Business Problem 2-Group Work

Getting out of the Building

What to do when you’re “getting out of the building”

What can we learn from users?

• Where will our product fit in their work or life?
• What problems will our product solve?
• When and how will our product used?
• What features are important?
• How to frame an effective conversation
• Before
  • Identify who do you want to talk to and what you want to learn
  • During
  • Use conversation starters instead of prepared questions
  • Listen more than you talk
  • Capture your observations (index cards work well)
  • Collect artifacts (photos, screenshots, work product)
  • If you have something to show/demo, do it after the open-ended conversation
  • After
  • Debrief and share what you’re learning with your team
  • DO’s and DON’TS
  • DO Spend time with your users “early and often”
  • DO Create a conversation, not an interrogation
  • DO Maintain a “beginner’s mind”
  • DO Use your visits for multiple purposes
  • DON’T Ask what features people want
  • DON’T Ask users to talk theoretically about what they might do

Identify the need behind the feature request

• User: What I really need is feature x...”
• You: “If you had feature x, what would that allow you to do?”