C. Todd Lombardo - Product Research Rules

Product research doesnt have to be difficult. It doesnt have to take a long time and cost a lot of money. It doesnt have to be done by scientists or expert researchers. It can be quick, cheap, and simple, and the whole team can do it. You just have to remember a few rules and develop a research mindset.

We started this journey with a question: why, in an industry that has been building digital products for decades, do teams still make products that fail? Article after article came up with credible answers: myopic vision, lack of market fit, no differentiation, poor focus, inability to cross the chasm, too many negative reviews, and more. But at the root of all of these is one problem: failing to understand the needs of the customer.

When teams want to understand their customers, they turn to market and user research. Market research is collecting and analyzing information about a market that is categorized by the products or services sold within it. It encompasses the characteristics, spending habits, locations, and needs of a businesss target market and the industry as a whole. User research identifies the users goals, needs, and motivations using human-centric methods.

While both market research and user research create great insights, what many teams fail to do is build on these insights in a timely manner. By treating research as a special, untouchable project that only a handful of people conduct on an infrequent basis, they miss out on leveraging their findings in the actual making of the product. The outcome is frustration, poor understanding of the market, and a product that isnt designed for its user.

Sometimes valuable qualitative data can get overlooked because there arent concrete hard numbers in qualitative research. Numbers matter, although its not all numbers. It is unfortunate that many executives dont know how to deal with qualitative research. Instead, they rely on what makes the most sense to them: the numbers. Its important to realize that in product research, numbers do matter, just as much as the stories, anecdotes, and observations that lead to insights.

Product research is an approach that draws from user research, market research, and product analytics to help any product team arrive at insights in a timely, continuous manner (see ).

Figure P-1. Product research

If you dont have good data, your conclusions and insights can lead you astray. Well show you how to look at all three types of input to connect the dots for smart insights that can lead you to build great products.

Some consider product research to be a waste of time and resources, and if youre one of these people, were so glad youre here. This is often because the research is conducted poorly with inconsistent results that lack real insights. Product research draws on the strengths of both market and user research and focuses on understanding how your product works for the users it serves. It uses product analytics to inform research questions and relies on behavioral evidence to understand the user. Product research acknowledges the existence of a market and always considers market dynamics when interpreting results and suggesting actions.