Imagine you’re planning your next vacation: what kind of research would you do?
Pricing, ratings, locations, weather—they are all part of a research process. I can’t imagine myself walking into a random hotel assuming they have a pool. Or an available room. Or that I can afford it.
All decisions, big and small, come with a certain level of risk, and a risk without a strategy becomes a gamble. Businesses gamble when they make decisions without evidence. They're hoping their assumptions, and luck, will have a positive outcome. Businesses gamble because they believe they know what their customers want.
When you rely on research, you don’t have to gamble—you can influence the odds all by yourself. All you need are some good questions and an engaged audience, and you can have your answers in less than a week.
People can often see user research as resource-intensive. They assume that any kind of research they conduct will be time-consuming and expensive. But research can be as big or small as it needs to be; the amount of necessary research often correlates with the size of the risk.
There are many ways to answer your questions, and they don’t all take days to finish. You can find quick, quality answers by:
Research doesn’t only give you answers, but it can also make future research more efficient. The insights will show you where to focus and which methods are most effective. Interviews and surveys are better when designed with as much contextual information as possible.
If you don’t have the support of a research team, it’s hard to know how to start the process.
There are many ways to get data, and finding that data starts with asking good questions. Begin with what you know. What is the current state? What are the known unknowns? Collaborate with others to focus on areas of least visibility and most risk. You’re looking to write a wishlist of research questions.
Research questions have a broad focus on a specific topic and have data-backed answers. “What percentage of commuters ride their bike to work?” is a research question, while “How do you commute to work?” is an interview or survey question. You know you have a research question when the answer makes a good data point: “23% of our users ride their bike to work.”
“We did a survey once, and no one used it.”
Don’t give up! Surveys are challenging to get right the first time. People don’t engage with surveys that take a long time or that have nonspecific and jargony questions. They especially won’t engage if there’s no benefit from finishing the survey.
The key to strong engagement is finding the right incentive for the right audience. Offering rewards like gift cards and discounts can motivate people to start a survey. People finish surveys when they feel knowledgeable about the topic and don’t have to make ambiguous assumptions. For example, “From a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to buy from our competitor?” is unanswerable, not only because of its vague scale, but because it’s asking someone to predict the future.
Effective research doesn’t have to be long and complicated. By asking the right questions, you can gather meaningful insights from your audience. Those insights help inform your future efforts and stay focused on what matters most.
Think about planning your vacation again. Can you really enjoy it if you have questions at work about your product or roadmap? Uncertainties and assumptions can lead to hesitation and costly mistakes.
What questions can we help you answer that will add value to your business and help you move forward with confidence? Let’s talk.