Why you need to understand your users
Ever heard the words “I don’t need the research phase because I know what my users want?” Unfortunately, as a freelance product designer, I hear this way too often. 😕
Let’s say you have an innovative product that you feel will solve your user’s needs and you are super excited about it all and just want to start the process. Well firstly, congrats 👏🏼 , that is amazeballs! But hopefully you’ve taken the time to understand your users. If not, then it’s not too late to do this!
Going through this process can save you from being blindsided by surprises, building the wrong product based on your own assumptions or your own needs, and therefore, potentially having to re-do it all over again and blowing the budget.🤯
Why should you get to know your users?
As a product designer, I have gained research experience to support, organise and lead research sessions for the past 6 years, and I can tell you this now, the phase is critical to a successful UX strategy.
Why do you ask? Ahem, It’s simple! Knowing your users is the key to a great user experience. It provides the baseline data that will drive all design decisions and you simply can’t design the experience unless you have a deep understanding of the people who will be using your product.
You want to make sure that you’re solving a real problem to improve someone's life in order to create a meaningful experience.
If you want a successful startup, eliminating your own assumptions and focusing on your customer's needs is how you start on the right path to building a successful startup. I mean, come on, you’re not designing or building the product for your own needs, right?🤔
So how do you get to know your users?
In short - Ask questions!
There are several methodologies to use when getting to know your users. However, be sure to:
Word your questions carefully and don’t ask any leading questions.
Focus on what they have done will help you understand exactly what they did in the past and uncover their goals, motivations, and pain points.
Dig deeper into their answer by asking follow up questions like “Tell me more about that”, “What do you mean by”, “Why”, “Why not”
Never interrupt your users, put words in their mouth, or finish off their sentences in any way.
Just listen.....listen, listen, listen to them
These are just some high-level tips, and I can dive deeper into this another time. But if you’ve already started your project, and haven’t conducted user research yet, there’s still plenty of time to, back, back, back it up baby! And bring the project back to the user in the middle. It will be the most cost-effective option, then trying to incorporate your users needs and goals at the end.
Without user research, the product’s user experience becomes a whole lot of assumptions as I’ve mentioned briefly above. Great UX does not happen accidentally, it’s a result of validating assumptions so you can create a meaningful experience for your users.
So go get going, uncover those insights and get to know them. 🎉
