How to run customer research in 7 steps

A seven-step process for running customer research as a product team: set objectives tied to decisions, pick methods, recruit and screen participants, prepare the guide or survey, run the sessions, synthesize the findings and act on them. Use it as a checklist when you plan a study. Koji can handle the interviewing and the first pass of synthesis, so the team spends its time on the first and last steps.

Where this appears

• Customer Research Done Right: A Complete Guide for Product Teams

What's in this process

1. Define clear objectives: Tie each objective to a decision. If you can't say what you would do differently with the answer, refine it.
2. Choose your methods: Qualitative methods to explore, quantitative to validate. Many good projects combine the two.
3. Recruit the right participants: Set specific criteria, screen for fit and cover your key segments, power users and casual users.
4. Prepare the guide or survey: Write open, unbiased questions, plan follow-up probes and pilot it before you launch.
5. Conduct the research: Build rapport, listen more than you talk, ask why and keep your own opinions out of it.
6. Analyze and synthesize: Find themes and outliers in what people said, keep the quotes, and compare segments in the numbers.
7. Share and act on insights: Report the key findings with recommendations, tie each to a decision and track whether it worked.