Research for
what you build.

Interview potential customers about a recent task, their workarounds, and the cost of getting it wrong. For an invoicing tool, ask freelancers to walk through the last late payment they chased.

Show people two ways to solve the same problem and ask where each would fit into their day. Compare a shared support inbox with a personal reply assistant before choosing what to build.

Ask customers to make trade-offs between features, then explore their reasons. Would a small agency give up custom reports to get automatic client reminders?

Research current spending, budget ownership, and reactions to alternative offers. For a scheduling service, compare per-user and per-location pricing. Follow stated interest with a live offer test.

Ask people to explain your offer in their own words after a short exposure. Test whether “automate your finances” makes a founder expect bookkeeping, forecasting, or something else.

Compare ad concepts for recall, relevance, and the action people expect to take. Test a product walkthrough against a customer story with the audience you plan to reach.

Have prospective buyers read your page and identify what they still need to know. Check whether they can explain who the product serves, what it costs, and what happens after sign-up.

Explore which promises people believe and what proof they expect. For a refillable cleaning product, check how shoppers interpret the packaging claim and whether the label answers their questions.

Use interviews to find patterns, then survey a defined sample to examine how those patterns vary. For a meal service, explore planning habits, dietary needs, and time pressure rather than age alone.

Speak with the person who uses a product, the person who chooses it, and the person who approves the budget. Map where their priorities differ when a company buys project-management software.

Ask different customer groups the same questions about an offer. Compare how first-time and experienced online sellers respond to a fulfilment service, with the sample and uncertainty made explicit.

Examine problem frequency, unmet needs, and access to a budget. Compare solo consultants with small agencies before choosing an audience for your next sales experiment.

Speak with buyers in a target market about their expectations and existing options. Before expanding a booking service, investigate preferred payment methods, language, and support needs.

Interview people who recently changed providers, and those who decided to stay. For a payroll service, explore what triggered the search and what made migration feel risky.

Compare self-serve, assisted, and bundled offers with prospective buyers. Ask a small retailer what they would need to try a stock-management tool and who else would have to agree.

Reconstruct a recent purchase from first discovery to final choice. Find out whether buyers relied on peer recommendations, search, comparison sites, or a sales conversation, then plan a channel experiment.

Give participants a realistic goal and observe how they try to reach it. Ask a new customer to book an appointment, change the date, and find the cancellation terms without guidance.

Follow first-time users from arrival to their first useful outcome. Identify where an account setup, address form, or payment step leaves them unsure what to do next.

Have people try key journeys on relevant devices and record confusing labels, broken steps, and unclear recovery messages. Include users of assistive technology when that is part of the study scope.

Use agreed shopper scenarios to assess service against your standards. Compare the information, follow-up, and handover a customer receives when asking the same question online and in a store.