Listen to Your Customers, They’ll Tell You What to Build • Hacker News Board

Re: Listen to Your Customers, They’ll Tell You What to Build

#81

Post by Nition » Sat, Dec 03, 2016, 9:13 PM UTC

dawnerd wrote: post #80

Nition wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true. And the bigger a company is the more there is to trawl through. Still, you get stuff like this 14 page thread dating back two years asking Dropbox to stop forcing new folders to automatically sync[1], or this 10 page thread spanning 3½ years where adding an external email to hotmail/outlook.com was broken[2]. Never any official response, just moderators posting form responses like robots. Those are wher…

Oh my god I can't stand moderator responses. Worse when they're just copy+paste and they didn't even read your request/question. Been happening on Github more and more too with issues.

Sounds like you're having some trouble with forum moderators.

To allow me to fully assist with your issue, can you please make sure you've completed the following steps:

- Restart your PC.

- Copy down any annoying messages from moderators that you see.

- Try reading the messages again to see if you feel better about them now.

If this message was helpful, please remember to upvote and mark as SOLVED.

Re: Listen to Your Customers, They’ll Tell You What to Build

#82

Post by SN76477 » Sun, Dec 04, 2016, 4:48 AM UTC

ProxCoques wrote: post #73

SN76477 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a UX designer do you use heatmaps as a tool to determine if your audience is taking the actions that you expect them to take?

No, because heatmaps only tell you what is happening, not why. And even then they can be telling you nothing at all because you don't know things like user intent. Harry Brignull's summary of the issues on this is required reading here (about eye tracking but applies to all such heat mapping tools): http://www.slideshare.net/harrybr/what-you-need-to-know-abou...

Thanks for this. Great information.

How do you determine why something is happening?

Re: Listen to Your Customers, They’ll Tell You What to Build

#83

Post by mncharity » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 12:00 AM UTC

Namrog84 wrote: post #38

donatj wrote: post #18

And you'll get faster horses all around.

This the difference of listening to what your customers literally say and being able to deduce what it is what they need. "I want faster (or better) horses". Needs a follow up question or ability to understand the deeper core meaning. From the above quote. These are some off top of head self distilled thoughts on what that means I want to get from point a to b faster. (faster vehicle or teleportation.) I want less ti…

> I want less prep time for traveling(E. G. Saddling horse).

Years ago I saw an interview with a Sami. 'Why snowmobile instead of reigndeer?' 'I don't have to spend half an hour chasing down my snowmobile.'

Re: Listen to Your Customers, They’ll Tell You What to Build

#84

Post by basseq » Tue, Dec 06, 2016, 11:02 PM UTC

dbg31415 wrote: post #79

basseq wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people will read this title as, "Build what your customers tell you to build." The key here is that most customers will be happy to tell you they want all kinds of features and the best/only solution or feature looks like X. You have to go deeper. You have to listen to understand what they actually need. I hate being that guy that trots out a quote from a historic figure, but c'mon, this is a slam dunk: "If I ha…

> I hate being that guy that trots out a quote from a historic figure... Don't worry, it was a made up quote. You're safe.

1) I can't believe I missed the "trot out" pun in my original comment.

2) Anyone who's interested to read more on this made-up quote should see this HBR article:

https://hbr.org/2011/08/henry-ford-never-said-the-fast

Re: Listen to Your Customers, They’ll Tell You What to Build

#85

Post by ProxCoques » Sun, Dec 11, 2016, 11:12 AM UTC

SN76477 wrote: post #82

ProxCoques wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, because heatmaps only tell you what is happening, not why. And even then they can be telling you nothing at all because you don't know things like user intent. Harry Brignull's summary of the issues on this is required reading here (about eye tracking but applies to all such heat mapping tools): http://www.slideshare.net/harrybr/what-you-need-to-know-abou...

Thanks for this. Great information. How do you determine why something is happening?

Largely through hypothesis which you then test. Eg you might see a lot of people abandoning your cart. You might guess (perhaps based on some or other evidence, but it can be a straight guess) that this is because the final price isn't prominent enough on the page. So you to test that you make the price bigger. And if the abandonment goes down then that's ONE data point in support of your hypothesis. You should then re-rest the idea in a different way to make sure, for example by moving the price to a different place on the screen such that it achieves more prominence. And it if abandonment goes down further then you have TWO supporting tests. But abandonment might go up, so you need to then re-evaluate your hypothesis (eg maybe it's some notion of apparent "honesty" you need to confer, not visual prominence).

This is the work of the UX designer. It takes time an effort. PMs usually don't have the time or understanding to do it properly, so products and companies often suffer. This is why, personally, I would be more inclined to invest in companies that have actual UX designers working for them than mere jack-of-all PMs. But hey.