I’m giving an attendee talk on this at MicroConf in a few weeks! Y’all should come :)
Ask HN: How do you know what your users want?
11–13 of 13 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you know what your users want?
#12I will once again be a contrarian and suggest that focusing on need mentioned in a previous answer is barking up the wrong tree. To me, as a results driven marketer, that's an ineffective corporate-think mentality.
People buy based on emotions and justify their purchase decisions with logic.
When marketing, always sell to the want, never to the need.
For example: People need shampoo. What they really want is to have shinier, more full bodied, luxurious hair. What do they buy? Of course they buy not just shampoo that will get their hair clean, they buy shampoo marketed to appeal to their want, that promises to deliver the results they desire and make them sexier (at least in their own minds).
To discover wants, do keyword research on your product topic and explore the conversations around those keywords in forums, blogs and in various social media streams, as well as in the pages of the top listings for those keywords in the search engines.
Look for the emotional drivers that people are talking about around your potential product.
Also, simply ask large numbers of people what it is they want in a given product category. Post open ended questions on forums, blogs and in social media and accumulate and correlate the answers you receive.
You'll learn a great deal doing those two things and be better positioned to deliver a winner.
Re: Ask HN: How do you know what your users want?
#13"Who are you users?" would be the first question to ask. That would help on determining what questions to ask next. For example with most SaaS products, Ford's quote "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses" is very applicable, meaning people often a limited by their knowledge and personal experience and can't see solutions beyond those, so if you ask them what they want you won't hear what would make a good product. In other industries it can be pretty straightforward, if you are old enough you would remember questionnaires your parents used to fill in for exchange of free products (I think it was P&G) answering all sort of questions about what products they use in their daily life from soap to dishwashing liquid, what would they want improved, what's their favourite smell and whatever you can think of (that then went to phone and I imagine now online).
So my advice would be, ask who is your user first. Then pick the next question.