Why startups often talk to the wrong users?
This is for the archetype of the customer friendly founder who needs that little bit of help to prevent ‘garbage in, garbage out’.
Ever felt like your startup is speaking a different language from your users? What seemed like promising enthusiasm from your potential users at the start, is somehow failing to convert into real user adoption. It is time to bridge that gap.
What is a good followup to Common UX pitfalls of a startup, I contemplated? I gathered all my notes from conversations I had with startup founders and solopreneurs and started to see a pattern emerge.
The archetype of the customer friendly founder emerged as the one who needs that little bit of help to prevent ‘garbage in, garbage out’.
The customer friendly startup has already drunk the kool aid of research. They go out almost everyday and talk to numerous people who cross their path about their business idea, solution, or even user problem! And most of the information around them often points to one of 2 directions.
Their idea is the best and the users will definitely buy it! or
Their idea is not something some users need, but there is definitely others out there who need this!
However, six months in, and the startups are surprised by struggles of user intent, adoption, engagement, and so on.
“But I did user research! I read that book on customer discovery!” They said.
As a researcher during these conversations, I feel a deluge of suggestions (and also some emotions) wanting to flow out in an attempt to help. Instead of an outpour of “have you considered…?” in the middle of these conversations, I figured I might as well write them down. Some of the patterns I often see are.
Self referential design: Founders often design products for users who are a representation of themselves. This is by far the most common pattern I see. It is a good start but bad strategy. Unfortunately, there are a limited number of similar people out there, and an even smaller subset of those people might consider buying what you sell. Self referential blind spots overlook the need to reach out to different demographics, skill levels, and accessibility segments for instance.
How to avoid: Step1. Repeat to yourself, every opportunity you get, “I am not my user.” Step 2. Go seek out people that will actually buy your product to make their lives easier.
The personal network convenience: The easiest way to tick the customer discovery checkbox, is to reach out to friends, family, and neighbours for their feedback. There are two major problems with this approach.
Your network is often a representation of you…an extension of you. So you are learning nothing new.
Your network wants to be your cheerleader. Unfortunately the way they show support is through minor feedback at best and positive reaffirmation at worst…not money to buy your solution. Which brings me to the next point.
How to avoid: If you have €100 to invest in your business, use at least €5 to seek out true representative users and then pay them for their time. This investment will save you money from building the wrong product to find out much later when it is late.
Absence of/limited inclusivity: Startups unintentionally exclude users with disabilities or diverse backgrounds. Especially if these users are not present in the immediate social and professional network. There is often an upfront investment required to find and talk to diverse users, but it more than pays for itself through wider user reach and a robust design. Think how easy voice operated commands can make everyone’s life whether someone is baking and have hands full, or if someone else needs assistive technology due to a disability. If you haven’t seen Microsoft’s Inclusive design toolkit, you are missing out.
Kat Holmes and team’s inclusive persona spectrum
How to avoid: Be aware of your blind spots (incidental malapropism). One way to train active awareness is to extend user profile templates with statements such as, “What if this user had to/has/must…?”
Early (enthusiastic) adopter effect: Not only founders, but even trained user researchers fall in the trap of correlating product success with early adopter data. This segment typically represents people who are the first to try and buy new things in the market. They often are enthusiastic and hence their feedback is either biased or not representative of the broader target user.
How to avoid: Build upon Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP) by expanding understanding of laggards (last adopters), partners & influencers of target users, non-users, competitors’ customers, and such.
Misinterpretation of feedback: Misinterpretation or selective interpretation is the veritable minefield of bias. An untrained person selects feedback that aligns with their preconceived notions while missing all the gold nuggets of user information that are hidden in plain sight.
How to avoid: Two words. Grounded Theory. Grounded theory is like solving a puzzle without knowing what the final picture looks like. It's about letting the data speak for itself and building a theory based on what's observed, rather than imposing preconceived ideas onto the research. Towards early phases of problem or idea exploration, grounded theory is the best technique in addition to or sometimes in lieu of hypothesis driven exploration.
Just asking plain wrong questions to right users: Let’s say that you have the luxury of access to the right user. Unfortunately all that benefit can be lost by using wrong discovery techniques. Ask any researcher and this will probably be their favorite gripe. Leading questions, priming the user, using a survey instead of contextual inquiry, fixating on features rather than jobs to be done, and the list can go on.
How to avoid: Please hire a qualified and trained professional to design your high risk high impact research so you can prevent ‘Garbage in, Garbage out’. There is a reason why people spend years honing this skillset.
The importance of adopting a user-centric approach grounded in empathy, diversity, and rigorous research practices is often times the key to ensure that new product builders do not end up talking to wrong users. It is like building the foundation of a new home. Sure, it can be modified later when the house becomes unstable. It will be just more expensive.
I help startups and scale-ups get tangible success through user experience by providing expert guidance and hands-on support. Through fractional and interim engagements, you experience the value of UX expertise with minimal risk of investment.
What I read recently
The Product Compass’ solid take on how we end up with so many solutions that customers don’t need