Don’t Forget This Important Step When Doing User Research

Articulate your assumptions. 

Especially the big ones. The ones where if you’re wrong or off, your whole product strategy could be compromised. 

Whether you are an early stage startup or an established company launching a new product or feature, clearly express all the things that have to be true in order for your product to be a success. Even the things that you know! to be true. 

Mental Models Have More Control Than We Think

This may sound trite and obvious, but I assure you it’s not. We all have many mental models driving how we see the world and it’s hard to take a moment to stop and differentiate between what is reality and what is perception.

In the world of meditation this idea comes up often. The illusions of reality - our thoughts are real but not necessarily true. What we believe is just perception - it’s a filtered view of the world. Our filtered view. Complete with all of our biases.

So before you go to do user research to “identify unmet user needs”, take a few moments to think, talk through, and write down what you assume to be true. Especially those points where if you’re wrong, you’re screwed. Save yourself a lot of time, money and effort and save the world from more poorly spent resources. 

Want help crafting your user research strategy? Send me a note and let’s talk.