Customer Research
Customer research is a systematic process of gathering and analyzing information about customers, their needs, behaviors, and preferences to inform product development, marketing, and business decisions. It involves qualitative and quantitative methods such as interviews, surveys, usability testing, and data analysis to understand user pain points and validate assumptions. This methodology helps teams build products that better meet customer expectations and improve user experience.
Developers should learn customer research to build user-centric products, reduce development waste by avoiding features users don't need, and improve product-market fit. It's crucial during the discovery phase of a project, when prioritizing features, or when iterating on an existing product based on user feedback. For example, conducting usability tests can reveal interface issues that developers might overlook from a technical perspective alone.