Process
How to run a top tasks study in six steps
A six-step plan for a top tasks study, the method Gerry McGovern popularised for finding the few tasks that drive most customer demand. It runs from building a long list of 50 to 100 candidate tasks to analysing the vote distribution for top-task share, tail share and segment overlap. Use it to plan a study before a homepage redesign or roadmap review. Koji runs the vote and the follow-up questions in one interview.
Where this appears
What's in this process
- Build the long list: Gather 50 to 100 candidate tasks from navigation, support tickets, search logs, sales calls and interviews, in customer language.
- Decide the audience: Screen for people who used the product in the last 90 days. Run a separate study for each segment.
- Set the sample size: Around 200 for a stable rank order, 400 or more by McGovern's original guidance, 100 for a pilot.
- Build the survey: Show every task on one screen in random order and ask each person to pick their top 5.
- Add qualitative depth: Ask what they were trying to do, what's hardest and what stops them, and probe each answer.
- Analyse: Sort by votes, chart the skew, and work out top-task share, tail share and segment overlap.
Use this image
Free to use in your docs, decks and posts under CC BY 4.0, as long as you credit Koji with a link to this page. To embed it, paste this into your page:
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<a href="https://www.koji.so/visuals/how-to-run-a-top-tasks-study-six-steps"><img src="https://www.koji.so/visuals/how-to-run-a-top-tasks-study-six-steps/how-to-run-a-top-tasks-study-six-steps.png" alt="Process showing six steps of a top tasks study: build the long list, pick the audience, set the sample, build the survey, add follow-ups, analyse the votes." width="1080" height="1080" /></a>
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.koji.so/visuals/how-to-run-a-top-tasks-study-six-steps">How to run a top tasks study in six steps</a>, Koji</p>
