Ride Along

Product Discovery Technique

Product Discovery Continued: 

This article will break down the “Ride Along” Technique to assist with product discovery in the Problem Space.

A Ride Along is exactly what it sounds like. Go through an experience/process in the passenger seat with your customer. This will help you understand what the experience is really like for the customer as you recreate it realtime. 

In this example, picture an online shopping experience. 

1. Since we were not with the customer in the first experience, let's recreate it with them. 

   1. Start at the beginning. 

2. Ask “How did we get here?” Set the scene.

   1. Where did the customer start this online shopping experience? Did they see an ad? Did they start a search in a search engine? Did they go directly to the e-commerce site?  

   2. What had just happened beforehand?

   3. Where were they?

   4. What were they using? (device) 

   5. Did they know what they were looking for? 

You want a full picture and understanding of what headspace the customer was in.

3. Walkthrough

   1. Now we ask them to walk through, step by step what actions they took. 

   2. Every click or tap should be looked at. What was the intention with that action?

Here you will want to get them to talk out loud. Narrate their thoughts and feelings as they go through the experience. 

4. Observe

   1. Watch carefully and note the person’s actions, word choice and their emotions throughout the process. 

   2. If something is not clear, ask more about it. 

   3. If something surprises you, ask more about it.

Here you’re learning more about the POV of the customer. 

5. Close

   1. As they complete the customer journey, ask them how they feel about the experience.

      1. Are they happy about it? Annoyed? This helps confirm whether or not what you think they experienced matches what they experienced.

Now that you have this data, you need to pick it apart and see where there are areas for improvement. Focusing on these areas will help validate ideas and will improve focusing on problems that arise in a given experience. 

Tips for asking questions:

• Try and ask open, non leading questions.

• “What would you like to see?” “Then what happens?” “How did you make that decision?”

• Paraphrase back to them to cross check your understanding