A social media platform, a GPS heads-up display, a video streaming platform: all are examples of viable products … that failed. The failure came despite often substantial financial funding and putatively useful features. Their failures were blamed on poor product-market fit. Predicting a prospective product’s success in the market isn’t easy. But there’s a strong
The Net Promoter Score is ubiquitous, with many large organizations using it as a key metric. But despite its widespread adoption, there are vocal critics. It’s been called snake oil, deceptive, fake science, and harmful. In our webinar series and on our website, we’ve addressed several aspects of the NPS, including the enmity toward it.
How much did you spend last month on clothing? What grocery stores have you visited in the last three months? How helpful are your Netflix recommendations? Surveys and other research methods (such as in-depth interviewing) often rely on participants recalling prior events or behaviors. For example, these could be about purchasing a product or service
To make better decisions, you need data. That’s become a truism. But can the process of using the data lead to bad outcomes? It seems like a hypothetical question, but it doesn’t take long to find a few key metrics that, when tracked, can lead to unwanted outcomes: On-time departures: On-time flight departures for airlines
There are a lot of opinions about the best formats for agreement scales. Sometimes those opinions are strongly held and can lead to lengthy, heated discussions within research teams. When format differences affect measurement properties, those discussions may be time well spent, but when the formats don’t matter (or matter very little), the time is
We typically recommend small sample sizes (5–10) for conducting iterative usability testing meant to find and fix problems (formative evaluations). For benchmark or comparative studies, where the focus is on detecting differences or estimating population parameters (summative evaluations), we recommend using larger sample sizes (20–100+). Usability testing can be used to uncover problems and assess the
One of these things is not like the other. That’s the theme of a segment on the long-running US TV show Sesame Street. As children, we learn to identify similarities and differences. And after seeing a group of things that look similar, we tend to remember the differences. Why? Well, one theory describes something called
There’s no shortage of opinions about the Net Promoter Score. There’s nothing wrong with an opinion. It’s just better when there’s data backing it. Unfortunately, when it comes to opinions about the Net Promoter Score, especially how the underlying question is displayed, the opinions are often based on anecdotes and out-of-context “best practices.” At MeasuringU,
In an earlier article, we reviewed five competing models of delight. The models differed in their details, but most shared the general idea that delight is composed of an unexpected positive experience. Or, for the most part, delight is a pleasant surprise. However, there is disagreement on whether you actually need surprise to be delighted.
The hold music. The wait time. The menu that always seems to have just changed. Calling customer service is not usually what people want to do in their spare time. But it’s often necessary and represents an important touchpoint for companies that interact with their customers. Understanding why people call customer support is also a
