Vikram Chatterji discusses why, when, and how product managers should get to know their users. He emphasizes that understanding users is an ongoing process across the entire product development cycle from discovery to iteration. Some key times to gather feedback include during discovery to understand pain points, during development to test hypotheses, and after launch to evaluate goals and make refinements. Internally, product managers should create feedback channels across teams. The overall goal is to immerse oneself in user feedback to design from their perspective.

1. How to Get to Know Your Users by
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7. Tonight’s Speaker
Vikram Chatterji

8. Getting to know your
users.
Why, when and how?

9. Why? When? How?
5 quick
examples.
[Source
]

10. Why? When? How?
5 quick
examples.

11. Why? When? How?
5 quick
examples.
[Source
]

12. Why? When? How?
5 quick
examples.
[Source
]

13. Why? When? How?
5 quick
examples.
[Source
]

14. At what point in the product
development process should
you gather knowledge about the
customer/user?

15. ALWAYS.
Getting to know your users is
a never ending task.
It isn’t a point in time activity.
It lasts across the product
development process.
At what point in the product
development process should
you gather knowledge about the
customer/user?

16. [source
]
IDE
O

17. [source
]
Stanford
D.School

18. [source
]
British Design Council’s Double
Diamond

19. [source
]
Dan Nessler

20. Discover
& Define
Develo
p
Launc
h
Lear
n
Iterat
e

21. Discover
& Define
Develo
p
Launc
h
Lear
n
Iterat
e
What are our core
customer segments?
What are their pain
points?
What features would
alleviate those pain
points?

22. Discover
& Define
Develo
p
Launc
h
Lear
n
Iterat
e
What are our core
customer segments?
What are their pain
points?
What features would
alleviate those pain
points?
Does the MVP meet
our customer (and
business) goals?
What product
refinements can be
made pre-launch?

23. Discover
& Define
Develo
p
Launc
h
Lear
n
Iterat
e
What are our core
customer segments?
What are their pain
points?
What features would
alleviate those pain
points?
Does the MVP meet
our customer (and
business) goals?
Did we meet our
goals?
Were our hypotheses
correct?
Where did we fail and
why?
What product
refinements can be
made pre-launch?

24. Discover
& Define
Develo
p
Launc
h
Lear
n
Iterat
e
What are our core
customer segments?
What are their pain
points?
What features would
alleviate those pain
points?
Does the MVP meet
our customer (and
business) goals?
Did we meet our
goals?
Were our hypotheses
correct?
Where did we fail and
why?
What product
refinements can be
made pre-launch?
Open ended Specific

25. Discover
& Define
Develo
p
Launc
h
Lear
n
Iterat
e
Sales team (B2B)
Growth/Ops team (B2C)
What are our core
customer segments?
What are their pain
points?
What features would
alleviate those pain
points?
Does the MVP meet
our customer (and
business) goals?
Did we meet our
goals?
Were our hypotheses
correct?
Where did we fail and
why?
What product
refinements can be
made pre-launch?

26. Discover
& Define
Develo
p
Launc
h
Lear
n
Iterat
e
Sales team (B2B)
Growth/Ops team (B2C)
Internal dogfooding
What are our core
customer segments?
What are their pain
points?
What features would
alleviate those pain
points?
Does the MVP meet
our customer (and
business) goals?
Did we meet our
goals?
Were our hypotheses
correct?
Where did we fail and
why?
What product
refinements can be
made pre-launch?

27. Discover
& Define
Develo
p
Launc
h
Lear
n
Iterat
e
Sales team (B2B)
Growth/Ops team (B2C) Internal dogfooding
What are our core
customer segments?
What are their pain
points?
What features would
alleviate those pain
points?
Does the MVP meet
our customer (and
business) goals?
Did we meet our
goals?
Were our hypotheses
correct?
Where did we fail and
why?
What product
refinements can be
made pre-launch?

28. Internally, create a direct
feedback channel - to gather
feedback across teams and
levels — have engineering and
design be a part of it.
It’s a nice bare bones way of
keeping a pulse on the feedback
internally.
[more reading]
Taking a step
back…

29. There will be a lot of
product feedback
coming your way as a
PM.
Goal is to surround
yourself by the
feedback to feel like
you are in the user’s
shoes.
Internally, create a direct
feedback channel - to gather
feedback across teams and
levels — have engineering and
design be a part of it.
It’s a nice bare bones way of
keeping a pulse on the feedback
internally.
[more reading]
Taking a step
back…

30. There will be a lot of
product feedback
coming your way as a
PM.
Goal is to surround
yourself by the
feedback to feel like
you are in the user’s
shoes.
Internally, create a direct
feedback channel - to gather
feedback across teams and
levels — have engineering and
design be a part of it.
It’s a nice bare bones way of
keeping a pulse on the feedback
internally.
[more reading]
Develop a knack
to filter the signal
from the noise
while keeping the
business goals in
mind.
Taking a step
back…

31. Parting
thoughts
• “But I am the user” or “But the users don’t know what they
want” are red flag statements.
• Be cautious of creating a sampling bias or asking biased/leading
questions.
• Ensure that you have instrumentation for feedback across the
product development process and are always listening.
• Understanding your user/customer is a never ending process.

32. Questions?

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