A wise person once said, “you have two eyes, two ears, and one mouth – use them in that ratio!”  That is, listen a lot and talk a little. Too often, though, I have seen product planning be an exercise in telling the customer about our proposed solution (mouth), instead of listening for what their true problems are (eyes and ears). Though this approach has led to many missed opportunities, there is hope, as people can learn to listen more and talk less.

Right now, as part of my work on design thinking, I am taking the “Insights for Innovation” course from Ideo where they are teaching us how to better understand the customer. This week’s module is on “observing” (eyes) and next week’s is “interviewing” (ears).

Here are six tips that they shared to help us more successfully observe our customers and find the deep insights needed to drive better products and solutions:

1. Look for things that prompt behavior

What are the signs and indicators that people use to spur them to take an action or navigate a process? These can be anything from post-it notes stuck on the edge of a computer screen to reflectors nailed on a tree to mark a turn.

2. Look for what people care about

How do people spend their time and money, what have they collected? Here you can have anything from a wall of modern art to a backpack full of electronic gadgets.

3. Look for body language.

As people interact with your product, are they relaxed, stressed, curious, confused..? Where do they move swiftly and surely, when do they tense and move erratically? People use non-verbal language to communicate their needs.

4. Look for patterns

What are the routines and themes that indicate what people value? How about a kid’s bedroom decorated top to bottom with My Little Pony? Or an analyst who obsessively runs checksums in their spreadsheets?

5. Look for the unexpected

What are you seeing or hearing that you didn’t expect? Which of these things is not like the others, or does not seem to belong? Why is a hiker who is obsessed about reducing the weight of their pack bringing a coffee pot..?

6. Look for adaptations

How are people hacking the product to make it work they way they want?  To answer my questions, my analysts exported data from Google Analytics into Excel. That work-around was an indicator that the GA suite has opportunities for improvement.

Note that sometimes the opportunity to create a better customer experience is found by looking at adaptations made by the company itself. As part of a class exercise I observed people using self check-out machines at a local store and observed that 75% of seniors were unable to use the machines without extensive help.  I also observed that the store accommodated these less-than-intuitive machines by assigning multiple staff to help – defeating the whole purpose of self check-out…

I encourage you to try these tips for “listening with your eyes.”  Watch a customer use your product, or a competitor’s product. Watch how your own team navigates an internal process. Learn what you can improve, or what an unknown unmet need is… by listening.

Photo by Francis Seura from Pexels