science experiment

Productive research doesn’t happen by accident

When you’re trying to launch or improve a product, service, or solution, carrying out customer/client/constituent research can lead to crucial, system-shaping insights. But not all research is created equal. There’s research that helps you understand and navigate and there’s also superficial, mediocre, I’ve-heard-research-is-important-but-I’d-like-to-get-on-with-it research. If you’re going to research, do it right; otherwise, why bother? Here are a couple of simple rules to make sure your investment in time and energy pays off.

Figure out your assumptions by crafting hypotheses

Assumptions are often blindspots, places we know so well we don’t even really look at them any more. Trying to write down your hypotheses — your educated guesses about why your product/service/idea is worthwhile — can help pull those assumptions into the light.

Take the time to craft a script

If you really want to make your research repeatable, you’ll want to use a script. I don’t mean that you should read woodenly from the teleprompter. But an outline of where you are and where you’re going will help you make sure you hit all the important points in your conversation. A script also makes it easier to compare one interview to the next, especially if more than one person is doing the interviewing.

I’ve written up a customer interview script in Google Docs, (click on the image below), which you’re free to copy and use. Let me know if you find it useful!

 

 

Work with a colleague

It’s good practice to do research with a little team — at least one other person. Being on a call or in the room together when interviewing means you can catch gaps if the other person forgets to ask something; you can pick up on a conversational lead that the other one misses; you can compensate for each other’s blind spots; and, afterwards, you can confirm your sense of the interview — the high or low emotional points, any surprises or confirmations, the overall take-home.

Use open-ended questions

When you’re crafting the questions for your script, try to make them open-ended — that is to say, questions that can’t be answered in a word or two, but rather require an interviewee to say something in their own words. Instead of asking, “Did you like using the product?” you could ask, “Tell me about the first time you used the product.” Instead of asking, “Was that new service easy to use?” you could ask, “How would you describe your experience using the new service?”

Opening the conversation to their words and thoughts, instead of just repeating or confirming your own, will give you a much richer set of results.

Be willing to take detours

Everybody loves Terry Gross, the host of NPR’s “Fresh Air.” I love her, too. I think she’s a great interviewer — except for one thing. When something unexpected comes up in an interview, she often acknowledges it but then keeps on with the original direction of the interview. I find myself shouting in the car, “No! Ask him more about that!” Be willing to follow an interesting fork in your interview. It helps you hear what’s really important to the human being in front of you, and it can sometimes lead to the most cogent and enlightening moment of your conversation.

Remember that other people have different brains

I talk about that more here.