Interviews, Focus Groups, and Survey, oh my!

by Robyn Bolton | Jan 22, 2020 | Customer Centricity, Tips, Tricks, & Tools

Several years ago and courtesy of the TED Women Conference, I got my hands on SY Partner’s Superpowers Card Deck. Before forcing everyone on my team to run through the deck, I experimented on myself.

My Superpower? Complexity Busting.

And yes, I do truly love to create order from chaos or, as SY phrases it, “tame unruly thoughts.”

Which is why I now feel compelled to tame the unruly thoughts that many people have about customer research.

Most companies believe that it’s important to understand their customers and many of them invest millions of dollars in trying to do just that. Unfortunately, most of them are wasting their money by investing in the wrong tools.

Here’s a cheat sheet so you don’t make the same mistake

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

In-depth, one-on-one interviews

WHY you should use it: To discover and explore what you don’t know. When you are exploring a new space (or one you haven’t explored in a while) and you need to discover both what is going on and why, one-on-one in-depth interviews are the best (and only) way to start to bring clarity to a situation.
HOW to do it: Don’t let the name fool you, these should rarely be truly one-to-one interviews. I prefer to structure them as two-on-ones: person 1 is being interviewed, person 2 is the interviewer and asks most of the questions, and person 3 takes notes and occasionally chimes in with questions that person 2 might have forgotten to ask.
WHEN to use it: At the beginning of any project that feels ambiguous or for which you don’t have a lot of pre-existing and up-to-date data to rely on. It’s also a good exercise to do at least once a year as a way of ensuring that your data actually is up to date and reflects changing customer attitudes and behaviors.

Pro Tips:

Face to face is best so that you can see non-verbal cues that indicate if someone is holding back information, struggling to understand, or having an epiphany.
Don’t rush these. Plan 1–2 hours for these interviews as the conversations need to be EPIC (empathetic, perspective-giving, insightful, and create connection).
Follow the rule of 10. Qualitative data tends ot be directional at best so don’t waste a lot of time and money interviewing hundreds of people. Instead, interview 10 customers then reassess to see if you need to interview more. In my experience, people 1–4 tend to provide the most new data, people 5–7 help focus you on the most important things, and people 8–10 confirm the most important things or add interesting spins that can be explored through other means.

Focus Groups

WHY you should use it: To develop, enhance, and refine ideas and prototypes. Creativity abounds when people can bounce ideas around and build on what others say. For this reason, group research, like focus groups, is best when you’re giving people something to react to but you’ve already done the homework to identify the right problem and you’re simply giving them a solution to which to respond.
HOW to do it: Focus groups should be heavily facilitated with structured exercises to keep the group focused. There’s lots of ways to host focus groups — in-person in research facilities, on-line communities, even group texts. What matters most is how you facilitate the group, ensuring that the collective energy is focused on generating the information and insights that will be most helpful.
WHEN to use it: After you have prototyped solutions to the challenges identified through the one-on-one interviews. You want to give people something to react to, but it doesn’t matter if it’s a 3D printed prototype or a few sentences on a piece of paper. What matters is that you have a facilitator guiding people through exercises designed to understand what they like, what they don’t like, what they think, and what they feel.

Pro Tip: Make your prototype as ugly as possible. In general, people don’t want to be mean or hurt your feelings. As a result, the more refined your prototype, the more likely people are to think that you spent a lot of time and effort creating it. They’ll go out of their way to find things that they like, even defaulting to “I think people will like this….” (which is code for “I don’t like this but I’m sure someone else will). If you want honest feedback (and you do), make the prototype ugly.

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Surveys

WHY you should use it: To understand the relative priority of things and to build confidence in your recommendations. As mentioned above, qualitative research insights are directional and, even though they’re usually at least 80% right, some projects, executives, or companies want greater certainty before taking action. Surveys can get you that certainty in a far more efficient and effective way than additional qualitative research because they enable you to reach hundreds, even thousand, of people at once and collect data on a standard list of questions and answers.
HOW to do it: This depends on the complexity of your survey. Self-serve options, like Survey Monkey and Typeform, are great for simple (e.g. 10 question) surveys to a broad group of people (e.g. women 18–34) or to an existing database of people (e.g. customers who have returned warranty cards). For surveys that are more complex (dozens of questions, use question logic), require a large base (100+) of respondents and/or are directed to a hard to find or access population (e.g. cardiac surgeons, people who have spent over $300 on gluten-free products in the past 3 months), it is best to work with a quantitative research firm that has the expertise, experience, and technology required to design and field the survey as well as analyze the data.
WHEN to use it: When you are confident that you know the right questions to ask AND the right answer options to provide. In other words, after you’ve done qualitative research or when you’re doing something as a matter of course (e.g. post-purchase survey). And even then, it’s a good idea to include open-text response options just in case the answers you provide don’t include the answer your customers want to give.

Pro Tip: If you’re working with a qualitative researcher who claims they also do quantitative research, ask them to provide specific examples of past work that it at the same scope and complexity of the work you want to do. Quantitative research tends to become the “sole source of truth” in companies so it’s worth investing in the right experts for this type of work.

In closing…

Customer research is an incredibly complex field which means it’s easy to get overwhelmed and make the wrong decision. Hopefully this simple overview busts some of that complexity and quiets some unruly thoughts.

I’m curious…did this help you find the right type of research for your needs? What did I miss? What would you add? Share your thoughts and help all pf us get smarter and better at this important work!

5 Resolutions to Make 2020 the Year that Innovation Actually Happens

by Robyn Bolton | Jan 16, 2020 | Tips, Tricks, & Tools

According to research by Strava, the social network for athletes, most people will have given up on their New Year’s Resolutions by Sunday, January 19.

While that’s probably good news for all the dedicated workout enthusiasts who will be glad to get their gyms back, given that the most common New Year’s resolution is to exercise more, it’s a bit discouraging for the rest of us.

But just because you’re about to stop hitting the gym to drop weight and build muscle (or whatever your resolutions are), it doesn’t mean that you can’t focus on improving other muscles. May I suggest, your innovation muscles?

Innovation mindsets, skills and behaviors can be learned, but if you don’t continuously use them, like muscles, they can weaken and atrophy. That’s why it’s important to create opportunities to flex them.

One of the tools I use with clients who are committed to building innovation as a capability, rather than scheduling it as an event, is QMWD: the quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily practices required to build and sustain innovation as a habit.

Quarterly

Leave the office and talk to at least three of your customers. It’s tempting to rely on survey results, research reports and listening in on customer service calls as a means to understand what your customers truly think and feel. But there’s incredible (and unintended) bias in those results.

Schedule a day each quarter to get out of the office and meet your customers. Ask them what they like and what they don’t. More importantly, watch them use your products, and share what you hear and see with your colleagues.

Monthly

Share a mistake you made with your team and what you learned from it. Silicon Valley mantras like “Fail fast and fail often” make for great office décor, but let’s be honest: No one likes to fail, and very few companies reward it.

Instead of repeating these slogans, reframe them as “Learn fast and learn often,” and model the behavior by sharing what you learned from things you did that didn’t go as expected. You’ll build a culture of psychological safety, make smart risks acceptable and increase your team’s resilience — all things required to innovate in a sustainable, repeatable and predictable manner.

Do one thing just for the fun of it. In the research that fed into their book, The Innovator’s DNA, professors Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen and Clayton Christensen found that the most common characteristic among the great innovators of our time was their ability to associate, “to make surprising connections across areas of knowledge, industries, even geographies.” Importantly, their associative thinking skills were fed by one or more discovery skills: questioning (asking why, why not and what if), observing, experimenting and networking.

Fuel your associative thinking ability by doing something unrelated to your job or other obligations. Do something simply because it interests you. You might be surprised where it takes you. After all, Steve Jobs studied calligraphy, meditation and car design and used all of those experiences in his day job.

Weekly

Make one small change for one day. Innovation requires change, and if you’re an innovator, that’s the exciting part. But most people struggle with change, a fact that can be frustrating for change agents.

In order to lead people through change, you need to empathize with them and their struggles, which is why you need to create regular moments of change in your work and life. One day each week, make a conscious change. Sit on the other side of the conference room table. Take a different route to the bathroom. Use a black pen instead of a blue one. Even small changes like this can be a bit annoying, and they’ll remind you that change isn’t always the fun adventure you think it is.

Daily

Ask, ‘How can we do this better?’ Innovation is something different that creates value. This is good news because it means that all it takes to be an innovator is to do something different and create value. The easiest way to do that is to find opportunities for improvement.

The next time you’re frustrated with or confused by a process, ask, “How can we do this better?” Better can mean simpler, faster, cheaper or even in a way that is more enjoyable, but whatever it means, the answer will point the way to creating value for you, your team and maybe even your company.

Block time on your calendar for these quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily habits. After all, the best reflection of your priorities is what’s in your calendar. And, if you stick with this, you’ll be among those who achieve their New Year’s goals.

How to Use Customer Research Tactics to Talk to Anyone about Anything

by Robyn Bolton | Nov 18, 2019 | Customer Centricity, Tips, Tricks, & Tools

A few weeks ago, I published a piece in Forbes with tips on how to learn from your toughest customers.

During most of the year, these “customers” tend to the people buying our products or using our services — people who don’t understand why our products or services cost so much, are so difficult to understand, or why they should choose them over other options.

During the holidays, though, these people tend to be our family members — people who don’t understand why we moved so far from home, don’t call or visit more often, or why we support a certain political party, politician, or cause.

Luckily, the same techniques we use to understand our business’ customers and craft solutions that help them solve their problems or achieve the progress they seek (their Jobs to be Done, according to Harvard Business Professor Clayton Christensen), can also be used to keep the peace at your next family gathering.

Here are some Customer Research Do’s and Don’ts to help you navigate your next visit with family:

1. DO establish the topic of conversation. DON’T lead with your opinion: When you start an in-depth qualitative interview with a customer, you don’t start the conversation with “I think what we do is awesome and that you’re a horrible person if you don’t agree with me.” You start with, “Thank you for taking the time to speak with me today. I’m very excited to hear your opinions about my business.”

We all know you’re not excited to hear Uncle Lenny’s opinion on gun control but starting the conversation with your opinion isn’t going to help things. So, when Uncle Lenny brings up the topic, simply acknowledge the topic and ask if others are interested in having the conversation. Who knows, maybe Aunt Jenny will shut the conversation down before it gets started.

2. DO listen more than you talk. DON’T try to win the argument. The purpose of customer interviews is to learn from your customer, not to convince them to do something. That’s why you try to talk only 20% of the time and listen 80%.

When Uncle Lenny, undeterred by Aunt Jenny’s pleas to move on, continues to expound on why he believes what he believes about gun control, don’t try to drown him out, overwhelm him with data, or win him over to your side. Instead, listen to what he has to say, ask open-ended questions, and, every so often, chime in with your point of view.

3. DO be curious. DON’T make assumptions. During customer interviews, you don’t take things at face value. When a customer says something is easy, you ask what makes it easy. When as customer says they want something to be more convenient, you ask what “more convenient” would look like. You don’t assume you know what the customer means, you ask.

When Grandpa Joe says that anyone who believes (fill in the topic) is a (fill in the negative stereotype), don’t assume that he’s talking about you. Ask why he thinks that people who believe X are Y. Maybe he’s never met anyone who believes X and is simply repeating something he heard. As a result, he may be surprised that the family member he loves who doesn’t fit the stereotype does believe X. Maybe he HAS met someone who believes X and they do fit the stereotype. Then you can remind him that 1 person doesn’t represent everyone in a group and that while yes, that person may not be his cup of tea, there are other people (like you) who are.

4. DO share your opinions. DON’T be dogmatic about it. In the rare instance when a customer starts to assert patently false things — a company has satanic roots, a product kills pets, an executive committed a crime — it’s your responsibility to speak-up and correct the falsehood. When you correct a customer, you don’t stand up and shout in their face, you speak slowly and calmly, gently acknowledging their opinion before sharing the facts, and you do this only a few times before moving on to the next topic.

When Grandpa Joe refuses to relent on his “anyone who believes X is a Y” stance, you have every right to disagree but doing it with the same absolute language and heated emotions isn’t going to change his mind. Instead, consider framing your opinion as a question, “Grandpa, what if I believe X. What would you think then?” If he persists, then gently explain that you hear him, respectfully disagree with him, and believe X for the following reasons.

5. DO know your limits. DON’T be afraid to leave when they’ve been reached. Customer interviews have a time limit and, no matter how chatty, interesting, or charming your customer is, you end the conversation when the time limit has been reached. Maybe you schedule time for a follow-up conversation but more often than not, you thank them for their time, hand them their check, and show them out the door.

Family time also has a limit. When you reach the limit of your patience, energy, civility, or sanity, thank everyone for their time and show yourself out the door. Yes, you may miss out on Grandma’s pie or your sibling’s vacation photos, but that’s a small price to pay for keeping the peace. And you can always schedule time late for conversations with select family members.

In closing

Talking to customers isn’t easy. Neither is talking to your family. But by using the same techniques you use to understand and empathize with your customers, you can navigate the minefields of family gatherings, maintain your sanity, and maybe even make it to dessert.

Your customers aren’t stupid. You’re lazy

by Robyn Bolton | Nov 11, 2019 | Customer Centricity

“They put their modems in filing cabinet drawers! Can you believe it?!?!”

The crowd roared with laughter. I closed my eyes and started to breathe deeply. Mainly so I wouldn’t throw my chair at the speaker.

The speaker was an industry icon. The gentleman was responsible for many of the cable and telecommunications inventions that we take for granted. After regaling us with stories from the past, the type of adventures one can only have when an industry is still small and scrappy, he was asked about the future.

He talked about ambitious plans to make it easier for people to age at home — everything from connected devices to modular accessibility tools to building code changes. It was while speaking about that last ambition that he made the comment about modem placement. And, in return, a room full of engineers laughed, shook their heads and wondered how consumers could be so stupid.

Your customers are not stupid.

Yes, customers do a lot of unexpected things. But that doesn’t mean they’re stupid.

They’re doing unexpectedly and seemingly stupid things for a reason.

Maybe the modem is a drawer because it’s ugly and ruins the aesthetic of the room.

Maybe the modem’s constant hum irritates the people in the room, distracting them from the work they’re trying to do.

Maybe the modem’s blinking lights keep people awake or make it harder for them to sleep.

There are lots of reasons why modems are in drawers and very few of them have to do with the IQ of the modem’s owner.

You are being lazy

Yes, there is something that can’t be modified to be easier or more intuitive to use but those things are not nearly as numerous as we think.

Cars had to be big to be safe. Until the Japanese made small safe cars

Computers had to be screens in beige boxes next to beige towers. Until Apple made a teardrop-shaped desktop computer in 5 colors

Can-openers and carrot peelers used to be metal tools that required strength and a bit of courage to operate. Until OXO made them more ergonomic.

Saying, “Modems simply have to be black with loud fans and lots of blinky lights, and they must be kept out in the open,” is, at best, lazy and unimaginative and, at worst, profoundly arrogant.

3 steps to stop being lazy and start being smart

1. Ask your customers WHY they’re doing what they’re doing. Actually, go TALK to your customers and ask them why they’re putting their modems in drawers. Do not hide behind a survey — you can’t possibly know all the reasons why so forcing your customers to pick from a list you created or fill in an empty text box will only get you the answers you expect. If you want the truth, go talk to the humans that are buying and using your products

2. Shut-up and LISTEN. After you’ve asked why, stop talking. Don’t suggest possible reasons, thus biasing their answers. Don’t try to take the blame by asking if your design is too complicated or the print in the instruction manual is too small. Just ask the question and listen. If there is silence, wait patiently. Your customers will start talking and, when that happens, you’re likely to learn something.

3. Make changes based on what you heard. Once you’ve heard the answer to “Why?” do not try to convince the customer that their reasoning is wrong and explain to them why they should do things differently. Once you understand their Why, say “Thank You,” and go back to the lab or the office or the drawing board and start solving the problem

The modem is ugly. Can we change its shape, size, or color so that it blends in or stands out in a really cool way that transforms it into a status symbol (cough, white Apple earbuds, cough)?
The modem is loud. How can we reduce fan speed or improve soundproofing?
The blinky lights are keeping people awake at night. How can we eliminate the lights or reduce the number or change the color or change the placement?

Your customers aren’t stupid.

They’re giving you an opportunity to be smart

Take it.

Originally published (with some minor editorial tweaks) in Forbes as “How To Get Smart About Why Your Customers Do Confusing Things”

The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.

by Robyn Bolton | Mar 2, 2019 | Book Club

Like many people, I have heard the terms “growth mindset” and “fixed mindset.”

And, like many people, I equated “growth mindset” with being open-minded, curious, flexible, and tolerant.

On the flip side, I thought people with a “fixed mindset” were probably sticks in the mud, unwilling to try or even consider something new or a different perspective.

I was wrong.

Let’s start with the basics

My misunderstanding of what it means to have a fixed or a growth mindset is rooted in my lack of understanding of what these terms actually mean.

The fixed mindset is rooted in the belief that a human’s personal qualities are carved in stone. That, at birth, you were granted a certain amount of intelligence, morality, talent, etc. and that there is nothing you can do to develop more.

The growth mindset “is based on the belief that our basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts, your strategies, and help from others. Although people may differ in every which way — in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests or temperaments — everyone can change and grow through application and experience.”

Yep, I’ve got a growth mindset…or do I?

I was feeling quite good about myself until page 12. That’s where I hit the “Grow Your Mindset” quiz:

Read each statement and decide whether you mostly agree with it or disagree with it:

Your intelligence is something very basic about you that you can’t change very much.
You can learn new things but you can’t really change how intelligent you are.
No matter how much intelligence you have, you can always change quite a bit.
You can always substantially change how intelligent you are.

My answers were Yes, Yes, No, No.

(note, you can swap out “intelligence” for any personal quality — artistic talent, athletic ability, your personality)

Guess what, questions 1 and 2 are about the fixed mindset and questions 3 and 4 are about the growth mindset.

“I am a horrible person! I have a fixed mindset!” I thought just before collapsing onto the floor, ready to give up on my humanity. But then I rephrased the questions…

A person’s intelligence is something very basic about them that they can’t change very much.
A person can learn new things but they can’t really change how intelligent they are.
No matter how much intelligence someone has, they can always change quite a bit.
A person can always substantially change how intelligent they are.

This time my answers were No, No, Yes, Yes.

I wasn’t thrilled to realize that I had a “split mindset” but it did make sense.

When I think about myself, my capabilities, and my performance I tend to be a perfectionist (ok, I am a perfectionist) and ruminate endlessly on my mistakes (no kidding, I still vividly remember hitting the “hang-up” button instead of the “unmute” button on a conference call in 2010). I am terrified of feedback because I feel like it is a judgement against me. (Of course I ask for it and thank people when I get it but that’s just because these are the things we all agreed to say but none of us really mean. Right?)

But I don’t feel or think any of these things when it comes to other people. I genuinely believe that if you work hard enough and long enough, you can accomplish anything. I deeply believe that sometimes the best and only way to grow is to learn from mistakes. No one needs to prove anything to me and I love people who ask for feedback because it shows they care and that they’re trying and so I try to be as kind and helpful as possible.

I was a bit concerned that having a split mindset was one-step removed from having a split personality but it’s apparently not unusual at all.

People’s mindsets can change for all sorts of reasons — the context they’re in (e.g. work vs. home), who they’re with (e.g. the boss, their co-workers, their partner, friends, their kids, their parents), what they’re doing (e.g. math vs English, work vs a hobby), and any number of other variables. The key is to know when and where a change in mindset may occur.

There is hope!

“Mindsets are just beliefs. They’re powerful beliefs, but they’re just something in your mind, and you can change your mind.”

Thank you page 16.

I will now change my mind.

I had to get all the way to page 254 to figure out how.

Step 1 — Embrace your fixed mindset. > DONE!
Step 2 — Become aware of your fixed mindset triggers. Where does your fixed-mindset self show up. > I tried to answer this question with “life” but it was too general. So I tried being more specific. The list is LONG and still growing
Step 3 — Now give your fixed-mindset persona a name > In progress.
Step 4 — Educate your fixed-mindset persona, take it on the journey with you > I’d rather not as it’s quite an unpleasant travel companion, but fine.
Step 5 — Print out this graphic and tape it to your bathroom mirror > No thank you, it will never survive. But I will print out this one and hang it next to my computer.
Step 6 — At the start of each day, identify opportunities for learning and growth and create a tangible action plan to take advantage of each one. > I’m actually doing this. It’s helping (I think) but it also results in me taking a lot of deep breaths.

I wish the journey from fixed to growth mindset was as easy as simply checking off steps 1 through 6 but it’s not. It’s a daily process that can be frustratingly slow. But I think it’s worth it.

If only so that I can one day get to the point when I say “Thank you for the feedback” and actually mean it.

Other random nuggets of wisdom

In between page 16 and page 254 there was a lot of great stuff about how the mindsets come into play in business, parenting, and coaching. Here’s a sample:

FIXED MINDSET

“The fixed mindset creates an internal monologue that is focused on judging.”

“Effort is for those who don’t have the ability.”

“The fixed mindset is so very tempting. It seems to promise children a lifetime of worth, success, and admiration just for sitting there and being who they are.”

“However, lurking behind the self-esteem of the fixed mindset is a simple question: If you’re somebody when you’re successful, what are you when you’re unsuccessful?”

“The minute a leader allows himself to become the primary reality people worry about, rather than reality being the primary reality, you have a recipe for mediocrity, or worse.” — Jim Collins, Good to Great

“When bosses become controlling and abusive, they put everyone into a fixed mindset. This means that instead of learning, growing, and moving the company forward, everyone starts worrying about being judged. It starts with the bosses’ worry about being judged but it winds up being everybody’s fear about being judged. It’s hard for courage and innovation to survive in a companywide fixed mindset.”

GROWTH MINDSET

“You aren’t a failure until you start to blame.”

“…even when you think you’re not good at something, you can still plunge into it wholeheartedly and stick to it.”

“Just because some people can do something with little or no training, it doesn’t mean that others can’t do it (and sometimes do it even better) with training.”

“A growth mindset helps people to see prejudice for what it is — someone else’s view of them — and to confront it with their confidence and abilities intact.”

“True self-confidence is ‘the courage to be open — to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source.’”

In business “taking on challenges, showing persistence, and admitting and correcting mistakes are essential.”

“Not only do those with a growth mindset gain more lucrative outcomes for themselves, but, more important they also come up with more creative solutions that confer benefits all around.”

If you want to read Mindset: The New Psychology of Success it’s probably in your local library or you can buy it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or (hopefully) your local independent book seller.

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