A Faster Horse: Skills for understanding the difference between customer needs and what they ask for

Michelle Erickson - merickson@mathworks.comJoan Wortman – jwortman@mathworks.com

A little bit about us

• Joan – 20+ years in software• CS degree

• Software Engineer/UI Designer

• UX Specialist

• Michelle – 20+ years in software• Technical Degree

• Software Industry

• UX Specialist

“Do not assume anything Obi-Wan.

Clear your mind must be if you are

to discover…”

Boston Code Camp 22 - Thanks to our Sponsors!

• Gold

• Silver

• Bronze

• In-Kind Donations

GoalHelp improve interactions with customers by providing:

• skills for better listening and better communication

• tips for digging deeper and gathering requirements• practice tools

Agenda

• Active Listening• Usefulness and importance

• Skills

• Effective Dialogue• How to question for better information

• Tips for challenging situations

• Discussion

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”

- Stephen R. Covey

Listening and talking

• Two parts to every interaction:• Active Listening - unbiased and focused listening

• Effective User Dialogue - unbiased and targeted questioning

• Both are critical to effective and meaningful exchanges.

Active Listening

Being present and undistracted, communicatingthat you are listening, and confirming your understanding throughout a conversation.

Why is Active Listening important to you?

• Promotes genuine engagement

• Builds trust and respect

• Helps clarify thinking and ideas

• Uncovers hidden information

• Enhances collaboration and invigorates team work

• Improves conflict resolution

Why is active listening so difficult?

We listen and process words at a much higher rate per minute than the average speaker can speak

Active listeners learn to focus all of their brainpower on the speaker.

Bury the

bone…

Fire

hydrant…

Play

fetch…

This extra capacity allows room for our minds to wander.

Think of a recent conversation…

…in which you felt that the listener was not engaged.

What made you feel that way?

Behaviors to avoid

• Interrupting

• Assuming you know what the person will say

• Finishing the other person’s sentence

• Changing the subject or moving in a new direction

• Getting distracted• Discounting the speaker’s feelings

• Rehearsing your response in your head

• Interrogating

• Giving unsolicited advice

Four levels of listening

• Distracted

• Defensive

• Problem-Solving

• Active

Harvard Business Review: Listening Past Your Blind Spots

What makes listening active?

• Focus, tune in and be present.

• Show the speaker you are listening.

• Understand and confirm along the way.

• Engage in the interaction

The Skills

• Remove Distractions• Clear your desk• Turn away from your screen• Put down the cell phone

• Get in the mindset• Pay attention to speaker’s tone and body language• Think about your own tone and body language• Be aware of your own biases

The human mind is easily distracted. Focus and prepare to listen.

Focus

• Non-verbal Indicators• Your body language can say a lot• Posture• Eye contact

• Verbal indicators • “uh hmm” • “I see”

Let the speaker know you’re listening

Show

Let’s try it

• Turn to the person next to you

• Take turns telling a one minute story to each other about how you got here today.

• Practice:• Showing that you are listening

• Body language - your best and worst

Understand

• Reflection

• Clarification

• Questioning

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with

the intent to reply.”

- Stephen R. Covey

Reflection

• Restating• Repeat key words or last words

• Keep it short and simple

• Paraphrasing• Repeat using different words

• Careful not to loose important terminology

The only person who can tell you if you understood is the speaker

Clarification

• Clear up confusion• “I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying”

• Check your perception and interpretations• “When you said… what did you mean?”

Ensure your understanding

Questioning

• Closed Questions• “Have you used this application yet?”

• “Do you prefer the blue one or the red one?”

• “To conclude, we’re in agreement that this widget is best?”

• Open Questions• “What kinds of things do you do with this application?”

• “What do you think about the color?”

Get more information and encourage more thought

Questioning

• Probing questions• “Why did you choose that one?”

• “Can you give me an example?”

• Dangling questions• “When you pushed that button you expected….”

Get more information and encourage more thought.

• Show empathy

• Provide feedback

• Offer encouragement

Engage

“Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems.” - Scott Adams

Empathy

• Tune in to speaker’s body language, facial expressions, and mood

• Hear, recognize, and acknowledge• “I know how you feel…”

• “You said you’re frustrated and I can understand why.”

Validate and show respect for feelings, motives, or situation

Giving feedback

• Share perceptions of speaker’s ideas and feelings

• Share your own point of view (only if relevant)• “Something similar happened to me and I decided to…”

• “From my point of view it looks like…”

Sharing information, rather than praise or advice

Offer encouragement or assistance

• Don’t give unsolicited advice, opinions or solutions• “Would you like some help with this?”

• Sometimes people just want to vent

• Tying up a conversation

• “Would you like to talk more about this sometime?”

Active listening summary

Focus, tune in and be present.

Show the speaker you are listening.

Understand and confirm along the way.

Engage in the interaction.

Effective User Dialogue

A method of deriving information from users.

We need to engage our users to understand how to help them do what they do better.

Why is Effective Dialogue so important?

Users know what they WANT, but not what they NEED

“People don't want to buy a 1/4" drill. They want a 1/4" hole.”

- Theodore Levitt

“If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” – Henry Ford

Getting to what users NEED

• Goal: to solve a problem• We don’t always know their domain

• We don’t know how they’re currently solving it.

• Commonality: the Software• It immediately imposes a constraint

• Our software should be the tool, not the goal

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

- Einstein

“If I were given an hour to

solve a problem I’d spend

50 minutes defining it and

1 minute solving it”

How will Effective Dialogue skills help?

• Understand the problem• Map out workflows and tasks

• Identify core challenges and constraints

• Peel off the layers

• Derive user requirements • Customer Pain = Requirements

• Better requirements = better design

• Check our assumptions• Gather feedback on design

When do we talk to users?

• Usability studies• Site visits• Industry conferences• Interviews• Out and about…

It’s easy right?

• It's easy

Common Barriers

• Feel awkward • Starting a conversation

• Keeping it going

• Need to fill the silence

• We like to talk about ourselves• On average, people spend 60% of conversations talking

about themselves

• We don’t want to admit that we don’t understand

• Not our job... tech support and marketing

Aspects of Effective Dialog

• Establishing rapport with common ground

• Probing for relevant details

• Asking for specifics

• Asking unbiased questions

• Keeping the conversation going

The Techniques

Asking questions

Think of yourself as an apprentice and the user as the expert who can teach you

everything you need to know

The apprentice mindset

The apprentice mindset

Ask questions like:• “Tell me what you do and how you do it.”

• “Show me everything you do to accomplish …”

• “Tell me why….”

Benefits:• Useful because it avoids assumptions

• You may learn things you didn’t know to ask about

• Helps keep you out of solution space

Uncovering rich information

• “Hmm…that’s interesting; tell me more?”

• “Tell me about what you’re working on right now.”

• “How?”

• “Why?”

Ask broad and open-ended questions

Getting to real details - BEST

• Ask about something they are working on right now

• Watch them work

The present is most accurate

Getting to real details - GOOD

• Ask about “the last time” or “the most memorable time.”

• Ask “Have you…?”, not “Would you…?”

• “Can you show me some recent examples from your work?”

Recent past, specific events

Getting to real details - AVOID

• The future

• Generalities

• What ifs

Speculation

Uncovering still more…

• “Is there anything else you want to talk about?...”

The 10 second rule

Biased questions

Talking to Users Part 1

Biased questions

• What’s wrong with asking biased questions?• In general, people seek to please others.

• Power of suggestion. Customers will give answers they think we want to hear.

• It’s not as obvious as you might think• Don’t you love it?

• What do you like about this?

• Do you like this?

• What do you think of it?

Quiz

1. Should the widget be a drop-down?

2. Do you like the drop-down widget?

3. Do you like the widget, or don’t you like the

widget?

Which of these are biased questions?

Practice– unbiased questions

Situation:

You’ve just released and app “PubFinder” that helps people find cool pubs to visit after a long day at a conference. You want to get some feedback and ideas for your next release from your users (Michelle and Joan).

• What are some unbiased questions you can ask?

Challenging situations

When you: What to do and ask:

Talk too much Use the 3 second rule

Ask the user questions about their work

Don’t know what to say Begin with small talk

Have 3-4 unbiased questions ready

Challenging situations

Jump to solution space Shift focus to the user’s goals and problems:

“How would that help you accomplish your goal

or solve your problem?”

“What challenges have you encountered?”

When you: What to do and ask

Adopt the Apprentice Mindset

Ask for an explanation in layman’s terms

Ask “why?”

Don’t understand what

the user is talking about

Challenging situations

Talking to Users Part 2

Challenging situations

Moves into solution space

Understand their problem:

“Why are you suggesting this particular solution?”

“What is the problem you’re having?”

“How would this solution help?”

When the user: What to do and ask:

Goes off topic Determine if/how it’s related to the topic you

need to cover.

Bring them back on topic:

o “Thanks for telling me about … Now, I really

want to understand this other aspect of your

work.”

Challenging situations

When the user: What to do and ask:

Misunderstands a

product feature

Correct any important or dangerous misconceptions.

Understand how they’re using it and why

o “That’s an interesting (not wrong) way to use …”

o “Is this how you typically use this feature?”

o “What are you trying to do?”

Is disgruntled Empathize and acknowledge their frustration or

anger

Understand what they’re trying to do and why

Let them know you’ll investigate the issue, pass

it on, or come back to it.

Your challenging situations

What challenges have you encountered while talking to users?

How did you handle them?

Wrap up: Listening and Effective Dialog

• Two parts to every meaningful exchanges:• Active Listening - unbiased and focused listening

• Effective User Dialogue - unbiased and targeted questioning

Go forth and communicate effectively

• Exercises

• Self-assessment

References• 7 tips for effective listeners

• Harvard Business Review: Listening Past Your Blind Spots

• Listening Skills

• Reflecting

• Asking effective questions• Empathy

• Giving Feedback

• Additional Videos• Ray learns Active Listening• Ray uses Active Listening• Conflict resolution• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA-RaDNVKpw• It's not about the nail

Acknowledgements

Donna Cooper

Reeve Goodenough

Jeff Goodwin

Ryan Kiel

Ramya Adusumilli