Hi Robert, Is user research making up for the lack of a company listening?
I can say that often parts of most company are listening - namely those that deal directly with customers, employees as you mention.. I have found that a short cut to exstensive user research can often be sit down with a representative for the company - someone who deals with customers on a regular basis. It's their job to understand the customer / user and often you can get rich uncluttered information from them. Wether this makes it's way to the 'decision' makers is a different aspect. Most large companies are dysfunctional in terms of information flow between departments and it can be the people making decisions have the worst infomration to go on, so look for it outside when often it's not even a matter of talking to the customer but talking to fellow employees. The customer facing folks in an organisation are often great for defining your example users (I'm not going to use the term personas as I try not to use them) and can lead to a path of least resistance in talking to people outside of the company. BUT even if the company has done a great job of listening there is always information a user experience person would need that contextual enquiry can find that the customer / user may not have thought of mentioning because it lies outside the perceived day to day interaction with the company/organisation. I have worked with companies who do listen (a large energy company in the UK for example was a pleasure to work with as they where very customer aware for example). So the 'not listening' isnt a rule I'd say, just a symptom of some organisations who are doing business for business sake (too many processes, meetings, layers of management and in ability to get even basic customer behavour information). Cheers Stewart Dean On 01/01/2008, Robert Hoekman, Jr. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I've been reading Allison Fine's wonderful book, Momentum: Igniting Social > Change in the Connected > Age<http://www.amazon.com/Momentum-Igniting-Social-Change-Connected/dp/0787984442/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199227694&sr=8-1> > . > > In one section, Fine talks about "the listening deficit" that cripples most > organizations, positing that corporations and NPOs alike tend to continually > push their own agendas and hope their customers will simply remain quiet and > keep giving them money. > > When they later realize this isn't working, for whatever reason, they hire > outsiders to figure out who their customers really are and what they need. > Instead of listening to their customers, donors, volunteers, employees, > fans, and so on in the first place, they pay *someone else* to do something > they could and should have done themselves. > After pondering this rant for a moment, I thought about the User Experience > profession. > > Does the user research aspect of your work exist only because companies are > incapable of listening to and holding conversations with their own customers > in the first place, or does your reseach provide value beyond what internal > staff could have learned on their own had they been listening? > > Is user research simply a band-aid for the listening deficit, or does it > bring something more powerful to the table? > > -r- > ________________________________________________________________ > *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* > February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA > Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > -- Stewart Dean ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
