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Understanding Users

Understanding Users. Dr Max Hammond 28 November 2013. Who am I?. Dr Max Hammond Independent consultant Broad experience across education and research. Audience research. Planning and conducting a programme of work to better understand audiences and audience behaviour

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Understanding Users

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  1. Understanding Users Dr Max Hammond 28 November 2013

  2. Who am I? • Dr Max Hammond • Independent consultant • Broad experience across education and research Dr. Max Hammond

  3. Audience research • Planning and conducting a programme of work to better understand audiences and audience behaviour • Increasingly used in the public sector… • …but easy to do badly Dr. Max Hammond

  4. Audience research – why? • Understand why and how people will use your service (=better service) • Quantify demand (= better planning) Dr. Max Hammond

  5. Audience research – why? • Be clear at the outset about your intentions: • Monitor performance/meet targets? • Market segmentation/Develop user personas? • Product development • Marketing • Product design • Develop business case? • Manage service portfolio? Dr. Max Hammond

  6. Methodology Understanding audiences Dr. Max Hammond

  7. Research lifecycle http://sca.jiscinvolve.org/wp/allpublications/audience-publications/ Dr. Max Hammond

  8. Target audience • Knowing who you would like your audience to be is vital • You may have more than one distinct audience with different needs (segments) • Defining your target audience doesn’t need to be a difficult exercise • The first stage is to sketch out the potential segments Dr. Max Hammond

  9. Types of market Mass Market Niche Market Segmented Diversified Multi-sided Dr. Max Hammond

  10. Planning research Dr. Max Hammond

  11. What do you need to know? • What do you need to know about each potential segment? • Reach, uptake, quality, impact – what are your priorities? Dr. Max Hammond

  12. Think and feel? What really counts Major preoccupations Worries & aspirations Hear? See? What friends say What boss says What influencers say Environment Friends What the market offers Say and do? Attitude in public Appearance Behaviour toward others Pain Gain Fears Frustrations obstacles Wants/needs Measures of success Source: Business Model Generation (Osterwalder & Pigneur) Dr. Max Hammond

  13. Planning research • Quantitative, qualitative, ethnographic research? • Which methods are appropriate? • Start with informal knowledge about your audiences and existing research Dr. Max Hammond

  14. Collect data • In-house research or commission a research agency? • Data collection methods • Desk research • Focus groups • One-to-one interviews • Quantitative surveys • Web statistics • Web analytics • User observation techniques (ethnography) Dr. Max Hammond

  15. Analyse data • Approach depends on which data you collected • Address the specific research questions you posed – and link answers to the data • Do the answers change your understanding of your audience? • Are your segments “right”? • Do not be afraid to rethink everything Dr. Max Hammond

  16. Apply your findings • So Now What? • How does what you have discovered change your view of your product, or your market? • Consider the conduct of the research • Were the specific objectives met, and questions answered? • What lessons can be learned for future work? • Plan follow-up and future research! Dr. Max Hammond

  17. Key points • At least consider what you should do, as well as what you can • Eg surveys of users are easy, but only tell you what current users think • Research does not have to be perfect to be useful • It’s for your benefit, not for academic publication • No single method will give you the full picture • Beware unsupported web analytics • Without financial value of transactions, understanding success is hard Dr. Max Hammond

  18. What’s next? http://sca.jiscinvolve.org/wp/audience-publications/ Dr. Max Hammond

  19. What’s next? http://microsites.oii.ox.ac.uk/tidsr/welcome Dr. Max Hammond

  20. What’s next? Marketing research: 658.801 Dr. Max Hammond

  21. Contact details • Dr Max Hammond • +49 173 578 2440 • max@mh-strategy.eu Dr. Max Hammond

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