27-Apr-2022
Recently, I joined the Design Team at Urban Company, an at-home beauty & home services platform as a Sr. UX Researcher from Crux.ai an AI-powered data informatics tool. I quickly realised the two were very different from a research perspective. I also realised that I was in a unique position to document these learnings as I adapted to a B2C company.
In this blog, I have collected these learnings over the 3-month transition.
1. Generating insights
Time spent with customers is directly proportional to the insights received. So a regular habit of speaking to users, observing their behaviour & listening in on support calls is a must for a project or otherwise.
In B2B, this is not a general practice since it might not be possible due to privacy clauses and the unavailability of your users; however, in B2C it is a matter of regularising it from your end as a practice.
2. Research questions drive research
The output you get out of a study depends on the research question you set out to answer. Therefore broader research questions lead to more general insights. Similarly, narrow research questions lead to specific hence actionable insights.
In B2B usually, the nature of the business itself is niche and therefore research questions naturally tend to be specific in nature. However, in B2C researchers need to intentionally narrow their research scope due to the vastness of users and the variety of problems in most cases.
Eg.
General question: Why do our users book a service?
General insight: Convenience!
Specific question: Why do repeating waxing users book a service?
Specific insight: So that they can get a consistent quality each time without any surprises.
3. Opportunities > Insights
It is best practice to give opportunities as end outcomes instead of insights. This helps in bridging the gap between an insight to a possible actionable.
Eg. Insight; Today 🌤 will be an average of 20℃ with a clear sky. Opportunity; Carry a light sweater 🧥 & shades 🕶.
This should be a regular practice in both B2B & B2C however, it becomes especially important in fast-paced markets such as in B2C.
4. Create a platform for conversation
Create a platform where users can reach out to give experience related inputs. This is different from support channels, this is just to collect ideas and have conversations about experiences. Our version of this was dedicating a phone with a dedicated number for UX research. This meant one POC for all things user research in a way that can be controlled.
This too is a good practice to have in general for both business models however, it becomes really important in the case of B2C due to the huge volume of users you are dealing with.
5. Keep a log of active participants
Keep a log of all interested and active participants who have given you input in the past. This list will be really helpful when you need to do quick recruiting for a project or get a quick validation of an idea.
In B2B businesses you will often have a list of POCs to reach out to in case of any immediate conversations who are motivated to help you out for their sake and yours so this point becomes less important in that scenario. In a B2C scenario, it’s imperative to have a list of users who are rooting for you and will help you out when there is a need.
6. Narrowing problem areas
It’s more important to know the top problems than to know how important each problem is while doing your research. Because often people tend to overemphasise every problem, and this holds true for both B2B & B2C businesses.
7. Insight database
It is simple to derive insights from a specific research exercise. The challenge is to maintain a living collection of intelligence about the product & that’s the need of the hour. This, too, holds true for both B2B & B2C businesses.