Shut The Hell Up & Other Tips for Learning From Users

Shut The Hell Upand other tips for testing your product

Laura Klein@lauraklein

[email protected]://www.usersknow.com

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

mailto:[email protected]


http://usersknow.blogspot.com


You Suck At Talking To Users

@lauraklein

For example, you probably think you’re supposed to talk to users.


Sometimes You Suck At Validating Your Ideas

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You Sell Your Idea

@lauraklein

You should: Allow the user to tell you what she thinks the product does and what it could do for her.


You Lead The User

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You should: Let the user lead.

Bad: Aren’t dogs the best?Good: How do you feel about dogs?


You Make A Lot Of Assumptions

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You should: Ask a lot of questions.

Bad: You love walking your dog.Good: How do you feel about walking your dog?Even Better: What was it like the last time you

walked your dog?


You Make The User Imagine

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You should: Give the user something to react to

Bad: How would you feel about a product that blah blah blah?

Good: Take a look at this picture/prototype/product and tell me what you think


Sometimes You Suck At Getting Feedback On Your Product Or

Prototype

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You Give A Guided Tour

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You should: Let the User explore!

Bad: Let me show you how this works.Good: Take a few minutes to play with it and tell me

what it does.


You Help The User

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You should: Let the user fail.

Bad: No, you click on this button.Good: What do you think you should do?


You Sound Kind Of Defensive

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You should: Make sure the user doesn’t feel judged. It’s not her fault your product sucks.

(I think we all know whose fault that is.)


You Ask Yes Or No Questions

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You should: Ask open ended questions.

Bad: Do you love my product?Worse: Don’t you love my product?

Good: How do you feel about this product?


Sometimes You Just Suck

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You Talk To The Wrong People

@lauraklein

You should: Recruit and screen participants to make sure you’re talking to people who will be helpful with

the type of research you’re doing.


You Don’t Follow Up

@lauraklein

You should: Understand why your user feels the way she does.

User: This is cool!You: What’s cool about it?

User: [Something incredibly useful and insightful]


You Ignore Results You Don’t Like

@lauraklein

You should: Design your test in a way that will force you to believe your results.


You Don’t Act On Your Findings

@lauraklein

You should: Implement critical changes before you see the problems over and over again in testing.


You Talk Too Much

@lauraklein

You should: Shut the hell up.


Questions?You know where to find me...

@[email protected]

http://www.usersknow.com

pssst...this will all be in the book! To be published by O’Reilly in early 2013.






Exercise!

@lauraklein

•Form Groups of 3

•First person interviews second person for 5-10 minutes

•Third person takes notes on any mistakes & gives a critique

•Switch roles (everyone interviews, is interviewed, and critiques)

•Ask for help if you need it

•Please be nice to each other. This is hard!


Shut The Hell Up & Other Tips for Learning From Users

Education

user lead

user doesnt

user fail

lauraklein exercise

laurakleinyou dont

product sucks

laurakleinyou talk

product laura klein