EXECUTIVE

EDUCATION – BUSINESS ACUMEN

BOBA 5-1 – Module 5

User Insight Finding - Transcript
To design an effective solution, we must go beyond observations or people’s
articulated needs, and define a new perspective to our challenge. It is critical to dig
deeper to discover the hidden barriers and underlying motivations that drive the
more obvious behaviors and actions; or the lack of actions in some cases.

Why are people using my product in this way? What are their barriers? Frustration?

What are they trying to achieve on an emotional level?

Discovering the underlying motivations that drive people’s actions, or barriers that
fuel their inactions, are fundamental to insight definition. The secret recipe for any
successful product or service is that it identifies a point of tension in our user’s
experience, and design to resolve it and create a more pleasant experience for the
user. A point of tension can be physiological, cognitive, emotional or environmental.

Physiological

Customers are having psychomotor barriers or difficulty in using the product or

service, like in the case of the airport travel luggage we discussed before. Or a person
with cerebral palsy trying to use a toothbrush.

Cognitive

Customers are confused about the proper procedure, like in the example of medical
insurance bureaucracy. Or customers are unsure which TV set to buy, or unsure how
to assemble the new bookshelf they bought.

Emotional

Customers feeling worried about medical test results, or a user feeling nervous about
a visa interview, or a person feeling anxious about finding a job that matches her
qualifications, or someone feeling alienated because of their disability.


EXECUTIVE EDUCATION – BUSINESS ACUMEN

Environmental

A person with disability unable to ride the bus because of lack of accessibility ramp, a
patient unable to receive proper care because of the lack of speciality doctors in
their small village, or a divorced single mother unable to find a job because of the
social misjudgment against divorced women.

Each of the previous examples tackles a different point of tension in the customer
journey. Work hard to identify the frustrations surrounding the customer experience,
and you will find your design gemstone.

Copyright ©. Fady M. Morcos. All rights reserved