Talking to Humans: Success starts with understanding your customers

Talking to humans is a good book for anyone in marketing, UX, CX or UAT.

"you’ll usually find that your best insights will come from talking to real people and observing real behavior."

How many times have you been on a project that is struggling and it becomes clear that not enough time was spent, not enough understanding of the users' real needs or their real context was understood? This book gives everyone, not just researchers the tools and tips to make the most out of qualitative efforts.

I could write an entire book on how important the regular user, the regular consumer is to the success of your business efforts. Almost every project that I am pulled into to 'help/fix/lend-a-hand' has an issue with a lack of understanding of the end-user. Many have for one reason or another been affected by HPPO (Highest Paid Persons Opinion) and do not know what things are not going as planned. Talking to the end-user and getting the right information is critical. Giving a survey or form is not enough. Asking users to come and tell you what they want isn't going to cut it either. As Henry Ford is credited for saying, if I asked people what they wanted, they would have said, faster horses. This is often used to discourage qualitative research, but that misses the point. It isn't about asking one question, getting one answer, and running off to make that. We need to understand and if possible empathize with the end-user of whatever we are selling or working on and talking to humans is crucial in knowing what matters.

Here is the link to the book on Amazon.