Who are your users?

In this video, 4 product managers discuss how they define a user. They also talk about their own products and their users – who they are and how they use these products.

Understanding your users

Before you can start to build a product, you need to understand your users and their needs.

Product managers speak directly with users, observe research sessions, review feedback and analyse user data. This ongoing interaction allows you to fully understand your users and their needs.

In many organisations, there’s a temptation to think of yourself as a user or to build for your own organisation and what it needs. People often think they know what ‘should’ be done and build to their own biases before doing the hard work to understand users and their needs.

If a product doesn’t meet a user’s need, it won’t be used. That wastes time and effort.

Thinking about your users will help you to build more effective products. Consider who they are, what they need to do, and barriers they might face.

Product vision boards, including the examples we looked at together and your own that you created at the end of Week 1, contain information about your target audience – your users.

Example: HM Passport Office

Let’s look at an example – HM Passport Office (HMPO).

HMPO is part of the UK Home Office. It is the only place to get a UK passport.

Go to the HMPO website and think about these questions:

• who might need their information?
• who might use their services?

Based on your answers to these questions, now try to think of some examples of HMPO user categories or groups. Make sure your examples are not:

• too general, such as ‘people who need a passport’
• too specific, such as ‘British women between 40 and 50 years old who live overseas and have had their passports stolen’

A user description that is too general will not help you understand more specific user needs, but a description that is too specific may mean your product only meets the needs of a very small group of users.

A good example of a user of the HMPO website would be ‘an adult living in the UK applying to renew their UK passport.’

This description is general enough to allow you to meet the needs of a large group of users, but there is also enough detail for you to design a product that meets specific user needs: adults [not children] who are renewing their UK passports [not applying for their first passports] who are currently in the UK [not abroad].

Task

In the comments section below, share your ideas of potential user groups of the HMPO website. You could also try to think of a user description that would apply to you and compare ideas with other learners.