Over the past 10+ years, we’ve helped dozens of organizations design and deliver better experiences for their customers and employees. Be it Marriott, HP, Cisco, or any organization we work with, we start every project by listening.
The set of tools in this Customer Discovery Toolkit are some of our favorites from over the years. Whether you’re designing for end consumers, B2B customers, or even your own employees, these five low-barrier tools will help you begin to better understanding the context behind your challenge, as well as the people affected by it.
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WHAT’S IN IT: 5 TOOLS FOR CUSTOMER DISCOVERY
LOVE + BREAK UP LETTERS
Love and Break-up Letters are helpful tools for revealing emotional preferences and drivers of behavior, which are often more difficult to uncover in an interview. Thanks to the folks at Smart Design for developing this tool!
PHOTO + VIDEO JOURNALS
Photo journals or video journals are an easy and alternative way to understand significant moments or experiences in a user’s life when you can’t physically be there to witness them.
EMPATHY INTERVIEWS
There is no better way to practice customer-centric design than to talk to actual humans! Use this tool to talk to your customers, collaborators and stakeholders.
CARD SORTS
Card Sorting is the catch-all term for a design research activity that asks participants to sort, categorize or prioritize information, typically written or printed on cards.
FIELD VISITS
Getting out into the field to observe the people you’re designing for, in the environment in which they’ll be using what you’re designing, is some of the best research you can do.
WHEN TO USE IT:
Kicking Off a New Project
These tools are great to use at the start of a project to better understand stakeholders’ perceptions and preferences.
Complementing Quantitative Research
The activities we’ve selected are all focused on generating qualitative data and identifying the why behind the what of quantitative research.
Co-Creating or Eliciting Feedback
These tools can–and should–be used throughout a project or product’s lifecycle. They’re easily combined with low-barrier prototypes or co-creation activities to invite different types of input.