Contextual Inquiry in Product Management

Really, with its ability to gather insight into user behavior, needs, and pain points, contextual inquiry is one of the most powerful methods of user research available to a product manager. Very useful data can be retrieved which, with other research methodologies, a product manager may not be able to obtain.

Why Contextual Inquiry is Beneficial for Product Managers

1.    Real-world insights: Contextual inquiry enables product managers to see how users interact with products in their natural environment, so those nuances—important but otherwise hard to record inside a lab—come to the forefront.

2.    Uncovers hidden needs: By observing users in their context, product managers can be able to uncover hidden needs and pain points that users would not be able to articulate in surveys or focus groups.

3.    Builds empathy: Being with the user in his or her physical environment helps the product manager to have deeper empathy towards the user's experience.

4.    Informs product strategy: All such qualitative data can help inform product road maps, strategy, and feature prioritization.

5.    Validates assumptions: It provides an opportunity to test a hypothesis and to validate (or invalidate) any assumptions regarding user behavior and needs.

How to Conduct a Contextual Inquiry

1.    Plan and prepare:

– Delimit your research objectives

–    Define your target users

–    Prepare a discussion guide

2.    Recruit participants:

–     Recruit users that are representative of your target audience

–     Try to have a mix of users

3.    Conduct the inquiry:

–     Watch users as they would naturally use the tool

–     Question users about what they are doing and what they are thinking

–     Make notes and, where possible, record the session (given the go-ahead)

4.    Analyze the data:

–     Review notes and recordings.

–     Discard what doesn't serve the main problem you are trying to solve.

–     Look at patterns and themes.

–     Translate findings into user personas or a journey map.

5.    Share findings:

–     Discuss insights with stakeholders.

–     Use the findings to make product decisions.

What Aspiring PMs Need to Take Care Of

1.    Respect privacy: Always take informed consent and protect the personal information of respondents available.

2.    Avoid leading questions: To let respondents lead the conversation to avoid leading them.

3.    Be observant: Look at the non-verbal cues and environmental factors.

4.    Stay objective: Keep observations apart from interpretations.

5.    Be flexible: Be ready to change your process as determined by what you find out during the inquiry.

6.    Follow up: After the session, appreciate the participants and inform them of how their information is put.

Contextual Inquiry in Product Management: Understanding Users in Their Natural Environment

1. Hybridization of Methods

The power of the contextual inquiry can, however, be made more potent by combining it with other methods of research, like the following:

• Surveys: Use surveys before a contextual inquiry to allow one to focus on areas of interest during one's observation.

• Usability Testing: Conduct usability testing after conducting a contextual inquiry about the product.

•      Data Analytics: The use of hi-potent information from qualitative contextual inquiry, and analytics with data, will give a complete perspective of the situation.

2. Remote Contextual Inquiry

When in-person observation is not possible (as an application of a pandemic and for geographically disjoint users), there can be a viable substitute:

•      Video conference for the observation of the user's screens and surroundings.

• Request users to tell more about their actions and thoughts.

• Take care of the limitations, for example, technical breakdown or decline in the capacity for recording the surroundings.

3. Ethical Considerations

Product managers should take care of ethical considerations in contextual inquiry:

• Ensure that the participant is well informed of how their information is used and stored.

• Sensitiveness to potentially vulnerable populations or sensitive contexts.

• Consider the impact of your presence on the user's environment and workflow.

4. Challenges and How to Overcome Them

1.    Time-consuming: Contextual inquiry is very inefficient in the use of resources. Solution: only go through a representative sample, and make each and every minute count during the sessions.

2.    Observer effect: Users may change what they do if someone is present. Avoid spending time upfront building rapport and helping users become comfortable.

3.    Data overload: You can take more data than you will ever be able to use. Avoid this state by being focused and by using structured note-taking techniques.

4.    Scalability issues: Contextual inquiry cannot be applied to a larger set of population. The recommended way is to apply it in a more scalable procedure.

5. Tools and Techniques

Augment your contextual inquiry by using the following:

•      Affinity diagramming: Method of grouping and consolidating such vast amounts of qualitative data.

•      Journey mapping: Illustrate the end-to-end experience over time.

•      Empathy mapping: Structure the observations from research about what users SAY, DO, THINK, and FEEL.

•      Video analysis software: Utilize a tool such as Dedoose or NVivo for the analysis of video recordings from sessions.

6. Applying Insights to Product Development

This will ensure that the insights drawn from the contextual inquiry can be translated into better products in a useful manner.

1. Create actionable recommendations: Make the observation a call for an alarming existence of a certain product's improvement or a product feature in particular.

2. Rank insights: all findings will not be of the same importance. Rank the potential improvements using a way like the Kano models.

3. Share with everybody possible: the design and development team and other stakeholders in the project to sensitize them of the user needs.

4.    Iterate and Validate: Develop prototypes based on insights and validate with users. There you may use contextual inquiry again.

Case Study: Contextual Inquiry for a Project Management Tool

Scenario:
A product manager at a software company is working on improving their project management tool. They decide to conduct a contextual inquiry to understand how project managers use their tool in real work situations.

Process
1. The product manager recruits 5 project managers from different industries. 

2. They visit each project manager at their workplace and observe them using the tool for 2 hours. 

3. During the observation, they ask questions like: - “Can you walk me through how you’re setting up this new project?” - “I noticed you hesitated there. What were you thinking?” - “How does this feature fit into your overall workflow?”

Findings: 

- Users often switch between the tool and email, indicating a need for better communication integration. 

- Project managers struggle to get a quick overview of project status, suggesting a need for an improved dashboard. 

- The tool’s mobile app is rarely used because it lacks key features available on the desktop version.

Outcome: 

Based on these insights, the product manager prioritizes developing a more comprehensive mobile app, creating a customizable dashboard for quick project overviews, and exploring email integration features for the next product release.