Product Research Rules! MtPCon London 2019

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Product Research C. Todd Lombardo — @iamctodd

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“Are we building the right thing?” @iamctodd — Martin Eriksson, earlier today

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Meet Bill

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Meet Bill Serial entrepreneur

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Meet Bill Serial entrepreneur Worked for Steve Jobs

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Meet Bill Serial entrepreneur Worked for Steve Jobs Fifteen years in Silicon Valley

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Meet Bill Serial entrepreneur Worked for Steve Jobs Fifteen years in Silicon Valley Sold a startup for $850 million… at age 29

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I literally don’t think there’s anything to be learned from other people’s stuff.” — Bill Nguyen “

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“On first blush, there's almost zero chance we return to this app. Our friends aren't in it. It's confusing. Sharing photos isn't easy or intuitive. It's not very fun. — Business Insider

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Within 30 minutes I realized.. We totally fucked up. I thought we were going to build a better Facebook. My reaction was like putting your finger into a light socket. You know something went very wrong. — Bill Nguyen “

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Research Sprints 8

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KILLEDBYGOOGLE.COM

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GCEMETERY.CO

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We’re Not Good at This… STANDISH GROUP Always 7 % Often 13 % Sometimes 16 % Rarely 19 % Never 45 %

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Why Products Fail No market need Ran out of cash Not the right team Got outcompeted Pricing/cost issue Poor product Lack a business model Poor marketing Ignore Customers entrepreneur.com & cbinsights.com

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Research is expensive!

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Research is expensive! We already know.

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Research is expensive! We already know. It will take too long!

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Do you want waste 45% of your resources?? No? Then do some f*cking research!! @iamctodd

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Product” Research?! “

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Studious inquiry or examination; especially investigation or experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, revision of accepted theories or laws in the light of new facts, or practical application of such new or revised theories or laws. — Merriam Webster

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What people do? Qualitative Understanding User Research

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Market Research What markets do? Quantitative Framing

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Product Analytics Usage of a product Quantitative Trends & Patterns

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User Research Market Research Product Analytics Product Research

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User Research Market Research Product Analytics Generative Exploratory Descriptive Descriptive Descriptive Evaluative Causal Diagnostic Predictive Predictive Prescriptive

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Start with a beginner’s mind @iamctodd

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Meet C. Todd

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Meet C. Todd Serial product guy

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Meet C. Todd Serial product guy Did not work for Steve Jobs

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Meet C. Todd Serial product guy Did not work for Steve Jobs Fifteen years in startups & enterprises

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Meet C. Todd Serial product guy Did not work for Steve Jobs Fifteen years in startups & enterprises Grew product from $5M to $36M.. in 30 months

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Prepare to be wrong # 1 Because you will be. Humans prefer to be right than do right. Check your ego. Check your assumptions. @iamctodd

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I was totally wrong. I was just wrong. See, I don’t have a problem being wrong.” — Bill Nguyen “

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In order to be wrong, you need an understanding of what you already know. @iamctodd

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Meet Catt

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Meet Catt Ace designer & developer

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Meet Catt Ace designer & developer Works for large marketplace platform

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Meet Catt Ace designer & developer Works for large marketplace platform Fourteen years in gaming, design, and tech

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Meet Catt Ace designer & developer Works for large marketplace platform Fourteen years in gaming, design, and tech Learned to code when she was 10

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Available Data Annual surveys, social media, customer forums, customer emails, product analytics, interviews

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Available Data Annual surveys, social media, customer forums, customer emails, product analytics, interviews I can't find my listing and search in the rankings and results! Did they change the search algorithm?

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Identiﬁed Problem Marketplace sellers didn't understand how they were being discovered by buyers Available Data Annual surveys, social media, customer forums, customer emails, product analytics, interviews I can't find my listing and search in the rankings and results! Did they change the search algorithm?

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Identiﬁed Problem Marketplace sellers didn't understand how they were being discovered by buyers Available Data Annual surveys, social media, customer forums, customer emails, product analytics, interviews Research Question How do sellers learn how to market themselves? I can't find my listing and search in the rankings and results! Did they change the search algorithm?

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# 2 Get Curious with Your Data Start with the data you have. Generate questions to answer. Settle on a research question to answer. @iamctodd

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What you ask and how you speak matters. @iamctodd

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So, what do you think of this feature? Would you use this new feature? How would you design this? How likely are you to recommend this…

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CREDIT: MASS CHALLENGE

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I See You Have A Coffee Cup. We Make Coffee. Would You Like To Buy A Coffee? CREDIT: MASS CHALLENGE

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Transactional I See You Have A Coffee Cup. We Make Coffee. Would You Like To Buy A Coffee? CREDIT: MASS CHALLENGE

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Transactional I See You Have A Coffee Cup. We Make Coffee. Would You Like To Buy A Coffee? Wouldn´t It Be Cool If You Had A Premium Cold- Brew Coffee To Fill That Cup? CREDIT: MASS CHALLENGE

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Transactional I See You Have A Coffee Cup. We Make Coffee. Would You Like To Buy A Coffee? Conﬁrmational Wouldn´t It Be Cool If You Had A Premium Cold- Brew Coffee To Fill That Cup? CREDIT: MASS CHALLENGE

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Transactional I See You Have A Coffee Cup. We Make Coffee. Would You Like To Buy A Coffee? Conﬁrmational Wouldn´t It Be Cool If You Had A Premium Cold- Brew Coffee To Fill That Cup? Tell Me More About That Cup. What Do You Usually Drink Out Of It? CREDIT: MASS CHALLENGE

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Transactional I See You Have A Coffee Cup. We Make Coffee. Would You Like To Buy A Coffee? Conﬁrmational Wouldn´t It Be Cool If You Had A Premium Cold- Brew Coffee To Fill That Cup? Diagnostic Tell Me More About That Cup. What Do You Usually Drink Out Of It? CREDIT: MASS CHALLENGE

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CREDIT: MASS CHALLENGE

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Transactional Conﬁrmational Diagnostic CREDIT: MASS CHALLENGE

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Interviews, Not Interrogations # 5 Put your journalist cap on. Ask “Tell me about…” questions. STFU and listen. @iamctodd

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What people say is not as telling as what people do. Humans are unreliable. @iamctodd

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Go Beyond Interviews # 6 Interviews only tell so much. Walk in their shoes. Literally. Learn by participation, your and/or theirs. @iamctodd

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Share what you learnt. @iamctodd

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Move the search bar from bottom left to the top right

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Research Findings Hi Perry, Please find our research report attached. You can view the prototype showing our suggestions at the following link. http://prototype.link/dkJd2ao Regards, C. Todd User research report 13-11-2016.docx [Auto-saved]

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Inspire Actions thru Insights # 8 Don’t just write a report! Facts don’t move people. Stories and co-creation do. Focus on insights that inspire actions. @iamctodd

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You’re only as good as your last performance. @iamctodd

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Meet Jeff

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Meet Jeff Works at AppCues

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Meet Jeff Works at AppCues Cut teeth as Wistia's Director of Customer Happiness

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Meet Jeff Works at AppCues Cut teeth as Wistia's Director of Customer Happiness Runs user sessions last Wednesday of every month

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Meet Jeff Works at AppCues Cut teeth as Wistia's Director of Customer Happiness Runs user sessions last Wednesday of every month Be like Jeff

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“When a user asked, ´What’s this button for?´ an engineer responded with a perfect non- leading follow up: ´I’m not sure. What would you think it’s for?´ I nearly fell out of my chair. — Tristan Howard, Former Designer at AppCues

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Make it a Habit # 9 Continuous delivery discovery! Employ a more frequent cadence. Each question answered uncovers more questions. @iamctodd

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Prepare to be Wrong Get Curious with Data Match Method to Outcome Prepare then Improvise Interviews, Not Interrogations Go Beyond Interviews Analyze Together Inspire Action with Insights Make it a Habit

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LEARN BUILD MEASURE PRODUCT DATA IDEAS THE LEAN STARTUP What we think happens

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LEARN BUILD MEASURE PRODUCT PRODUCT PRODUCT CREDIT: WOLF BREUNING BUILD BUILD What actually happens