User Research for Product Management

User research is one important part of product management.It helps in understanding user needs, their pain in using product, their thoughts about product and also in understanding how they are using the product.It helps in properly knowing whether a product is valuable or not and for whom the product is.It helps in getting data which will be helpful in getting insight about product and user behaviour.

Why is User Research important?

• It helps in understanding user’s requirement and focusing on it in order to improve user experience
• It helps team prioritise task by focusing on things which will improve product’s performance and it’s value
• It helps in focusing on features which are more valuable and helps in avoiding unnecessary development

How can User Research help PMs?

• By helping in determining needs and requirement of user
• By helping in determining whether the hypothesis considered for particular feature or product is correct or not
• By helping in determining improvements and changes needs in existing feature or product as well as about new features
• It helps PMs to empathise with their users , their demands, their wants.

Objectives of User research?

• It helps in making better and smart decisions regarding product or feature by taking into consideration insights from user research and putting it into the product roadmap.
• It helps in understanding the necessary changes required in existing product or new launches
• It helps in understanding user’s voices, their wants, their needs, how they are feeling about product which helps in improving product and user experience. Through user research we get valuable feedback from users which can be considered for further improvements in the product.

Types of User Research:

• User Interviews : Taking interviews of potential users by asking them relevant questions regarding product and understanding their thoughts and feelings about product.
• Usability testing: By asking user to user product and observing them how they use a product and what they think about it
• A/B testing: It’s a kind of experiment where we show two or more variants of design in order to understand which one works better.

User research is quite helpful for product development as it helps in creating product which will be helpful and valuable for users. It helps in reducing errors and avoiding mistakes which may reduce performance of a product. It helps in improving product time to time by considering valuable feedback from users.

Hope you find this article helpful. Keep learning!