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by 10x-dev 1431 days ago
My 'favorite' silly thing PMs do is UX research studies (typically on 5-10 people) and essentially ask completely untrained people if we should go with X/Y or Z. It's a super-effective way of avoiding responsibility for product decisions ("the data suggest we should go with Y"). If only building good products were as easy as asking what customers think they want.
2 comments
HWR_14 1431 days ago
Either they're doing the UX research wrong or (more likely) you're misunderstanding the process. You don't ask them if you should do X/Y/Z. You ask them to do X in the program, and see that none of them can find widget Y which controls it because they keep clicking on widget Z.

It's about observing the users fumble through your UX when you know their motivation.

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ThalesX 1431 days ago
> It's about observing the users fumble through your UX when you know their motivation.

Some time ago we did such a test. We called 10 customers to our offices and had them do some flows in the application. They didn't fumble. They pretty much did what they had to do and left positive reviews.

That whole thing got scrapped because consultants convinced our CEO that qualitative data is not good for global scoped startups, and that we should be building based on quantitative data.

Honestly, in less than a year, our customer experience was already taking a dive because all the extra little features we would add and strange UI elements, it became a confusing mess and our tracked NPS (Net Promoter Score) showed that. I've since left the company, but I check on them from time to time and they never really recovered and continue doing A | B in the hopes of hitting that sweet spot. It's just an unrecognizable monster at this point in my opinion.

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civilized 1430 days ago
Data analysis is the lowest common denominator of business thinking: the simplest, easiest thing that feels meaningful and objective. Anybody can sum up two lists of numbers in Excel and see which one is bigger.
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10x-dev 1431 days ago
I wish the problem were my misunderstanding the process, because then I could fix it easily by learning more about the process. I do get where you're coming from though.
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throwaway98797 1431 days ago
only listen to customers problems and never their solutions
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