What is human-centred research?
Image: Robin Worrall on Unsplash.💡 Key take-outs:
Human-centred research is an approach to solving business problems using primary research. It is distinct from market, user and social research.
The guiding principle of human-centred research is that organizations need to understand why customers buy to develop products that meet their needs.
Human-centred research has value across the entire product lifecycle.
When we launched Phase One Insights, our goal was to do market research for product teams in a faster and more lightweight way than traditional research agencies.
Three years and more than fifty projects later, we’ve broadened and refined our vision for the company. At the same time, we’ve become much clearer about our distinctive approach to research.
We call our approach to research, ‘human-centred research’.
So, what is human-centred research and why should you care?
Let’s start with what human-centred research is not
Human-centred research is not market research.
Market research tends to be client-centred. It might involve:
brand-centred research (e.g. studies that ask people what they think of a brand)
category-centred research (e.g. studies that explore how a product stacks up against its competitors)
product-centred research (e.g. studies that try to work out what product features people like best)
This kind of research has its place, but it is not what we do. This statement may surprise clients who have always perceived Phase One as a market research company, but please - read on!
Human-centred research is not user research.
User research focuses on users (surprise!). It focuses on micro-level product changes that will drive engagement, usage and growth.
Again, this research has its place, but it’s not what we do.
Human-centred research is not social research.
Social research explores social issues, trends and patterns. It’s typically used by governments and NGOs to inform policy decisions and to design interventions aimed at addressing social problems.
Once again, this kind of research has its place, but it’s not what we do.
Human-centred research solves business problems by focusing on the question: ‘why?’
Human-centred research starts with the challenges faced by the customer (actual or potential), not the client. This is what distinguishes it from other forms of research.
The guiding principle of human-centred research is that customers are people, first and foremost. Their lives are richer and more complex than their occasional interaction with your brand, category or product might suggest. As a business, you need to understand this human context if you are to intervene in it successfully.
Fundamentally, you need to understand customer motivations - why they buy. Our job is to bring the ‘why?’ to life in ways that are relevant to your business problem.
This is a simple truth, easily forgotten.
Businesses that don’t solve customer problems in some shape or form go out of business!
How do we achieve this?
First, we work with you to define what we call the ‘problem space’. What is the customer trying to achieve when they come into contact with your product or service? What problem, or problems, are they trying to solve?
In recent projects, we’ve explored problem spaces such as:
How to create a more sustainable business
How to pay for private school fees
How to manage the household finances
How to manage business cashflow
How to make frequent international travel more endurable
Next, using mixed-methods research, we build a rich and deep understanding of customers’ lives as they relate to the problem space. This is where customer empathy comes to the fore. We back up our insights with robust qualitative and quantitative data.
Finally, we translate our findings into compelling pieces of communication and help you activate them:
We create thinking tools like personas and journey maps (the kind based in solid evidence, not nutted out on the back of a serviette at the pub).
We develop video highlight reels to bring the insights and voice of the customer to life.
We refine and iterate value propositions, messaging, user experience and more.
We design and run workshops to align your team around the customer, help them identify and prioritize opportunities, and work together to form action plans.
Empathy helps to solve lots of business problems!
Oftentimes, people think of empathy research as a kind of luxury item in the world of research - something that’s nice to have if you’re designing a new product from scratch, but which can be dispensed with when time is tight and decisions need to be made.
Human-centred research builds on traditional approaches to empathy research so that it can be applied across the product lifecycle.
We’ve used human-centred research to help our clients with a wide range of business problems. In recent projects, we’ve helped clients:
Design a discounts program to drive behaviour change
Redesign the construct of a much-loved frequent flyer program
Understand why a financial product suffers from low take-up
Develop a 5-year customer experience roadmap
Test and refine a sustainable banking proposition
It is amazing how quickly the solution to a business problem comes into focus once you really understand the customer. Actually, this shouldn’t be surprising at all. We’re all in business to solve customer problems. Human-centred research just helps you do it faster.
