Qualitative Customer Research

IES762
SIN-56-E
January 2019
Qualitative Customer Research

Claudia Röthke
Robert Wayne Gregory
Why Do We Need Customer Research?

In order to design and develop solutions that engage users and help customers get their relevant
jobs done, we need deep qualitative insight that goes beyond numbers and abstract patterns.
In today’s environment, where customer behaviors and expectations continuously change as a
result of the direct impact of evolving digital technology, companies are increasingly identifying
qualitative customer research as a key activity and capability. Oftentimes, offerings are not
successful because companies do not understand their customers’ needs and expectations.
More importantly, they think they know their customers and their needs, as well as the contexts
in which those needs arise, but in fact they have never holistically analyzed them or reanalyzed
them in the light of major environmental changes.
There are many factors that shape customer expectations towards offerings. One such factor is
the availability of technology and technological literacy. Customers use and expect multiple
channels when it comes to accessing products and services. Digital technologies have greatly
framed our experiences in terms of look and feel, ease of use and performance. Moreover, these
technological enhancements allow companies to create very customized and interconnected
offerings. This leads to the development of highly individualized expectations about customers’
particular journeys and the jobs to be done.1
In order to create offerings that are successful in the market, customers’ needs, contexts and
expectations cannot be assumed; they must be thoroughly researched and understood.
Qualitative research methods allow us to reveal the contexts and expectations in ways that
traditional quantitative methods do not. The purpose of this technical note is to introduce the
concept of user-centered design. In addition, several qualitative methods will be described, and
brief explanations of how to apply them will be given. Third and finally, guidance will be provided
1 For a definition of the jobs-to-be-done concept, see: https://jtbd.info/2-what-is-jobs-to-be-done-jtbd-796b82081cca.
This technical note was prepared by Claudia Röthke, Product manager and coach, and Professor Robert Wayne Gregory.
January 2019.
Copyright © 2019 IESE. To order copies contact IESE Publishing via www.iesepublishing.com. Alternatively, write to
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Last edited: 1/18/19
This document is authorized for use only in Anand Kumar Jaiswal, Akshaya Vijayalakshmi's PGP I (Term 3) : Business Research Methods (BRM) 2019-20 at Indian Institute of Management -
Ahmedabad from Dec 2019 to Mar 2020.
SIN-56-E Qualitative Customer Research
about structuring the data that has been gathered using design thinking tools. After reading this
note, you may be able to create a qualitative research design for your product idea.
Qualitative Research Methods in Human-Centered Design

Much knowledge and insights about qualitative customer research can be derived from the
human-centered design approach in general and design thinking in particular. Design thinking is
a thought framework that promotes divergent thinking, customer centricity and empathy
building. Moreover, it is a methodological step-by-step approach to the creation of innovative
products or services that provide real value to potential customers.
The design thinking process consists of five sequential phases. First, the goal is to empathize
with the customer, determine his or her jobs to be done and identify the specific needs that
arise in different contexts. Second, the problem that should be solved has to be defined, based
on the customer’s job-to-be-done perspective. Third, ideating for solutions brings up potential
ideas. Fourth, the solutions are transformed into prototypes. Finally, the prototyped solutions
are tested. In this note we focus on the first and foundational step of human-centered design:
empathy building.
Empathy is the ability to identify and understand other peoples’ emotions from their point of
view, rather than from your own. When designing solutions, entrepreneurs and designers are
rarely faced with solving their own problems. Therefore, they need to put themselves into the
customers’ shoes. To give an example, Tom Hulme, a partner at Google Ventures and former
manager at IDEO, sheds light on the significance of empathy with the customer when creating
successful products. He uses the comparison with physical shortcuts in public spaces to illustrate
how users create workarounds in poorly designed public infrastructures.2
To empathize, you need to observe, engage and immerse. Observe the customers and their
behavior in the context of their everyday lives and their naturally occurring environment. Engage
with them by interacting with and interviewing customers. Immerse yourself in their context by
experiencing what they experience.
How to Start the Research Process

Qualitative customer research starts with open research: that is, the holistic collection of data
and the synthesis of observations carried out with a mindset of “all is data”. The goal is to get a
feel for the context of the potential customers, do trend research, collect statistical data and
gather input about competitors or the market. This is the foundation for setting a research
objective and a common-sense step in approaching the customer research objective. Sources
for open research may include megatrend maps, statistical data and infographics (e.g., Statista
or sources on demographic research), and pages like Thinkwithgoogle.com.3 Moreover, you can
research potential competitive markets by finding industry-wide trends, technologies, thought
leaders and conferences. Once you have gathered these initial insights about your potential
customers and solution field, the way is paved for more in-depth and hands-on qualitative
research.
2 https://www.ted.com/talks/tom_hulme_what_can_we_learn_from_shortcuts
3 Insights on Gen Z:
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/interactive-report/gen-z-a-look-inside-its-mobile-first-
mindset/#dive-deeper.
2 IESE Business School-University of Navarra
Qualitative Customer Research SIN-56-E
Whom to Address to Build Empathy

According to the author of Talking to Humans, Giff Constable, the best way to begin qualitative
research is to first have an idea whom to talk to and observe. He recommends people from these
three categories of groups:
1. the typical customer you envision if you get traction with your idea
2. your early adopters,4 i.e., the people who will take a chance on your product before
anyone else
3. critical partners for distribution, fulfillment, or other parts of your business
Source: Giff Constable, Talking to Humans (2014), p. 11.
Qualitative Methods
Qualitative methods are used when you begin to design an offering under uncertainty and many
questions are open. Who is your target group? What problems and needs does this target group
have? Where do you see a niche market? What is your offering going to be? Qualitative research
helps to gain insights into these initial questions before coming up with any solution ideas. This
phase is structured but unpredictable. It is important to take up a curious beginner’s mindset
that focuses on details and nuances. At this stage it is not about proving something to be either
right or wrong but rather engaging in exploration and discovery of your potential target group
and its contexts. You start with researching the people you think could be potential customers.
Insights and empathy emerge from these first encounters and guide the following research. New
insights have a great impact on where to steer the research in the subsequent phase, e.g., how
to change the questions or whom to talk to next. Qualitative research is done with only a few
participants at the same time, so sampling matters – that is, deciding whom you choose to
4 Innovation adoption curve:

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Rogers-adoption-innovation-curve-Adapted-from-
Rogers-E-2003-The-Diffusion-of_fig4_317061409.
IESE Business School-University of Navarra 3
interact with and where to collect the next data slices. It is important to encounter the
participants in their own contexts or the potential product-related contexts. Choose locations
where the participants are comfortable and behave naturally.
Behavioral and Attitudinal Studies

Qualitative research can be differentiated into behavioral and attitudinal studies. Behavioral
studies shed light on what people do, how they use a product or service or how they create
solutions for themselves if something is not working according to their needs. Observational
field studies are the best methods to identify behaviors and should be done first. Attitudinal
studies focus on what people say, what their sentiment is towards something and what choices
they have made in the past. Attitudes can best be researched by conducting interviews, in the
field or in the lab. Attitudinal studies build on the learnings from behavioral studies.
Both types of studies stem from ethnographic research. Ethnography is a research method that
literally means “description of people”. It originated in the social sciences in the times of
colonialism, when academics ventured out to observe and live with people in their contexts and
environments. Its goal is to thoroughly understand behaviors, relations and motivations from
the subject’s perspective, without imposing one’s own beliefs or prejudice on the subject.5 It
serves to study the subjects through the behavioral and attitudinal lens. The use of ethnographic
research has spread to many other fields: i.e., organizational and business studies like marketing,
leadership and product design. Design ethnography aims at understanding the future users of a
design and is the research field that will be focused on in this technical note.
Behavioral Studies: Ethnographic Observations

Coming back to the sequential research design process, you begin with the open research. This
helps to build assumptions and hunches in order to formulate a research question. The research
question and the idea of who your target customer might be determines the choice of your first
field site for your research. It is important to choose a site that is accessible for you to observe
your subjects.
Once you are in the field, you should bear in mind that the best way to understand peoples’
needs is through observation and seeing the world through their eyes. As a researcher you stay
in the background and observe your subjects. Your observation can be guided by the following
questions:
 Whom do I see?
 What are people doing? What are they trying to accomplish?
 What is the social setting like? Are people alone or in groups? Are they interacting with
each other?
 Is the person going through difficulty fulfilling the task or activity I am observing? Can I
identify any pain points?
 Is the person delighted by something? Can I identify any wow-effects?
5 For further reading on ethnography and anthropology see Monaghan, J., Just, P. (2000): Social and Cultural Anthropology:
A Very Short Introduction.
 Is the person using any workarounds or hacks for the observed activity?
 What else is happening on site that is relevant to my observation and research?
After each observation, write field notes on what you experienced. Effective field notes consist
of several parts. First, write down the words and phrases you heard on the field site. Second,
describe what happened on the site (who, what, where, when, how). Third comes the analysis
of what you learned about your research question or other related points. Fourth, you reflect
about what you thought, felt and learned when making observations. Finally, you note down
which new questions emerged or which future actions can be derived from this observation.6
As a result of the observation7 and analyzing field notes, you gain a data foundation that allows
you to develop informed assumptions and insights, which potentially change or specify your
initial research question. When analyzing the data pay attention to patterns, connections,
similarities or contrasting points. The overall goal of observation is to learn in the process and
refine your idea of the target group and their needs, iteration by iteration. Most likely after the
observation rounds, many new questions will emerge. Try to find answers for these questions:
What do my field data slices tell me? What have I learned in the field? What unique things can I
say about my research question?
Attitudinal Studies: Ethnographic Interviews

Interviews help to gain a deeper understanding of why people do things the way they do them.
Observations and assumptions can be clarified and supplemented in the interview phase. This
allows you to gain greater insights about attitudes and motivations that have remained
uncertain. In ethnographic research, analysis and interpretation take place throughout the
process. Hence, interviews can be conducted during or after observations, e.g., when subjects
need to be asked for clarification, or after the observation phase once the data has been
analyzed. During the iterative process of behavioral and attitudinal studies, both types can be
combined.
Conducting interviews requires several steps of preparation. First, the interviewees need to be
sampled and invited. In order to do this, the target group needs to be refined again. It is also
advisable to invite extreme users who either do not use the observed offering or activity at all
or, on the contrary, use it very extensively. This widens the perspective on how different people
create workarounds for themselves and helps to understand people who either do not feel the
need or have explicitly decided against using a particular offering. Exploring the boundaries of a
target group helps to refine it successively. Second, you need to prepare the interview. Think
about the questions that emerged from the observations, which help to support your refined
research question. Make a list of questions and formulate them in an open-ended format.
Ensure that at least one observer is joining the interview to take notes. Choose a room or setting
that is comfortable for the interviewee and stay in the interviewee’s context if possible. Third,
in conducting the interview many points need to be considered. Many experienced interviewers
6 Template for field notes: https://www.silearning.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ethnographic-fieldnotes.pdf.

7 Traditional observation can be enriched by other more technology-driven ethnographic methods like eye tracking,
diaries and vox pops: https://blog.flexmr.net/creative-examples-of-ethnographic-research.
give advice on what to pay attention to8 Giff Constable (2014) dedicates a whole chapter on
advice for productive (interview) sessions (p. 52 ff). The summary of his points is as follows:
 Interviews should be face to face; one person at a time.
 Listen; do not talk more than necessary.
 Practice active listening (summarize, parrot back or misrepresent intentionally).
 Note taker or observer takes notes of actual quotes; don’t interpret them yet.
 Start with a warm-up.
 Avoid confirmation bias (do not try to confirm your assumptions).
 Get interviewees to tell a story or give real-life examples of behavior and usage.
 Look for solution hacks.
 Ask why and keep asking why until you can drill down to the root causes (e.g., with the
“5 Why” method).9
If you are present with interviewees in their home or office environment where they habitually
use the product or service, have them demonstrate how they use it. As they walk through the
process, delve into the ease or difficulties that they might encounter at each step.
Synthesizing Research Data With Design Thinking Tools

During ethnographic observations and interviews, troves of insights and data are gathered. It
cannot be sufficiently emphasized that this is an iterative and unpredictable process of learning,
whereby new insights may emerge unexpectedly, potentially disrupting any initial plans you may
have formulated. During the process you will refine your target group and the research
questions, ultimately gaining a good understanding of your potential customers’ needs. Several
design thinking tools can be used to structure your collected data and transform it into
communicable artifacts. They help focus your discussion and offer a perspective for the analysis
of the data.
“Personas” are a classic tool to humanize the target group. Personas are hypothetical or fictitious
consumers with human characteristics. Although they are supposed to represent a larger group
of consumers, the traits seem very personal and individual. As opposed to generic target groups
that are characterized by demographics and averages, personas make it easier to relate to and
know who you are designing for. However, beware of creating personas that combine the
average traits of everyone and end up representing no one. Rather, define personas in their
contexts including their motivations in that context.10 The “future user” tool extends the persona
8 For more practical advice, check out these interviewer tips by Michael Margolis, interviewing expert for Design Sprints
at Google Ventures: https://library.gv.com/get-better-data-from-user-studies-16-interviewing-tips-328d305c3e37 or Dan

Moulthrop with his video on “The Art of Asking Questions”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZSY0PssqH0.
9 “5 Whys” is a method that helps understand the causes of a decision, statement or behavior. You start with a question
and after each answer you ask why. This encourages the interviewee to think of the actual reasons behind his or her
answers.
10 See the Medium article “Kill Your Personas” for more insights into personas and their contexts.
https://medium.com/microsoft-design/kill-your-personas-1c332d4908cc.
by extrapolating motivations and lifestyles. This method takes on the perspective of how today’s
personas might develop in the future. For very radical innovation projects or offerings that will
be used in the future, it is beneficial to build empathy with the future users as well.
Another tool to enhance the insights about your target customer is “A day in the life.” This tool
sheds light on the subject’s day-to-day routine and on the day-and-night rhythm. It may yield
insights about the typical activities in a person’s everyday life that are performed subconsciously,
allowing you to learn about interaction points and potential gaps. The data to fill in the daily
routine can be gathered by following and observing the person all day or by means of conducting
in-depth interviews. This method is time consuming but enables you to identify potential
opportunities for product offerings.11
The “empathy map” is a tool that visualizes what the user says, thinks, does and feels. Once you
have completed the ethnographic observations and interviews, bulks of data are at your fingertips
to fill the map. Make sure you stick with what you saw and heard, and write it down in the form of
direct quotes. This avoids interpretation biases and helps you communicate your insights to others
more effectively. Empathy maps can be created for single users or as an aggregated version for
multiple users. Below is an example of an empathy map for buying a TV. Read the article cited in
the source line for a detailed description of how to create empathy maps.
Source: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/empathy-mapping/
11 https://think.design/user-design-research/a-day-in-the-life/.
Mapping out the “customer journey” is another helpful method when you already know which
offering you are trying to develop or improve. The goal is to identify the different phases,
channels and touchpoints the customer goes through before, during and after using or buying
an offering. This uncovers the customers’ expectations, wow effects, anxieties and pain points
in the process. The identified gaps represent the innovation potential for optimizing the offering.
In-depth instructions for creating customer journey maps can be found on the IdeoU website.12
Below is a Starbucks’ “Customer Journey Map” as an example for Eric, a repeat customer who
wants to drink coffee and do some work at a Starbucks cafe. It shows the potential steps on his
customer journey as a sequence with different values that may enrich or impair his customer
experience. Also check out the in-depth analysis of his thoughts during the journey in the
footnotes.13
Source: https://coschedule.com/blog/customer-journey-map-template/.
12 https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/use-customer-journey-maps-to-uncover-innovation-opportunities.
13 http://theoperationsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/experiencemap1.pdf.
Role of Digital Technology in Qualitative Customer Research

Digital technologies have transformed qualitative research in creating, processing, analyzing and
visualizing qualitative data and insights. First, technology has improved how data is gathered
today. Observations and interviews are supported by video and audio recording technologies,
which make data collection and storage much simpler. Moreover, traditional research methods
can be enhanced to encompass wider audiences or deeper contexts using technology: e.g.,
through videoconferencing for focus groups; when users create online diaries or vox pops with
their mobile phones on the spot; or when subjects are observed using eye tracking technologies.
In addition, technology has changed the way qualitative data is analyzed. Computer-assisted
data analysis, coding software and AI tools process data and support qualitative data analyses
by making it more efficient to find patterns, similarities and gaps in the data. When quantifying
and visualizing qualitative data, infographics, heatmaps, word clouds and many others are
helpful to visualize and communicate findings.
Nonetheless, the goal of qualitative research is to develop empathy. Do not fall into the trap of
letting digital technologies guide your research. Begin your research with as little technology as
possible in order to develop your empathy and thought-process first. Add technology once you
become more experienced in qualitative customer research. After all, “A fool with a tool is still
a fool.”
Conclusion
Qualitative customer research is essential to successfully build empathy and an emotional
connection with your potential customers. It is the foundational phase before designing
offerings and creates the basis for any ideation process and further research. Time not spent on
gaining a thorough understanding of your customers and their needs will negatively impact your
effectiveness throughout the development and delivery of the offering.

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Why Do We Need Customer Research?

1 For a definition of the jobs-to-be-done concept, see: https://jtbd.info/2-what-is-jobs-to-be-done-jtbd-796b82081cca.

Last edited: 1/18/19

Qualitative Research Methods in Human-Centered Design

How to Start the Research Process

2 IESE Business School-University of Navarra

Whom to Address to Build Empathy

Source: Giff Constable, Talking to Humans (2014), p. 11.

4 Innovation adoption curve:

IESE Business School-University of Navarra 3

Behavioral and Attitudinal Studies

Behavioral Studies: Ethnographic Observations

A Very Short Introduction.

4 IESE Business School-University of Navarra

Attitudinal Studies: Ethnographic Interviews

6 Template for field notes: https://www.silearning.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ethnographic-fieldnotes.pdf.

diaries and vox pops: https://blog.flexmr.net/creative-examples-of-ethnographic-research.

IESE Business School-University of Navarra 5

Synthesizing Research Data With Design Thinking Tools

at Google Ventures: https://library.gv.com/get-better-data-from-user-studies-16-interviewing-tips-328d305c3e37 or Dan

6 IESE Business School-University of Navarra

IESE Business School-University of Navarra 7

8 IESE Business School-University of Navarra

Role of Digital Technology in Qualitative Customer Research

IESE Business School-University of Navarra 9

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