let the users describe the solution to you ▸ If you’re right, you will hear your solution ▸ If you’re not, you get valuable insight

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DISCOVER THE SOLUTION ▸ Do you keep track of how much coffee you drink? ▸ If yes, how? ▸ If no, why? EXAMPLE

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▸ How do you check the time of the next river bus? ▸ Where do you ﬁnd the schedule? ▸ How do you make sure you get to work on time? DISCOVER THE SOLUTION EXAMPLE #2

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BE SPECIFIC ▸ Start general if needed, but dig into speciﬁcs ▸ Understand core problems and needs, rather than “feature requests” ▸ Say “go on”, “tell me more” and “why”

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▸ “I would love to track my coffee consumption” ▸ Why? ▸ “Yeah, I am worried about drinking too much” ▸ Tell me more. Why is that? BE SPECIFIC EXAMPLE

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EXAMPLE #2 ▸ “I need to know about service disruptions” ▸ Why? How do you use that information? ▸ “I want realtime schedule updates” ▸ Go on. How does that help? BE SPECIFIC

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ASK THE KEY QUESTIONS ▸ How do you deal with it today? ▸ Why is it a problem? What makes it so bad? ▸ What are you already trying to ﬁx/improve it? ▸ How much time does it eat up? ▸ What are your priorities/goals/big problems?

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BE OBJECTIVE ▸ It may be hard to be objective about the results ▸ Uninvolved people will be the most objective ▸ Believe the story your survey tells you

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MAKING SENSE OF RESULTS ▸ Patterns will form ▸ If not, problem or target are too general ▸ Look both at the big picture and the details   

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FIND TARGET ▸ Correlations will highlight certain users groups ▸ The “proﬁling” questions allow you to “know” them

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EXAMPLE ▸ Big picture: most people don’t track coffee consumption ▸ Details: people that do track it also track calories

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EXAMPLE #2 ▸ Big picture: people need an easy way of looking at the schedule ▸ Details: some people always seem to miss the bus

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RINSE & REPEAT ▸ Reﬁne problem, solution & target ▸ Redo with similar and new questions

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HOW DO YOU REACH USERS? ▸ In-app surveys ▸ Email surveys ▸ Street surveys ▸ In-person user workshops

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TALKING TO USERS IS CHEAP! ▸ Building things is very expensive ▸ Building the wrong thing can be disastrous ▸ Talking to users is, comparatively, almost free ▸ It is also perfectly safe

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DON’T A/B TESTS SOLVE THIS? ▸ A/B tests still require you build “something” ▸ You build based on assumption ▸ Not applicable to brand new projects ▸ Some features are difﬁcult to A/B test   (e.g. chat, social features etc.) ▸ Some features require a lot of upfront work

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SUMMARY ▸ Discover, don’t sell ▸ Do this early, do it often ▸ Everyone’s job to get what & why right ▸ Doesn’t replace UX workshops or AB tests