Driving products forward in this way is like blindfolding a team, giving them a stick and hoping they eventually will hit the piñata. The lucky ones might hit it at some point, but inevitably they miss a lot of shots. Very few companies can afford this kind of blindfolded approach.
Know What Problem You Are Solving and For Who
Be as specific as possible on both your idea and your ideal customer.
- Even at an early stage, try to describe the problem you want to solve, the assumptions you have about the problems and sketch out your first customer persona.
Conclusion
Guide your product strategy with customer research
- Customer research shouldn’t be done only in the beginning when you have an idea for a product, it should be done on a continuous basis
- You need to constantly figure out where the market is moving on the macro, meso and micro levels
More resources to explore
Calculating market size
- Business model template
- Competitor research
- User interviews
- UX Researcher Leisa Reichelt does an excellent newsletter on design and user research with links to articles
- A summary of these can be found in his slides
Meso level in summary
Create detailed user personas
- Research your competitors and segment them
- Check out competitors’ product descriptions, product demo videos and press releases
- Compile a value proposition with your competitors
- Compare your own value proposition to see what differentiates your product
Compare your value proposition
Analyze what competitors do right and wrong
- Year founded, no. of employees, size of clients, product offerings, strengths and weaknesses
- Learn more about how competitors address your target audience
- Be aware of your own product’s benefits and base marketing material and product pitches on this knowledge
The three levels of customer research
Macro: Learn more about
- Meso: Look into
- Buyers and user personas
- Online user communities
- Competitors
- Micro: Gain knowledge from
- Customer interviews
- Surveys
- Industry conferences
- If you have unlimited access to users, you can spend less time on this level and more on the other two
Save your product presentation to the end
Spend the majority of time in these interviews on asking questions, observing and listening.
- When you learn more about interviewees’ needs, you can frame your presentation with the same pain points and needs they pointed out earlier in the conversation.
Industry reports
Market reports can be incredibly expensive, so look for summaries, blog posts, and articles that refer to the reports to get a snapshot of what’s important
- Google “market report for [market x]” for a more clear picture of market size and opportunities
Macro level in summary
Google “market reports for [market x]”
B2B research can be a bumpy road
It might be hard to get in touch with your target customers and users.
- You must do a little more research before you contact and approach users
- The Sherlock Holmes approach is the best way forward in acquiring as much information as possible about your target customer from different sources
Conferences
Industry conferences are another great way to meet your customers
The Sherlock Holmes Approach
Approach your product idea with great curiosity and wonder, and investigate all signals as part of a bigger puzzle.
Micro level: Interviews, surveys and conferences
This is the micro level of customer research. Hear things straight from the horse’s mouth.
Questions to ask
The number one rule for engaging with customers is relationship building. Be polite, ask questions with genuine interest, and be empathic when you ask your questions.
- See your interviewees as complete human beings. Ask them questions such as: Tell me about your background, what did you do before starting at company x?
Meso level: User and competitor research
B2B customer research on the meso level
- Learn more about personas, how to conduct user research from your laptop, and how to work with competitor research.
- Find out more about market size, industry trends, and key terms
Trends
Find out what trends are evolving within your market
Buyers vs. users
Who will buy your product vs. who will use it?
- Find out what job titles these profiles have
- What terms they use to describe their work and what their educational backgrounds are.
- Collecting this information can help paint a picture of who your target users are
Micro level in summary
Use your existing user research to prepare an interview guide
Surveys
Another way to learn more about their needs and pain points.
- If you can get a hold on your target audience via established industry networks, or contact users manually via professional networks such as LinkedIn – surveys can be a useful way to gain insights from many participants.
Online User Communities
Where would my users go to gain new knowledge or share his/her professional interests with like-minded people?
- Learn about what they struggle with, what they need, and what they use to communicate their struggles
- Use this information to propel customer research forward
Competitor analysis
Read competitors’ product descriptions and customer case studies, and look for product demo videos on Youtube.
- Follow each competitor on Crunchbase.com and enable Google Alerts every time a competitor is mentioned in a new link on Google.com.
Customer interviews
Direct conversations with customers and end-users to understand user pain points and needs
- Interviews are thick data: extract qualitative data that communicate insights and stories from your target audience
- Ask follow-up questions to make sure you understand the details of what your customers are saying
Market Size
Calculate the realistic market size of your product idea by taking the total number of the market and placing a (conservative) guess on what your share might be.
- This is not a very accurate approach, use the bottom-up approach to estimate your share of that market and find competitors’ prices.
Market segmentation
Divide the market into different segments and choose one segment that you would like to target to begin with.
- Figure out what that specific market segment does today, and how much it pays already or is willing to pay to solve this need.
- Small company owners is a quite broad audience.
