Customer Research

Customer research helps you deeply understand your target audience’s needs, pain points, and behaviors. It informs product decisions, messaging, and overall strategy.

Why it's Important

Ensures your product solves a real problem.
Reduces risk by validating market demand.
Helps refine positioning and messaging.
Improves customer experience by tailoring solutions to their needs.

How to Implement

Conduct interviews with existing and potential customers.
Use surveys and focus groups for broader insights.
Analyze product usage data to identify trends.
Monitor customer reviews and feedback channels.
Segment customers based on behaviors and demographics.

Available Workshops

Empathy Mapping to visualize customer pain points and motivations.
Customer Journey Mapping to understand interactions with your product.
Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD) Analysis to define customer needs.
Persona Development Workshop to create realistic user profiles.
Voice of the Customer Analysis to identify recurring themes in feedback.

Deliverables

Customer personas with key insights.
Customer journey maps.
Report summarizing pain points and unmet needs.
Research-backed recommendations for product and marketing teams.

How to Measure

Number of customer interviews and survey responses collected.
Percentage of features or messaging updated based on research.
Customer satisfaction improvements post-research implementation.

Real-World Examples

Airbnb

Discovered travelers wanted a more personalized experience, leading to the "Experiences" feature

Dropbox

Used beta testers to refine product usability before launch.

Spotify

Leverages listening behavior to tailor playlists and improve engagement.

Get It Right

Ensure research is an ongoing process, not a one-time effort.
Use multiple research methods to cross-validate findings.
Involve stakeholders from different teams for diverse perspectives.
Focus on both existing users and potential customers.
Present insights in a way that’s actionable for decision-makers.

Don't Make These Mistakes

Only listening to the loudest voices rather than a representative sample.
Ignoring qualitative data in favor of hard numbers.
Overlooking non-users who could be potential customers.
Asking leading questions that bias responses.
Not acting on the research findings.

Provided courtesy of Catherine St Clair, Product Marketing Manager, St Clair GTM Consulting