User tested: how the world's top companies use human insight to create great experiences

TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Figures xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Preface xv

Part 1 The Challenge: Understanding Customers as Humans, Not Data Points 1

1 Competing in the Experience Economy: Many Companies Succeed Despite Sub-Par Customer Understanding 3

2 The Missing Dimension: Why and How Human Insight Powers Great Experiences 21

Part 2 The Solution: Human Insight Powers Customer-Centric Actions 41

3 What’re You Trying to Answer? Mapping a User Test Approach to Your Desired Learnings 43

4 You Are Not Your Customer: How to Get Access to the Perspectives That Matter 63

5 Capture and Analyze: Sifting Through the Noise to Find the Signal 75

6 Take Action on Human Insight: Decide Where and How to Apply Your Learnings 89

Part 3 The Playbook: How Human Insight Fits into Your Business 97

7 Product Development: Creating Products People Love 99

8 Marketing: Getting Inside the Heads of Your Buyers 121

9 Every Team Owns the Experience: Optimizing the Holistic Customer Journey 149

Part 4 The Culture Shift: Applying Human Insight at Scale 173

10 Bottom Up: The Grassroots Movement 175

11 Top Down: How Executives Can Support and Model Change 191

One Final Note 205

Index 207

DESCRIPTION
An insightful discussion and practical guide on how to put customers back into the center of your business model

With so many digital experiences touching our lives—and businesses—it’s understandable to feel like you’re drowning in data. There’s a dashboard or chart for just about everything, but data alone can’t help you understand and empathize with your customers. No amount of it will take you inside their heads, help you see the world through their eyes, or let you experience what it’s really like to be your customer. Only human insight from real people can do that.

User Tested gives both individual contributors and executives an approachable, pragmatic playbook for stepping beyond standard business metrics and infusing real human insight into every business decision, design, and experience.

In this book, you’ll:

Learn how businesses became obsessed with data—but disconnected from their customers—and why that’s not sustainable
Get the basics about how to capture human insight through user testing, including how to find the right people, ask the right questions, and make sense of and act on all the insights you uncover
Dive into a detailed playbook that shares real-world examples of how you can collect and scale human insight across the teams in your organization—from marketing to product, and beyond
Learn how to evangelize the power of human insight throughout your organization, so every department can create a culture of customer empathy and share a firsthand understanding of customer needs
Find out how companies like Microsoft, AAA Club Alliance, HelloFresh, and Notre Dame’s IDEA Center solidly connect with and elicit meaningful feedback from customers in friendlier, faster, and more direct ways
Perfect for any industry, User Tested: How the World's Top Companies Use Human Insight to Create Great Experiences was co-authored by the chief insights officer and the CEO of UserTesting—a SaaS company fundamentally changing the way both B2B and consumer brands find out what real people think and feel. The book reflects the authors’ commitment to helping you position the customer squarely in the center of your business model by weaving their true voices throughout your company’s decision making.