I love the word discovery. To me, it conveys uncharted territory and exploration. If I seek to discover, I have a mind open to new ideas, and I expect to be surprised by what I find. Add the word “customer” before discovery and I am poised to learn extraordinary things from my customer.
While a business may say they are listening to their customers, they really spend more time talking at them than truly listening. The focus group is a classic example of this; the ones I conducted were filled with presentations from us and superficial feedback from our customers because we didn’t give them room to explore. That is because listening is an ill-used skill in the corporate world. And listening to learn, with a mind open to challenges of our preconceived notions, is especially missing from our work. I have been on a mission to listen to customers and what I have discovered is delightful.
What Can You Discover from your Customers?
An organization that was exploring an assessment app discovered that what their customer really needed was a better way to communicate their observations from the field. An operations organization that was deploying lean discovered that instead of more training, their employees wanted tools that helped them test out the methodology in their own personal lives. An innovation team discovered that their users’ pain points stemmed from a misunderstood policy rather than a lack of expertise. A communications team discovered that if they wanted to reach their Hispanic audience, a simple translation would not do; this audience approached their subject completely different from their English speaking counterparts.
One well-known case study was of a business in the early ‘80’s who wanted to develop shampoo for kids. They tried all kinds of crazy scents and formulas with no luck. So they went and visited their customers in their homes. One father they visited was trying to get his kids in the bath at the end of the day but the kids were resisting – bath time meant playtime was over. Aha! This father didn’t care much about scents but he would love something that would help him get the kids in the bath by making it fun. So the team created the first cartoon character shampoo bottles and they flew off the shelf.
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Had these teams been testing their assumed solutions rather than listening for customer pain points and work arounds, they would have completely missed the point. So how did they do it? Did they just stumble upon these discoveries? Actually, there is a systematic approach to customer discovery that will allow you to uncover these type of invaluable insights.
there is a systematic approach to customer discovery that will allow you to uncover invaluable insights
- Ask your customers about the task they are doing, their job-to-be-done. The father in the shampoo example was trying to get his kids ready for bed quickly so he could relax.
- Ask what success means to them in this task. What makes them feel like this is a job well done? The father wants his kids to go to bed on time, clean and happy.
- Ask about outcomes they try to avoid. The father doesn’t want to have to be the bad guy – he wants to continue the fun as much as his kids do.
- Observe customers as they complete their task from start to finish. What pain points or work arounds do they encounter? The father had toys in the bathtub for his kids, but they weren’t that fun and they weren’t part of them getting clean.
- Ask why? Why do they do it that way? Why is this task important to them?
- Have many different team members talk to customers. Make it everyone’s job to collect these insights; they will all see something different.
- Gather the team to coalesce what you heard and what you saw. Look for themes and pain points that might be shared by a broader set of customers.
- Continue to test your ideas and assumptions with your customers – make them a part of your development team.
What amazing things have you discovered about your customers?
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