EP6: Top 8 Customer Research Mistakes

Customer research can be an absolute game changer. It gives you insight into not only what your current customers think of your product, but also who they are, what they want, and how you can better serve them and others in the future. But not every type of customer research is right.

In this episode of In Demand, Asia Orangio of DemandMaven breaks down 8 ways that you might be doing your customer research wrong and how you can update your research to upgrade your results. 

TLDR; 

• [1:20] - #1  You’re not doing customer research at all 
  • If you’re not doing research, you can be sure what you’re customers think about your product and business. You’re not only missing out on improving your product now, but you’re liking missing the big picture on where you should go in the future.  
• [4:42] - #2 - You’re asking the wrong questions 
  • There are lots of resources outlining customer research questions to ask, but asking general questions won’t get you the information you need to solve your specific challenges.
• [7:26] - #3 You’re not digging deep enough 
  • In a research interview, you will often get vague answers like “It made my life easier”, as a founder you need to know the specifics of what you’re customers are thinking, so don’t be afraid to follow up and don’t just accept the first response you get if you don’t fully understand.
• [10:18] - #4 You’re answering questions for your customers 
  • When you’re doing a customer interview, it’s natural that some awkward moments come up. And it’s human nature to fill awkward moments with words. But when we do that in a customer interview we influence the responses we get back. 
• [14:21] - #5 You’re not taking the feedback objectively
  • If you built the product yourself, it’s easy to critical feedback personally. Instead, once you have the feedback you need to take a step back and put it into context. What are the patterns? Who are the outliers? Don’t let your prior viewpoint influence the answers you get back from customers.
• [ 21:14] - #6 - You’re the only one doing the interviewing
  • At the end of the day a customer interview is a conversation, and the interviewer is one half of the conversation. So if you have one person doing all of the interviewers they will likely be missing information because they have the same blinds spots. A strong customer research process allows for this by having more than one person interviewing.
• [24:31] - #7 - You’re not recording or sharing your interviews 
  • When we recount an interview we filter out information. And when you do that you miss crucial details. If you have a team, more than one person should be watching an interview and even if you are a solo founder right now, if you expect to grow, start recording your interviews for the future. 
• [28:00] - #8 - You stop after just a few interviews
  • You can do a set of customer interviews, learn lots, implement it, but as you grow you inevitably attract new types of customers. So you need to be connecting with your customers frequently. Product market fit isn’t a state you enter, it’s an ongoing process, that means customer research should be too. 
• [31:30] - Quick review