how to fail less with user research - playbookux...reasons for startups failing according to cb...

HOW TO FAILLESS WITH

USERRESEARCH

FIND PRODUCT MARKET FIT, PRICING VALIDATION,AND DESIGN SATISFACTION

PlaybookUX

Why do you need to fail?

We’ve all heard the saying “90% of startups fail”. It’s a statistic that’s

in the back of every founders mind. We’re here to deliver some good

news: most startups fail from preventable mistakes.

It’s an age old wisdom that “you need to fail to succeed”. However, at

PlaybookUX, we don’t subscribe to that methodology. Why do you

need to fail when you can succeed without failing? Obviously, people

make mistakes but not all pitfalls need to happen for you to succeed.

Adding unnecessary roadblocks to your company’s path does not equal

success.

The biggest and most glaring reason startups fail is because they

didn’t solve the market need. In particular, this is the reason 42% of

startups fail.

How to Fail Less with User Research 1

Reasons For Startups Failing

According to CB insights, here are the 19 reasons startups fail, with 7

being directly attributable to lack of user research. We’ve included

user research questions for each of these reasons at the end of this

eBook.

42% - No market need ** Solvable with user research

29% - Ran out of cash

23% - Not the right team

19% - Get out competed

18% - Pricing, cost issues ** Solvable with user research

17% - User un-friendly product ** Solvable with user research

17% - Product without a business model

14% - Poor marketing ** Solvable with user research

14% - Ignore Customers ** Solvable with user research

13% - Product mistimed

13% - Lose focus

13% - Disharmony among team / investors

10% - Pivot gone bad ** Solvable with user research

9% - Lack passion

8% - No financing / Investor interest

8% - Legal challenges

8% - Didn’t user network

8% - Burn out

7% - Failure to pivot ** Solvable with user research

If you can prevent 7 of these reasons by doing user research, you can

spend your worrying and hopefully you will have less chance of burn

out. If you can solve the market fit issue by user research, you have a

fighting chance to be a part of those 10% of startups that don’t fail.


No Need to Fear Feedback

Most founders are averse to hearing negative feedback because they

fear that their concept or idea will fail. It’s hard to receive criticism

about something you are so passionate about. It’s easy to hear how

revolutionary and great your idea is. It gives you validation and keeps

you motivated. However, you don’t need to fear negative feedback. In

order to create a process of repeatable success, you need to actively

seek out constructive criticism from credible people. The most credible

people are your target demographic. Those are the people who will

benefit from your company - whether it be solving a problem, or

making their life a little easier. Remember, the target user wants to

push you in the right direction. If you’re not solving a relevant

problem, they’ll likely mention a problem that is worth pursuing.

I can’t reiterate this enough: the feedback needs to be from credible

people. If your uncle or friend tells you that your idea is great, or that

it sucks, take it with a grain of salt. Assuming they’re not your target

user, their opinion isn’t coming from experience with the problem

you’re trying to solve. Your idea won’t, and shouldn’t, be the perfect

solution for everyone. If it captures a use case for every person, you’re

building a product that’s way too broad and it will be challenging to

make any sort of impact in that market.


Speak to the Right People

Once you have narrowed down and found your target customer, it’s

important to speak to multiple people, not just one or two. If you don’t

speak to enough people, you’ll introduce personal bias. They may have

a very specific use case that requires a specific solution that isn’t

relevant to your target demographic. When you receive feedback that

multiple people are having the same problem, then you have a problem

that’s worth solving. The average user experience study includes

speaking to five people. Five people will diagnose the majority of issues

and concerns.

When conducting the user research, it’s important to make sure you’re

not prompting your users to arrive on your solution. As founders, we

are often so passionate about our idea that we want to talk about it to

anyone who will listen. However, when you’re conducting user

research, it’s time to listen. In the first user research session, where

you discuss the user’s problems, share very little information about

your solution. Ask them about their pain points, and how they’re

currently solving that pain point. You don’t want to influence the

outcome of the conversation. However, at the end of the session, you

can describe your solution briefly.


Ensure Product Market Fit

When I started PlaybookUX, I performed an initial market research

where I asked founders how they were currently validating their

products and services. I asked about any challenges they were facing

and how they were currently overcome those challenges.

You would be surprised at how helpful participants can be. If you really

listen, they will often give you the blueprint on how to build the ideal

solution. I will never forget, for our initial user research study, we had

a participant unprompted tell us that she wanted a company to use

‘A.I. to extract the meaningful things that were said during a user

research session’. She mentioned that she spent a lot of time

summarizing her user research and wanted some help in that phase of

the process. It was as if I had told her to say that. She was asking for

the exact solution we were building. After a few people had similar

issues, we knew this was a problem that not only myself and my co-

founder were experiencing.

Once you have validated your concept and ensured a product-market

fit, it’s time to create a prototype. If you don’t have a designer, you can

hire one on Upwork or Fiver, or DIY the designs. To do it yourself,

purchase software like Sketch.

After you have your wireframe or prototype ready to go, conduct a

research study. You can conduct either moderated interviews, where

you speak to your users one-on-one or unmoderated sessions, where

you define tasks and have the users walk through them while speaking

their thoughts out loud.

It’s not just enough to ensure that participants have the same problem

you are trying to solve. You also need to make sure the product is

extremely user friendly and intuitive. Customer expectation levels of

user friendliness are higher than ever. They expect to sign into a

product for the first time and intuitively know what to do. No longer

will they sit through a product demo or read any sort of documentation

to get started. Designing a solution that meets their expectations is

difficult. When you encounter a product that appears simple and easy

to use, you should have a huge appreciation for how hard that was to

create.


Test Your Pricing Model

While you’re fixing the areas that your product isn’t intuitive, it’s

probably a good time to test your pricing model. By testing your pricing

model, you’ll determine if the value of your solution is worth the price.

If you have multiple pricing tiers, you’ll be able to see if your potential

customers understand the value at each tier.

There are a ton of articles and research on what is the right pricing

model for your business. You can use premium pricing, bundle pricing,

penetration pricing, the list goes on. However, these resources will not

tell you what your customer thinks is the right value for your product

or service offering. Deciding how to price your product can be one of

the most difficult decisions you can make.


Test Marketing & Advertising Materials

You can perform the same type of user research on marketing and

advertising materials. Conduct a study on your marketing copy, logo,

branding, emails, advertising creative and more to ensure they

resonate with your target customer. Why waste your marketing

dollars without making sure they are effective? User research should

be a part of your business process.

When you have a new feature idea, design, branding concept anything

really get feedback first to confirm you’re not wasting your time and

money pursuing something your customers don’t care about.


Testing Cycle

Once have that precious feedback from credible people, move fast. Fix

the design elements that are confusing your users, update your pricing

model etc. It’s really important to re-test items when you have made

updates.

Here’s the logic behind re-testing. During the first research session,

the user says that they are having a hard time selecting a date and

time to schedule a meeting. After the session, you make changes to the

flow to make it better. However, how do you know that what you

changed is for the better? It could be just as confusing but in a different

way. You need to confirm that your design changes are for the better,

otherwise you’re just making another hypothesis about what users

find intuitive.


Market Need Template

42% of startups fail because there is no market need. For this test,

perform a concept / idea test. You can speak to your target

demographic via interviews or unmoderated self-guided tests.

Here are some tasks you can ask:

Problem

How do you currently solve <State Problem>?

What are the challenges with your approach to solving this problem?

How frequently do you have this problem?

How important is it to find a solution to this problem?

If someone were to solve this problem, how would that improve your

life?

How willing are you to pay for a solution to this problem?

What price point would you expect for a solution to this problem?

If you were to design an ideal solution to this problem, even if it’s out

there, please describe what that solution would look like.

Solution

<Describe your company’s solution> . What are your initial thoughts on

this solution?

Does the proposed solution solve your pain points and frustrations?

What questions do you have about this solution?

How much would you pay, if any, for this solution?

How frequently, if at all, would you use this solution?

How would you improve this solution?


Pricing Model Template

18% of startups fail because of pricing and cost issues. For this test,

perform a pricing model test. You can speak to your target

demographic via interviews or unmoderated self-guided tests.


Context:

<Description of what the company sells>

Scroll up and down the page. What are your initial thoughts on this

page?

What do you think of the pricing page layout?

Are the pricing options clear?

Tier 1 Pricing

Now let’s take a look at <Tier Pricing Name>. In your own words, what

value are you getting from this tier?

Which features in this tier are most important to you?

Which features in this tier are least important to you?

Do you feel that the price is accurate? If not, how much would you

expect to pay?

Tier 2 Pricing

Now let’s take a look at <Tier Pricing Name>. In your own words, what

value are you getting from this tier?

Which features in this tier are the most important to you?

Which features in this tier are the least important to you?

Do you feel that the price is accurate? If not, how much would you

expect to pay?

Overall Questions

Do you need more information to make a purchasing decision?

If you were to make a purchase, what plan would you select?

Let’s say you’re ready to purchase. What would you do next?


Usability Template

17% of startups fail because their product isn't user friendly. For this

test, perform a Navigation or Usability test. You can speak to your

target demographic via interviews or unmoderated self-guided tests.


Find <item1>. Speak your thoughts out loud as you look. When you’ve

found <item1> proceed to the next task.

Overall, how did you find this task? 1=Very Difficult to 5=Very Easy.

How would you improve the process of finding <item1>?

Find <item2>. Speak your thoughts out loud as you look around. When

you’ve found <item2> proceed to the next task.












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