Let’s say you and a friend are traveling together on a weekend getaway. You decide to stay at a nice hotel where breakfast is included. You arrive late in the evening and decide to call it a day, get some rest and meet up for breakfast the next morning. Prior to turning in you turn to your friend and ask, “What do you plan on having for breakfast tomorrow?” Your friend responds, “It’s winter and I’m trying to lose some weight in time for beach season so I’ve been trying to eat healthy. I plan to have a small breakfast tomorrow – half a grapefruit, a piece of toast and black coffee.” You commend your friend on their dedication and goal and head to your room.
The next morning you oversleep by about 30 minutes. You head downstairs to the hotel breakfast area. Your friend is already there. In front of them is clear evidence of the feast they just had – fried eggs, bacon, potatoes, even a stray pancake with hints of maple syrup. You point incredulously at your friend and ask, “I thought you were going to eat healthy this morning!” Your friend, mildly embarrassed but full of confidence (and breakfast, apparently) replies, “Well, you were late and the brunch buffet here is amazing! Have you seen it?! I couldn’t help myself. So yeah, I had bacon and eggs and all the rest of it. Have a seat and get some of your own.”
We never make mistakes in the future
My guess is this scene sounds familiar to you. Even if the context is different for you, the gist of this exchange likely resonates in other contexts. You ask somebody – a friend, a colleague, a boss, a customer – what they plan on doing in the future. That person then replies with their aspirational plan for the future. Regardless of what they’ve done in the past, people aspire to do the right thing the next time they have the opportunity. When we picture the future we never make the same mistakes we made in the past. We always do the thing we and the person we’re speaking with think is the best thing to do in that situation. We learn from past experiences and make a plan to put that learning into action.
The other thing we try to never do in the future is disappoint the people we’re speaking with. If someone who you know is invested in your success asks you about your future plans, you’ll tell them what they want to hear. “I will eat right.” “I will exercise.” “I will finish the project.” “I will use your product.” (My personal favorite from years gone by is, “I will come to your band’s show.” They never did.) When predicting future behavior people will say the things they believe are best for them and that will please the person they’re speaking with.
We can’t predict the future – and that changes our behavior
Most of us have aspirations to do things differently or better in the future. However, when that future arrives, the context that comes with it redefines what we do in the moment. Your friend absolutely planned to eat a healthy breakfast. However, when they arrived at the breakfast buffet and you weren’t there AND it was amazing, their plans changed. What’s true in breakfast buffets is true in product management as well.
People will tell you that your product solves a problem for them. That it’s easy to use. They’ll tell you they plan to use it. They may even tell you they’ll pay for it. But when the time comes they realize the learning curve is steep and they revert to the old way of doing things. Perhaps they had a budget when you spoke and then budgets got cut. In your demo, the software seemed powerful but when their actual data was added the product didn’t perform as well as they’d hoped. Maybe they just told you what you wanted to hear and never had any intention of using your product. People will say one thing and do something else regularly. Given our heavy focus on speaking with and understanding our users, how do we avoid making false assumptions based on customer conversations?
From magic questions to CTA’s
In an earlier blog post I shared with you the magic question of customer interviewing. Combining both “will you do this in the future?” and “tell me about a recent time when you actually did that” will give you a good sense of how likely your users are to take the desired action in the future. However, it isn’t a guarantee. If the data coming out of your customer interviews points to a future behavior you’d like your users to take, the next step is to put a Call to Action (or CTA) test in front of them. A CTA is a test of your users’ likelihood to actually take the desired action. It’s a landing page or advertisement campaign that puts the value proposition of your product in front of your users and explicitly asks them to give up something of value for access to the tool.
Some of the things you can ask for in a CTA test include:
- An email address to learn more
- A phone number
- Time – set up a meeting to learn more
- Reputation – introduce us to your boss/decision maker to take the next step
- Money – ask folks to pay for the product
The shape of your CTA test can be anything from a web page to an ad to a simple email or text message that prompts for that next step. You’re trying to prove that your users will follow up on their promised future activity. In other words, you’re trying to see if they’ll actually do what they said they would do. One of the best examples of CTA tests is the crowd-funding website Kickstarter. Every product page on Kickstrater is a CTA test. There’s a value proposition and a clear call to action – commit to funding the project.
A CTA test is the next level of investment after customer interviewing. It gives you insight into the desirability of your product. Are people interested enough to give up something of value? This valuable thing they’re giving up is an indication that they are much more likely to follow up their answers in the interview with similar actions. And perhaps, despite the awesomeness of the brunch buffet, eat that healthy breakfast after all.