The Right Method at the Right Time

Getting the most useful feedback from your customers

Cindy AlvarezPCamp Silicon Valley - April 2011

product completeness

scalability

Open-ended customer interviews

When to use this:•No product yet - still in concept stage

•Have a product, but need non-incremental improvement

• Inherited a product, need to understand your market

You want to learn...

•What’s the current alternative?

•How effective is their current behavior?

•What are their frustrations?

•Who are the stakeholders?

•What do they really wish they could do?

More questions at: http://bit.ly/9D5h83

Do’s and Don’ts

Do

• Be personal

• Ask specific questions

• Give explicit permission to talk

• Follow the emotion!

Don’t

• Talk about your product

• Ask yes/no questions

Customer prototype preview

When to use this:•Built a prototype based on learnings from open-ended

interviews

•Have existing customers, trying to cross-sell/up-sell

You want to learn...

•Does the narrative of your product make sense to the customer?

•How customers see themselves using your product

•Now that customers can see what they’d be getting, what are the specific constraints?

Do’s and Don’ts

Do

• Tell a story

• Be opinionated / take a stand

• Follow the emotion!

Don’t

• Start with the prototype

• Promise features and timelines

On-site feedback

When to use this:•Have a prototype, looking for beta customers

•Have a product, need to hear from “silent majority”

•Workflows can’t be realistically simulated (money, health, data)

Tools:•KISSinsights, Wufoo, 4Q, Kampyle, UserVoice/

GetSatisfaction

You want to learn...

•What’s making potential customers hesitate?

•What’s slowing down customer usage?

•Demographic information

•Real-time customer satisfaction

•“Little niggling things” that customers wouldn’t file a bug for

Do’s and Dont’s

Do

• Ask specific questions that align with what customer is doing

• Focus on the single most important thing you need to know

Don’t

• Make customers do work

• Let customers vote without guidance

Heatmap Tracking

When to use this:•Product and significant customer traffic

• Inherited product, no idea what’s wrong / where to start

Tools:•Crazy Egg, ClickTale

You want to learn...

•Are customers noticing calls to action, next steps, critical content?

•Where are customers abandoning forms and actions?

•What is attracting the most customer attention?

Do’s and Don’ts

Do

• Form hypotheses about how you can adjust user behavior

• Set up split tests to confirm and improve

Analytics

When to use this:•Have a product, significant customer traffic

•Need to balance out VOC, HiPPO requests

Tools:•KISSmetrics, Google Analytics, CoreMetrics, Performable,

Omniture

You want to learn...

•Which channels are bringing you visitors who successfully convert into customers?

•Where are customers dropping out of signup / purchase / learning curve processes?

•Which core features are customers able to use?

•Which customers are most likely to succeed with your product?

More questions at: http://bit.ly/fqXj5z

Do’s and Dont’s

Do

• Identify the most profitable / desirable actions that you need your customers to do

• Start with questions you need answered

Don’t

• Stress about benchmark data / how do I compare to...?

• Measure things where you can’t take action against them

Thank You!

http://www.cindyalvarez.comcindy@cindyalvarez.com