As product managers, we often analyze data, conduct surveys, and even bring users into lab settings for testing. While these methods are invaluable for understanding opinions and tracking behavior, they can sometimes offer only a partial view. To truly build products that resonate and solve real problems, we must venture “beyond the surface” and observe users in their natural habitats. This is where Field Studies and Contextual Inquiries shine as essential product discovery and research methodologies.
Beyond the Surface: Conducting Effective Field Studies and Contextual Inquiries to Understand User Behavior
Product discovery and research are crucial phases in product management, aimed at understanding user needs, validating assumptions, and ensuring we build the right product. While techniques like user interviews, focus groups, and surveys gather direct input or broad quantitative data, Field Studies and Contextual Inquiries offer a deeper, more nuanced understanding of user behavior and the context in which they interact with products or perform relevant tasks.
Why Step Outside the Lab?
Observing users in a controlled lab setting or relying solely on self-reported data can sometimes miss crucial details. The user’s natural environment is filled with external factors and real-world conditions that influence how they behave and interact with technology. Think about designing a mobile app: its usage might be vastly different on a busy, noisy train commute compared to a quiet evening at home. These environmental nuances are often invisible in a lab. Field studies and contextual inquiries are specifically designed to capture these rich, contextual insights.
Field Studies: The Anthropologist’s Approach
At its core, a Field Study involves observing users directly in their natural environment. It’s like an anthropologist living among a tribe; similarly, observing users in their natural environment provides invaluable context. This method allows product teams to see how users spontaneously interact with a product, the tools they use alongside it, and the distractions or workflows that might impact their experience.
For instance, if you’re building software for restaurant servers, a field study might involve spending time in a busy restaurant, observing servers as they take orders, manage tables, communicate with the kitchen, and use existing tools. You’d see firsthand the pace, the interruptions, the physical environment, and how these factors influence their needs and potential use of your product. This reveals pain points and behaviors that might never surface in a simulated environment.
Contextual Inquiries: Interviewing in the Wild
Contextual Inquiries take field studies a step further by combining observation with a focused interview conducted while the user is performing tasks relevant to the product being researched. This method provides a rich understanding of the user’s workflow, the specific tools they rely on, and the broader context in which they work.
Imagine you’re developing project management software. A contextual inquiry might involve visiting a project manager at their office and asking them to walk you through their typical day, explaining how they manage tasks, collaborate with their team, and use their current tools, all while they are actually performing these actions. This isn’t just an interview; it’s an interview grounded in real-time observation of their actions and environment.
Drawing on principles from User Interviews, effective contextual inquiries focus on asking open-ended questions about the tasks users are trying to accomplish, rather than leading questions about specific features. As they perform a task, you can ask “Why did you just do that?” or “Tell me more about why you switch between these two tools here.”. The goal is to uncover the why behind their actions in that specific context.
Benefits for Product Teams
Both Field Studies and Contextual Inquiries offer powerful benefits:
- Uncover Hidden Pain Points: They reveal problems users might not even realize they have or articulate in interviews. Observing a user struggle with a clunky process or an environmental factor highlights genuine friction.
- Deep Empathy: Spending time in a user’s world builds profound empathy for their challenges, motivations, and environment.
- Understand “Jobs to Be Done” in Context: These methods help clarify the underlying needs and motivations – the “jobs” users are trying to accomplish – within their specific real-world context.
- Inform Goal-Directed Design: By understanding user goals and how they pursue them in their natural environment, product teams can apply Goal-Directed Design principles to build products that truly help users achieve desired outcomes.
- Validate Assumptions: Observing users in context is a powerful way to test whether your assumptions about their behavior, needs, and environment are accurate.
These methods are particularly valuable in the Empathize (Discover) phase of the Design Thinking Process and the Discover phase of the Double Diamond Process. They provide the foundational understanding needed to define the right problem before attempting to solve it.
Conducting Effective Studies
To maximize the value of Field Studies and Contextual Inquiries:
- Plan Thoroughly: Define your research goals and identify representative users in their typical environments. Develop flexible observation guides and open-ended questions.
- Be Present and Observe Everything: Pay attention not just to the user’s interaction with the product but also to their surroundings, interruptions, and workflow.
- Build Rapport: Make the user feel comfortable and explain the purpose of the study clearly. Remember the importance of conducting these studies ethically.
- Focus on Tasks and Workflow: For contextual inquiries, encourage the user to think aloud as they perform relevant tasks. Ask clarifying questions about their process.
- Analyze Findings Rigorously: Invest time in analyzing notes, recordings, and transcripts to extract valuable insights and identify patterns.
My two cents: Is the Environment the Product?
Could the environment in which your product is used be as important as the product itself? This is a provocative thought, but Field Studies and Contextual Inquiries suggest there’s truth to it. A perfectly designed feature can be rendered useless by a poor internet connection, a noisy workspace, or a user who needs to multitask constantly. The context isn’t just background noise; it actively shapes the user’s needs, behaviors, and ultimately, their perception of the product’s value. By understanding the environment deeply, we can design products that don’t just function but truly thrive within the user’s reality. It challenges us to design for adaptability, resilience, and seamless integration into complex, real-world workflows.
Conclusion
While data analytics and lab testing provide crucial pieces of the puzzle, Field Studies and Contextual Inquiries are essential methodologies for gaining a truly comprehensive understanding of users and their needs. Like a tailored suit that fits perfectly because the tailor understood the wearer’s measurements and lifestyle, products designed with deep contextual understanding are far more likely to succeed. By stepping out of the office and into the user’s world, we can uncover hidden insights, build empathy, and ensure we are building products that are not only usable but also deeply valuable and relevant in the context of their daily lives.
Prioritizing these rich, qualitative methods is key to excelling in product discovery and building products that users truly need and love.