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User Research for Entrepreneurs

User interviews are an effective way to gather raw data on customer needs. The document outlines four steps for needs identification: gather data, interpret the data, organize needs by type, and establish importance. It recommends conducting interviews with 5-20 stakeholders to understand current behaviors, pain points, and the customer journey. After interpreting the interview data, needs should be organized and prioritized to help design products that truly meet user requirements and achieve product-market fit.

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Ridhya Mahajan
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106 views9 pages

User Research for Entrepreneurs

User interviews are an effective way to gather raw data on customer needs. The document outlines four steps for needs identification: gather data, interpret the data, organize needs by type, and establish importance. It recommends conducting interviews with 5-20 stakeholders to understand current behaviors, pain points, and the customer journey. After interpreting the interview data, needs should be organized and prioritized to help design products that truly meet user requirements and achieve product-market fit.

Uploaded by

Ridhya Mahajan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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UNDERSTANDING USER

NEEDS
Professor Kartik Hosanagar

WHARTON ONLINE Entrepreneurship  


Four Steps of Needs Identification*
•  Gather raw data from customers
•  Interpret the data
•  Organize the needs by type
•  Establish relative importance of the needs

*Source:  Product  Design  and  Development,  Ulrich  and  Eppinger  


WHARTON ONLINE Entrepreneurship  
How to Gather Raw Data on Customer Needs
•  Surveys
–  Good for specific questions like pricing and product features
but less useful in opportunity identification
•  Focus Groups with 8-10 customers
–  Highly productive but expensive
•  Interviews
–  1-on-1 format
–  Cheap, effective and fast

WHARTON ONLINE Entrepreneurship  


Interviews: Who and How Many
•  Who to interview?
–  All relevant stakeholders (eventual
user but also buyer, installation,
advisor)
–  Do not assume customer segment
of interest
•  Is there a right number?
–  Looking for qualitative information
and not statistical inference
–  Interview anywhere from 5 to 20
subjects

*Source:  Product  Design  and  


Development,  Ulrich  and  Eppinger  

WHARTON ONLINE Entrepreneurship  


Best Practices During Interview
•  Forget the product concept you have in mind and focus on user
need
•  No leading questions
•  Ask about current behavior rather than speculating about future
•  Ask for specific examples rather than generalizations

WHARTON ONLINE Entrepreneurship  


Interview Content
•  User behavioral patterns
–  Personas: Includes some information that you associate with
customer segments – demographics, roles – but also
behavioral patterns
•  Identify the steps in customer journey or experience
–  What the customer actually does in each step
–  Pain point & emotion in each step

WHARTON ONLINE Entrepreneurship  


After the Interview

Establish relative
Organize the
Interpret the data importance of
needs by type
the needs

WHARTON ONLINE Entrepreneurship  


Summary

•  User research through interviews can save time & money


•  Helping prioritize user requirements
•  Avoid building features you think are important but not relevant to user
•  Reduce the number of product iterations needed to arrive at product-
market fit

WHARTON ONLINE Entrepreneurship  


WHARTON ONLINE Entrepreneurship  

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