Lessons to learn from a successful customer research at Thanksgiving
What do you need to conduct customer research?
A product. It doesn’t have to — actually it shouldn’t — be a complete product.
A customer. At least someone who you believe could become one. Ideally, 5–10 of them.
A room. A place where you can bring the product and the customer together (duh).
My wife and I found all of these last Thanksgiving.
The product was our healthy home-made chocolate. The potential customers were our family-friends who had joined us for Thanksgiving dinner. The room? It was the Thanksgiving dinner table.
Does this sound like a healthy environment to conduct customer research?
Hmmm… No.
Because people are there to eat and drink and have fun. Not for a product that they haven’t heard about before. Not to be a part of the research that they didn’t sign up for.
Does it sound like a perfect place to start getting feedback on a product that is far from being market-ready, from a crowded group of people with different ages, genders, backgrounds and tastes?
Hmmm… Yes.
But how can you make sure that you’re getting the right (or “unbiased”) answers from a crowd who are simply there to eat and drink? A crowd who is there to make jokes out loud, who is there to have fun?
How can you make sure to get the right reactions that could help you improve your — not even—half-baked product?
You cannot.
You just make sure that you’re doing your best to receive honest and unbiased answers. This is what customer research is all about. It’s never perfect. You just do your best to create the right environment.
But maybe you can find a formula to “gamify” the customer research in a Thanksgiving dinner setup. A sort of gamification that would make the participants feel like they are in a game, not a study.
And what was our formula to do that during Thanksgiving dinner?
Read more in my latest Medium article:
How I Did Customer Research at Thanksgiving Dinner — and How You Can Too at Your Next Holiday
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