Why Design Sprints don’t replace customer research
I am often asked this question: Do we still need to do customer research?
I reply with: Do you know what the people you intend to help need?
If the answer to the second question is NO, what’s the simplest way for you to find out?
Design Sprints are a great way to test ideas before you invest a ton of time and money in building them out. You could certainly make something up without understanding your customer but you’ll get more out of your Sprint if you know a little something about the people you aim to help before you start.
When thinking about who you are creating for, can you answer these questions:
What do they care about?
What are they interested in?
Where are you hoping to show up and help them in their lives?
What are you hoping to help them do?
If you can answer these questions, great. If not, work on answering them and use that information to inform your Sprint.
Do not succumb to research analysis paralysis.
The key is to know just enough to confidently make choices and build a prototype that you will then learn from. Do not get stuck going down a multi-month research hole as a way to avoid taking a risk and putting a stake in the ground. Sometimes research is done with the best intention. Sometimes it’s avoidance. Here are a few ways you might gather information so you have something to start with but don’t worry about having it all. Go after the sources that are easiest for you to access today. Start there. Use what you have before creating more work for yourself.
Consider these sources to learn a bit about the customer:
Research your team (or a vendor partner) has done to get to know your customer
Data or insights about what is happening today with the product(s) you have in market
3rd party insights about the attitudes and mindsets (psychographic) data about your customers — Think Pew research
Google: articles and information about the customer
Publicly available sentiment: comments, reviews, social media posts
Conversations with people that you or team members have had — go out and talk to people!
Customer feedback: via comments, phone, email
Take what you know and simplify it into an easily digestible format.
I like to create a persona or two to summarize the information. You could do that or create a summary in another format but don’t ask people to digest too much information. Keep it brief. Pull out the highlights and key information you think matters most for your Sprint.
Invite people in who know the customer. Or invite the customer.
On day 1 of your Sprint during the “Ask the Experts” portion of the day, invite people who know the customer well. Someone in customer service? Someone in marketing? Great. Actual customers? Even better. I’ve had customers come to a Sprint so that the team could interview them on Day 1 about their most recent experience interacting with the company to inform our work.
Test, learn, and venture forward
At the end of your Design Sprint Sprint, you’ll put your prototype in front of 5 people to get valuable feedback 83% of patterns will be identified.
This feedback will help you decide whether to pursue your idea or not. You may even learn that it’s a good idea to pursue part of your idea and tweak other parts.
After your Sprint, you might Sprint again or take the work forward and test through usability, A/B testing in the market or a small beta test.
The Sprint does not replace knowing your customer but is a valuable tool for testing and learning whether to take an idea further. If you know nothing about the people you aim to help, get to know them but don’t overcomplicate it by doing more than you need to and do not fall into the research analysis paralysis trap.