Callin’ Da Users
Get your clients on the phone. Listen to your users.
I was just reminded of how important this is. Of course, while working in both the enterprise and consumer streams there are different approaches to this.
I’m not a huge fan of the idea of “user groups” or “usability studies.” Now, this doesn’t mean that I’m not all for heading on-site and watching people interact in their natural environment with a product.
On the “enterprise” side, this can be as easy as a quick e-mail to setup a time to chat. It should be brief — not anymore than 10-15 minutes. An hour long conversation just won’t fly.
I recently chatted with RallyDev after doing a trial of their products. I was contacted by their Director of Marketing, Anne Greenshaw - a wonderful person. Very nice and well spoken. She asked me some great questions, and I gave her as much info as possible. I hope that it helps them make their product a little better.
There are many different ways to gather market feedback. But, it’s critical. For web apps I prefer web forms / e-mail addresses a la Google, and just talking to users regularly through channels that are appropriate for the identified audience. For businesses, I recommend picking up the phone and calling.
My process consists of marking things down that I encounter (PM’s aren’t barriers, but proxies), and then indicating if they are categorized into buy, vision, competitive, or usage. Each time I see the same idea present itself I increment the score for it.
Once you have this data, it’s easy to justify your decisions and requests. If 150 people are asking for an enhancement and you have a user base of 1,500 people, that’s 10%. Chances are if the enhancement gets made, your users will be happy.
Product management is one of the funnest jobs ever.
