After lying to my girlfriend and telling her we had to do market research for classmate, I knew I was going to get truthful insights about my own product… which she then hilariously – and somewhat bone-crushingly – proceeded to absolutely tear apart. (Though the look on her face when I told her it was actually my project she was reviewing was worth the price of admission.)
Here’s a pdf of my line of questioning – Customer Questions.
Since this is my blog post and I can frame it however I like, I’ll start with the good – I am happy to report I had identified a true problem she encounters when commuting – there is no easy way to store all of the things she uses to travel. I was interested however, to find out that she had other things as well that she had added to my initial list of essentials (wallet, keys, phone) to include like her helmet, gloves, etc. Additionally, I had accurately concluded that she would rather have one solution she could use not just while travelling but also while, out or even on the trail (though she did admit, she had no idea how that would be feasible). As we continued, she actually called out word for word what believed was her biggest problem, which was that a lot of this would be solved if she had pants that actually had better pockets. Additionally she liked the idea to have the phone be able to mounted on multiple surfaces like a bike or car mount. She also pointed out that she thought there would be value in adding some sort of reflective surface to it so that it could be seen at night.
Now on to what gave her pause about my design. First and foremost, it was what she described as “a question about execution.” Having the phone facing out (even if if was in an “lifeproof” like case) made her worry that the phone would easily get damaged. Also the modular design of it, made her feel less confident about it’s ability to keep her most important things safe. It was a tradeoff between convenience and reliability, and she thought she would be more comfortable with things being in sealable, water-tight pockets… which in essence was very similar to the fanny pack she already uses. Also there was the thought that if there would be enough storage added, it would be too unwieldy, and ultimately, would just be better replaced with a bag of some sort.
After I “let her in on the lie,” and reveled in her look of shock as she realized it was indeed my own creation which she had just spend 40 minutes shooting down, I was able to get other feedback, and let her in on my design process. While I know this is probably overly biased since she was already feeling bad about ripping apart my initial idea, we had a good brain storming session. She pointed out that realistically this would be better used in more technical purposes (like hiking, or mountaineering). When I brought up other possible added functionalities like having it float, or adding gps, she said that she believed the cost to add those would inflate the product into a price that was beyond what she was willing to pay (although, to be fair, she had already stated she wouldn’t pay anything for this anyway).
I think it’s safe to say that my ‘universal utility belt’ idea has been put to rest (at least for now!), but there were some interesting possibilities that arose from the conversation. The ability to easily mount a phone on different surfaces so it can be used in travel and recreation. Another thing that came up was her commute in general. Right now she uses citi bikes, but is looking into getting an ebike. Her biggest issue is that the convenience of being able to dock a citi bike is lost when she has an ebike of her own, so having a commuting solution that is lightweight, and able to be stored easily is paramount (e.g. smaller than a folding ebike). Another option would be to make the utility belt more outdoor recreation focused, but I believe there would be a lot of competition on the market already, so I would have to look into that. Lastly, I could really pivot, and just address one of her biggest problems I had accurately called out to begin with and just design pants with better pockets, but I’m not really a clothing designer, and feel like I would botch that pretty badly.
Long story short – I thought I had a good idea to address my girlfriends problem, but it turns out my solution was off the mark (though her problem was real). Moving forward I will continue to investigate some of the key takeaways I got out of our interview and circle back with another prototype that addresses one or more of them.
Ha! I think its time to refine the bike gps/light/alarm/horn idea. But seriously, excellent outcome with this conversation because wasting time on a bad product is worse. You would rather find out quickly.
I can’t lie – I kind of love the idea of a utility belt. Even though I would never wear a fanny pack, I think I might just be convinced to wear your product if it were as useful as Batman’s utility belt. Obviously this is definitely not the direction you should go in but I still love the initial Idea. I’m excited to see where you take this, because I think between carrying things on a commute and the lack of women’s pockets, there could be some kind of solution
The idea was very interesting but I would echo what your user said, it is not really much different from a fanny pack or just a very fancy fanny pack. The core idea in trying to create something to help women carry was good but maybe a different direction would better suit where you can keep the main idea?
I also love the utility belt idea but understand that it’s a bit of a novelty item and may not be solving a deep problem. I think that during this conversation you hit on an interesting problem of how to get a phone to attach to different surfaces so that the user can view it hands-free. Between car, bike, desk while typing, kitchen while cooking I feel like I’m always trying to figure out where to put my phone so I can view content or take a video call with family while doing something else.
You certainly approached the conversation very well! You got good feedback even if it wasn’t ideal and you can maybe deal with some of the off-shoot problems, as Patrick mentioned such as holding phones in different scenarios.
Once again, better to find out asap that it’s not viable/necessary so that you can move on to bigger and better. I think your bias against fanny packs was a blind spot that prevented you from realizing this is what your product was, but with a masculine name. I think you can move forward with your other ideas!
One thing you have discovered was a great way of questioning a biased potential consumer. I wish i had thought of that. It might’ve made my fiancé give me more constructive criticism of my idea. I can’t help but think of Inspector Gadget when thinking about an all purpose belt that carries everything from helmet to wallet and keys. This makes the idea no longer practical.
I never thought about lying to the customer in order to get a more neutral and balanced criticism out of him or her. As we can tell from your story, this worked very well and you got honest feedback from your customer about your product. Without that maybe you wouldn’t have gotten the feedback you needed. I do agree that the product would be unweildy for daily use.
I love the idea, and also agree w/your gf. As an avid hiker, concert goer, fanny pack connoisseur, I dig where you’re going with this, but as has been stated and we both know, MORE POCKETS w/o being more conspicuous. I like the features you’ve imagined, but not at the expense of packing space/weight. Maybe you could have the phone display as the front of a larger, multi-functional front pocket instead of standing on it’s own?
I think you started off with a very good set of questions. And your decision to pass your product off as a classmate’s, was both resourceful and brave, considering your customer tore your product idea apart! I hope you had braced yourself for this, and it reminds me that the interviewee’s responses can be affected based on how the interviewer reacts – hence, the customer conversation is a two-way street and we have to both control our reactions, and also how we question.