Why you shouldn't trust your users

Your users are like your children. They have opinions and hopes and entitlements and tantrums. Sometimes their demands are reasonable ("I'm thirsty") or unreasonable ("I want brownies for breakfast every day!"). If you want to create a great experience for your user, it's your job to figure out which requests are really in their best interest. They might think they know, and sometimes they're correct -- but like parents, sometimes you need to protect them from the times that they're wrong. (And conveniently, protecting them also protects you and your business.)

The parable of the pine nuts

Last week I went to Whole Foods to get some pine nuts for a kale salad. In case you're not aware, pine nuts are not cheap -- the smallest bag they had was $8.99 for what appeared to be 1.5 cups. Of course, one salad only takes a smattering of nuts, so spending $8.99 on it seemed gratuitously spendy. (Especially since I'm the only one in my apartment who even eats salad in the first place.) But I really did want that salad -- it's the most delicious recipe -- so I thought to myself "Perhaps I can justify this pricey purchase if the nuts will keep for a long time. Then, even if don't have another salad for two months, they'll still be good." This logic seemed sound and also allowed me to get my nuts guilt-free, so I looked all over the bag for something indicating how long they'd last after opening -- to no avail.

But Whole Foods employees are almost always really knowledgeable, so I started looking around for someone to ask. I wandered around from one aisle to the next, trying in vain to find someone. Eventually I found a fellow who had no idea how long pine nuts last, but he determinedly escorted me around the store, from employee to employee, each one saying "Oh, I bet Dan would know," or "Ask Clyde in the back." Down the rabbit hole we went, and at the end of our trek there was a very nice man who told me that pine nuts can last months without any ill effects. Great!

Then as I began to walk away -- now in a small hurry after the lengthy tour of Whole Foods employees -- the man added "You know, if the bag is too big..." I was a little impatient at being called back, since I now had my answer and wanted to get on my way. But I'm a nice person, so I put on a polite smile and turned back to face him. He continued: "If the bag is too big, you could just get them from the bulk foods aisle. Then you can buy however much you need." I nodded and thanked him, thinking "Yes, I know how grocery stores work." But it was only as I was walking away again that I realized that that was exactly what I needed; in my single-minded efforts to create my own solution, I had forgotten my ultimate goal. So I bought half a cup of pine nuts at a much more reasonable price.

The critical reader might point out that Whole Foods made less money off of me than if I'd bought the $8.99 bag. Maybe so. Or maybe I'll buy a lot more kale and pine nuts from them in the future now that I know I don't have to run the risk of wasting it. (I'd be very surprised if my lifetime customer value to Whole Foods hasn't increased after this.)

So how can I use this in my business?

The most important thing to understand from this post is that you can't always trust your customers. Not because they're liars, but because they're really susceptible to getting trapped in their own context. Really, we're all susceptible to that in all aspects of life - it's just that in business we're a lot more incentivized to fix it.

On the surface, of course, the question "how long will this food last?" doesn't seem very similar to "can I buy a smaller amount?" This Whole Foods employee was able to see past the question to my underlying goal beneath it -- even though I wasn't really aware of that goal anymore. That's a very impressive UX feat, and it shows that this fellow really understands his customers. On the other hand, many people understand the needs of shoppers in a grocery store -- it's not exactly a new business model. The tricky part is learning how to gain that understanding when your users' goals aren't as obvious.

So what can you do? There are lots of great ways to conduct user research that can mitigate this effect, such as writing surveys carefully and well. (See my guide on writing effective user surveys.) But every business is different, and the best way to get user feedback will vary from case to case. (If there were a one-size-fits-all solution to this, it wouldn't be a problem anymore.) Hiring a user experience expert is a great first step, though. Preferably one with a solid understanding of user research. As a matter of fact, I'm looking for work myself! Send me an email -- I'd love to talk about your company's needs.