After you interviewed the unhappy users, you probably gathered a couple dozen insights for product development. All you have to do is to transcribe the recordings and make a list of feature ideas that will surely add a ton of value to your product.
Before you do that – hold on.
Pauline Bynova, JetStyle’s CMO, states that transcribing the interviews is necessary, as is pulling out a list of potential new features and tasks from them. We asked her to give recommendations on how to process the insights in the most effective way possible. Read more:
"Before you launch the production process, you need to assess the features in terms of reach and impact. These parameters are widely used in the RICE prioritization framework.
You need to understand how a particular feature will resonate with your audience. So we need another quantitative study. I suggest using the CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index) method, or rather its slightly adapted version.
For CSI research, we assess each feature (or a group of features, or a part of the product) from two aspects:
- How satisfied users are with the current set of functions of the product.
- How important these features are to them.
The second aspect is far more critical in the context of our research cycle. Let me explain with an example.
Product managers at a fintech service have been racking their brains trying to simplify the onboarding process for new users. There are numerous mandatory steps involving identity verification and account setup. Naturally, conversion drops at every step. You can’t just make it two clicks: the law obliges financial services to set up a rigorous authentication system. So the product team is spending a lot of resources trying to solve the problem.
We set up a CSI study on two user types: those who successfully completed onboarding and those who dropped off. During the research, we tried to find out what users felt about the difficulty of registering for the service.
As we predicted, both groups were frustrated when they had to go through the entire series of steps. Almost everyone is unhappy with this part of the service.
You’ll be surprised how the users reacted to the second question. It was something like: "How important is the simplicity of registration in fintech products to you?" The average rating was very low. People in both groups view this stage as an inevitable step in fintech products. Some respondents even admitted they would feel less safe if they didn’t have to go through the authentication hell. People believe that this procedure guarantees security. In the end, it does not make sense to spend tons of resources to simplify registration if we risk the feeling of security.
CSI research shows not only how satisfied users are with a particular aspect of your product but also how valuable that aspect is to them.
If there’s a significant difference between satisfaction with a feature and its importance to users, this is called a gap. Once you identify these gaps, it’s time for a classic gap analysis and prioritization.
Let’s say you have a hypothesis: if you simplify the pricing system in your product, it will lead to higher conversions and bring new users. It sounds logical: during interviews your users said they are completely dissatisfied with your service's pricing structure. The dissatisfaction is confirmed by quantitative research. Yet, at the same time, in the second part of the CSI questionnaire, clients say that the price of the service is not important to them at all. They don’t choose a product based on price. Interface convenience, the availability of specific tools, and the quality of support are much more important to users than price.
Should you invest a lot of resources from marketing, finance, and development into reworking the pricing structure? Yes, because it will definitely make users happier. Will it bring you a lot more new customers? Probably not. It’s a worthwhile task, but as for now it belongs in the backlog with a low priority until you get data showing that price is a key factor in product choice.
Here’s what the CSI questionnaire looks like.
And here’s what the research results might look like.
For each feature, you measure the average level of satisfaction and importance for customers. You assign the highest priority to the features with the highest importance.
Features with equal satisfaction and importance and with satisfaction significantly outweighing importance come last.
After these steps, you’ve got a fresh backlog with priorities. Your job is to implement the features, evaluate their effect, and start a new HADI cycle."
In case you missed previous articles about research in product development:
Benefits research can bring into your development process: https://jet.style/news/research-in-product-development
The difference between an analyst and researcher: https://jet.style/news/analyst-vs-researcher
Researcher bias, statistical error and other related terms you need to know: https://jet.style/articles/product-development-research-intro
Tips on a fruitful NPS research: https://jet.style/articles/nps-research-in-product-development
The importance of interviewing unhappy users: https://jet.style/news/interviews-with-unhappy-users
Insights on effective user interviews: https://jet.style/articles/effective-user-interviews
