6 Common Reasons That Businesses Don’t Think They Need User Research

Intuitively, most people starting a business or launching a product recognise the huge importance of understanding their customers or users. Most will agree that it just doesn’t make sense to invest huge amounts of time, money and energy into creating something without at least some awareness of who will use it and how it will be used.

And yet, too often, user research gets ignored. Even if businesses know that they want to conduct it, they push it back in the calendar constantly and find some excuse as to why it’s not the “right time”. Trust us, we’ve heard our fair share of them.

Whilst reservations to conducting user research are common, we’re here to explain why they’re often not all that valid.
“But we already do market research”

Despite user research becoming somewhat of a buzz word over the past few years, many people still have misconceptions about what it actually means. Most commonly, it is confused with market research. Looking at the differences between user research and market research is something we have touched upon in a previous article.

Though each type of research will tell you about your customer, there are some slight yet distinct differences that make both important in their own right.

Market research is used to discover whether or not there will be demand for a product and, subsequently, what users expect from it. In contrast, user research gives insight into the needs, behaviours and motivations of users to inform the design of the product going to market. This is usually done after market research has found that there is indeed a need for the product.

If a business does market research only, it is missing out on some really interesting and rich data about what people want from the product and how it will be used.

“We don’t have a usability lab”

Well, my friend, you don’t need one!

It’s important to understand that user research is not the equivalent to usability testing. Looking at the difference between user research and user experience (where usability testing takes place), is something we have written about here.

There are a tonne of other methods for user research, including things like surveys and interviews and usability testing tools to enable this to be done remotely and virtually.

“We don’t have the time to conduct User Research”

We get it, you’re busy. Launching a new product or service takes a lot of time and it can often feel like you have a million and one things on your to-do list. However, you shouldn’t let user research and testing, slip to the bottom.

For this problem, there are two potential solutions. Firstly, it’s possible to glean insight that is massively useful from smaller user research feedback loops with just five people. Such studies probably won’t take anywhere near as much time as you’re expecting. Secondly, it’s possible to bring a specialist on board to take the task off your hands. By using user research agencies, you know that you’re not wasting your very valuable time creating a product that people aren’t actually going to use.

“We don’t have the money to conduct user research”

Often the statements that follows businesses saying they don’t have time, money is seen as a big obstacle against conducting user research. However, it’s important to remember again that studies don’t have to be huge and that, even talking to a small group of five people will gain valuable insights which will inevitably stop you wasting money on a product that won’t be used.

“But we already know our users!”

There’s no such thing as knowing your users too well. If you have the time and resources to commit to more user research, it will rarely ever be wasted. It is good to check your assumptions and check-in with users if the product or prototype has been changed.

“We are our user”

The majority of products are developed from a personal pain (86%) and a minority (2%) coming from research. Tomer Sharon, an insightful and experienced Lean User Experienced Researcher explains more about how important it is to validate user needs by asking the question, “What do people need?”.

In a 2016 interview with UX Pod, he explains more about the importance of speaking to people, aimed at startup founders and product managers. There are gems such as:

“The thing is that they [businesses] ignore the problem and the problem is that sometimes beautiful and usable products are products that nobody needs and if there’s no need for this product, if it doesn’t solve any problems, then I don’t see the point of developing it.”

The idea that ‘we are our user’, that the product was borne from a personal pain based on assumptions that other people share that pain, is something always worth challenging.

Yeah, But…

In Tomer Sharon’s book about stakeholder buy-in, he sites more reasons for not doing user research.

Having these reasons not to do user research, highlights the importance of stakeholder buy-in. Once its value is recognised, it becomes a ‘no-brainer’ and user research and testing can add value to any stage of the product development process.