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Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

#81

Post by MailleQuiMaille »

germinalphrase wrote: post #80
goldenchrome wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suggest you look into “UX Research”. That’s precisely the role described by the parent comment. They work on a product team with designers, engineers, and PMs to help everyone else understand the needs of the user. They also help define who the user should be based on the needs of different kinds of users. It’s a pretty important role in most user-facing tech companies.

I absolutely will. I’ve looked at UX more generally as a possible career alternative and believe I would be good at it. Can you speak at all to the career prospects/lifestyle of UXR?

In terms of career prospects, you'd work with a lot of designers and product managers, so you could expect similar growths.

I personnaly find this work very fulfilling, as it blends my social science expertise and my tech passion. And if anything, this thread and the answers are the living proof that the job will be needed for a while !

Re: Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

#82

Post by AussieWog93 »

testmasterflex wrote: post #76
AussieWog93 wrote: post #50

I launched a crowdfunded product back in 2017 that has kept going for the past 5 years, and I've never had this problem at all. Random people email me all the time (at least 3-5 times per week, even now) with information about bugs/feature requests, or just to say hi/thanks and show off their projects made with it. Comparing my site ( https://espotek.com ) to yours, yours is much more "corporate" looking and doesn't…

As a fellow hardware founder, may I ask your revenue on that? Or some ball park number of how many you sell? I understand if it’s private.

I sell about 100k USD worth of hardware a year. Of that, profit is something like 50k USD.

This is just a hobby project now (my main business is second-hand and refurbished video games, of all things), so I'm very happy with those figures.

Just as a side note, I think the main thing other hardware founders get wrong is logistics. They don't keep the right amount of hardware in stock to account for the incredibly bursty sales they receive, and fail to make use of 3PL to reach a global audience.

If you want to have a chat about this, feel free to shoot me an email (link in bio).

Re: Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

#83

Post by AussieWog93 »

jasfi wrote: post #71
AussieWog93 wrote: post #50

I launched a crowdfunded product back in 2017 that has kept going for the past 5 years, and I've never had this problem at all. Random people email me all the time (at least 3-5 times per week, even now) with information about bugs/feature requests, or just to say hi/thanks and show off their projects made with it. Comparing my site ( https://espotek.com ) to yours, yours is much more "corporate" looking and doesn't…

Which crowd funding platform did you use?

Crowd Supply.

Could not recommend them more for hardware projects like this.

They were ridiculously hands-on and actively made sure the campaign was a success - to the point of editing my writing and giving useful, actionable feedback on the pricing. The big platforms like Kickstarter/IGG just don't give a fuck about you.

Re: Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

#84

Post by jasfi »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #83
jasfi wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which crowd funding platform did you use?

Crowd Supply. Could not recommend them more for hardware projects like this. They were ridiculously hands-on and actively made sure the campaign was a success - to the point of editing my writing and giving useful, actionable feedback on the pricing. The big platforms like Kickstarter/IGG just don't give a fuck about you.

They look great! Too bad they're hardware only.

Re: Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

#85

Post by olvy0 »

AmadsSalvage wrote: post #48
cascom wrote: post #45

Slightly off topic, and talking to users is the first step, be careful what you wish for. As an example, I subscribe(d) to NYT Cooking, they solicited my feedback on the search functionality (which is broken - full on broken, search for omelette and only one of the first six results is for an omelette, filter for low carb, no omelettes come up, etc.) I got so pissed writing my review (realizing I was paying monthly f…

This and some other comments definitely are reminiscent of the effect of the "Cahiers de doléances"[1][2], aka "Books of Grievances". Ahead of the outbreak of Revolution, King Louis XVI of France sent out a call for feedback from his people of all levels of society. He genuinely meant well, but largely it just got the people thinking about all the things that were wrong with society, which only fueled public anger in…

Thank you, this is a very interesting part of history I wasn't aware of.

Re: Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

#86

Post by germinalphrase »

MailleQuiMaille wrote: post #81
germinalphrase wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I absolutely will. I’ve looked at UX more generally as a possible career alternative and believe I would be good at it. Can you speak at all to the career prospects/lifestyle of UXR?

In terms of career prospects, you'd work with a lot of designers and product managers, so you could expect similar growths. I personnaly find this work very fulfilling, as it blends my social science expertise and my tech passion. And if anything, this thread and the answers are the living proof that the job will be needed for a while !

Glad to hear it. Thank you.

As a follow up: my intuition is that a UX Researcher would first enter as a UX Designer. Is this accurate in your experience, or are there paths for direct entry into UXR?

Re: Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

#87

Post by olvy0 »

r_hoods_ghost wrote: post #78

One of the most valuable things I've found is not to talk to your users but to watch them. And by watch I mean sit beside them / screen share with them as they use your product and get them to talk you through what they are trying to do, and then get them to explain to you why they are doing it the way they are. If users consistently struggle to do something or find something frustrating or non obvious then you have…

I agree, I also try to do this.

I use support calls as an excuse to also ask users about things they are bothered with.

I must say that lately I've been feeling overwhelmed with existing bug reports so it's hard to force myself to solicit even more potentially bad feedback from users.

I've found this video [0] to be kind of helpful, although the focus is somewhat different than OP's question, it's more of a general advice and patterns for UX people.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lq0zFDb3Xg

Re: Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

#88

Post by germinalphrase »

ubermonkey wrote: post #17

I don't, but it's probably because I've spent most of my career being the guy who did that part. I'm old (52), so while I did code initially in my career, I was tempted away ($$) into roles where the fact that I'm also good at written and spoken communication was part of the remit. Being able to communicate with users AND understand how software is actually written turns out to be a remunerative skill. Like coding, t…

What is your new role? How much more remunerative do you find it compared to coding?

Re: Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

#89

Post by goldenchrome »

germinalphrase wrote: post #86
MailleQuiMaille wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms of career prospects, you'd work with a lot of designers and product managers, so you could expect similar growths. I personnaly find this work very fulfilling, as it blends my social science expertise and my tech passion. And if anything, this thread and the answers are the living proof that the job will be needed for a while !

Glad to hear it. Thank you. As a follow up: my intuition is that a UX Researcher would first enter as a UX Designer. Is this accurate in your experience, or are there paths for direct entry into UXR?

In design school, they briefly teach you how to run user studies. And, in very small companies, they sometimes get the designer to run user studies so they don’t have to hire a separate researcher.

However, UXR is really a separate discipline and every larger company I know (>a few hundred employees) hires dedicated UXRs. Most UXRs have a natural interest in people. Often they come from PhD programs in psychology or sociology (easiest route). But I’ve seen plenty come from a bachelors program, or other “people” fields like sales and marketing. With your background I’m sure you could tell a compelling story about why you’re a fit for the role.

If I were you I’d try to learn as much about UXR methodologies from books or online, and then try to get a job doing UXR at a small company. No need to do UX Design first—that’s a separate skill set.

Re: Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

#90

Post by hn_ltl-ftc »

germinalphrase wrote: post #80
goldenchrome wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suggest you look into “UX Research”. That’s precisely the role described by the parent comment. They work on a product team with designers, engineers, and PMs to help everyone else understand the needs of the user. They also help define who the user should be based on the needs of different kinds of users. It’s a pretty important role in most user-facing tech companies.

I absolutely will. I’ve looked at UX more generally as a possible career alternative and believe I would be good at it. Can you speak at all to the career prospects/lifestyle of UXR?

You might find the following experiential program of interest:

https://www.bentley.edu/centers/ux-education

Or something more academic:

https://www.bentley.edu/academics/graduate-programs/masters-...

https://www.hcii.cmu.edu/

To answer your specific question re: "career prospects/lifestyle of UXR"; I used to do that work full-time, and even founded a consulting business around that. FWIW, I also chaired one of the largest local chapters of the relevant ACM special interest group (SIGCHI). However, I don't work in that field anymore, by choice. And I'm somewhat pessimistic about it, even though I still think it is a critical discipline. My reasons for leaving are:

-- Smaller companies can only afford one person, so they typically hire someone with an art school background; and expect that person to also be able to do UX work well. They are really distinct (but slightly overlapping) skill sets, so it is hard to find one person who is competent at both! Especially on a small company salary...

-- Personal to me: I don't have that art-school background, so that puts me out of contention for a lot of jobs.

-- Most 'tech' companies, from giants like Apple, to small start-ups don't seem to value high-quality UX work any more. At least not as much, and as generally, as was expected in the dot-com years. More typically, nowadays, they seem more interested in visual appeal, and being 'on trend'.

-- I've also heard that UX is not really important because new users are 'digital natives'.

-- I can make a LOT more money, and find more jobs, slinging web front-end code (Vue/React/JS/TS/etc.), than I can doing UX work.

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