Strategy consultant, marketer, and product planner in the consumer goods and technology industries, Leslie Feinzaig is the Senior Business Planner of Kinect at Microsoft. She has observed, interviewed, and surveyed thousands of people by conducting more than 100 consumer research studies in dozens of countries around the world. She knows what users need.
Leslie Feinzaig
Sponsored by Bing, Mind Reading: Seeing Needs Users Don’t Articulate helped to cut through the clutter of research to better understand how businesses can encourage user feedback and how to meet consumer needs. Using Bing’s insight development practices as a case study, the presentation aimed to discuss techniques for gaining deep understanding of and empathy with customer’s pain to spur product innovations. Among the top lessons of the day were:
- Find out why a user does something, not why they say they do something
- You can’t design products without talking to your users
- You want to observe your extreme users because that is where you can understand the inspiration
Understanding motivation
- Observe pain points to determine which activities are undertaken to address needs
- Observe behavior and question the needs behind the behavior
- Aspirations are generally beyond observable reach, but are highly powerful
Ethnography results from a case study
- Seeks to manage identity: sense of self and reputation
- Seeks to manage mood: escapism and “getting going in the morning”
- Connect with others
- Be more productive
- Stay in-the-know
The last few slides are detailed and interesting.
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