Unlock the full potential of your business by mastering customer research and data-driven decision making in this comprehensive course! Become a top-notch professional by understanding your customers better and making informed decisions to propel your business forward.
To succeed in today’s competitive market, understanding your customers’ needs, wants, goals, and pain points is crucial. Failing to conduct proper customer research, interviewing the wrong people, or misinterpreting experiment results can lead to poor sales, negative reviews, and even product failure. On the other hand, taking a holistic approach based on science and best practices will help you maximize the value delivered to your customers, resulting in business success.
Welcome to “Customer Research & Data-Driven Decision Making,” the second course in the “Product Owner Academy” series. In this course, we will take a deep dive into the world of customer research, statistics, user testing, and data-driven decision making. You don’t need any prior knowledge of the subject, as we will start from the basics and build up to advanced concepts.
What will you learn?
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Learn cutting-edge techniques in customer research that help you uncover valuable insights and hidden opportunities.
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Transform your business strategies with data-driven decision making, backed by powerful analysis tools and frameworks.
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Explore the art of asking the right questions to gather crucial data and ensure the accuracy and reliability of your research.
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Master industry-leading research methodologies, such as surveys, interviews, and focus groups, to gain a competitive edge.
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Optimize your business strategies and marketing efforts by understanding customer behavior, preferences, and pain points.
This course includes many activities using Miro (a free online whiteboard tool), knowledge tests, and practical examples and advice on how to apply new skills and knowledge in practice. You will also have access to downloadable materials and useful links to maximize your learning outcomes.
Who is this course for?
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Entrepreneurs and small business owners looking to make better decisions and grow their business
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Product managers and marketers seeking to improve product offerings and marketing strategies
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Analysts and data professionals aiming to enhance their customer research and decision-making skills
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Aspiring researchers and consultants who want to excel in their careers with a solid foundation in customer research
About your instructor:
I am the founder of Agile Apothecary, an Agile Coach, and Product Owner who has worked with Rakuten, Indeed, and McKinsey & Company. I have been part of Agile transformations across multiple industries and geographies, supported hundreds of teams, and trained thousands of people in my over ten years of professional experience. I am especially passionate about training Product Owners as this role is critical for business success and is as challenging as it is exciting.
Don’t wait any longer. Sign up today and start your journey towards becoming a skilled and successful customer researcher and data-driven decision-maker!
Who are your customers?
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1About this course and Product Owner Academy
In this lesson I introduce the objectives and outline of this course so that you better understand what is awaiting us ahead.
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2Resources and tools you will need
In this lesson you will create a copy of a Miro board with exercises that we are going to use throughout this course.
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3How to make the most out of this course
In this lesson I will share with you a few tips on how to maximize the learning outcomes, how to practice your skills even if you are not an acting Product Owner yet and how to get your skills endorsed on LinkedIn by me after the course completion.
Getting to REALLY know your customers
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4About this section
In this lesson we will set the goals for this section and discuss why qualitative research is important
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5Importance of knowing your customers
In this lesson we will talk about difference between products that customers love and products that no one wants to buy. We will also discuss the algorithm of customer research and the common mistake a lot of startups and new businesses often make
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6Quantitative research
In this lesson we talk about the first step in customer research - quantitative research. What kind of data do you need? Which tools you can use to understand the market better? How do you evaluate your target audience size?
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7ACTIVITY: research for a new business idea
In this lesson we will use Miro template to plan and prepare a customer research for either your product or one of suggested prompts
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8Segmentation: narrowing down your focus
In this lesson we are going to discuss the importance of segmentation - how to define the exact slice of the potential target audience that you need to focus on.
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9Review your product vision
In this lesson we will review an existing product vision (if you already have one) or create a new one from scratch (if you don't have it yet).
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10Section wrap-up
Let's wrap up this section and summarize what we have learned so far.
Applying statistics and making data-driven decisions
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11About this section
In this lesson we will set up learning objectives for this section and discuss the key topics we are going to cover
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12Qualitative research
In this lesson we will dive deeper into the concept of qualitative research: what it is, why we do it and how to approach it
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13How to conduct interviews to get the information you need
From this lesson you will learn how to conduct the interviews with your customers, what to do and what not to do, and what are the common mistakes you should avoid
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14ACTIVITY: Preparing for an interview
In this lesson we will use Miro template to prepare the questions for the customer interview
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15Why do we need customer persona?
From this lesson you will learn what are customer personas, why we build them and what are the key principles of building a persona
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16ACTIVITY: build a customer persona
In this lesson we will use the Miro board and put together our very first persona.
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17What is customer journey and why do we need it?
From this lesson you will learn what the customer journey is, why we need it and what are the different possible approaches to building it.
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18ACTIVITY: Develop a customer journey
In this lesson we will create a customer journey using the Miro board template
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19Section wrap-up
In this lesson we will summarize the learnings from this section
Usability testing and user testing
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20About this section
In this lesson we will discuss the learning objectives for this section.
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21Statistics, population, means and proportions
From this lesson you will learn some key basic concepts: What is statistics and how is it different from probability? What is a mean and what is a proportion?
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22Confidence intervals and margin of error
From this lesson you will learn what are the confidence intervals and what is the margin of error.
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23Normal distribution and Central Limit Theory
In this lesson you will get familiar with the famous bell-shaped curve - normal distribution and you will learn about the Central Limit Theory.
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24Empirical rule
From this lesson you will learn empirical rule and remember forever 3 magical numbers: 68, 95 and 99.
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25Mean or proportion?
In this lesson we will recap the difference between mean and proportion and define what "success" means when we talk about proportions.
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26ACTIVITY: Calculating confidence intervals
In this lesson you will do some practical exercises calculating confidence intervals for means and proportions yourself.
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27Null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis
In this lesson we will discuss the scientific approach to experimentation and the two types of hypothesis we set when conducting experiments.
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28Set up criteria for decision
From this lesson you will learn what are the rejection regions and how to choose between one-tailed and two-tailed test.
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29Sampling like a pro
From this lesson you will learn some important rules for sampling and a few common approaches to sampling.
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30Common mistakes
In this lesson we will discuss the common mistakes people often make when applying statistics and conducting experiments
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31Section wrap-up
In this lesson we will summarize what we have learned in this section
Final notes
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32About this section
In this lesson we will set up learning objectives for this section
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33MVP vs. prototype
In this lesson we will discuss the differences between MVP and prototype and when we need to use them.
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34ACTIVITY: build MVP
In this lesson we will do a practical exercise in Miro, planning and prioritizing work for our MVP.
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35Usability testing: common approaches, pros and cons
In this lesson we will analyze a few common approaches to the usability testing, their pros and cons and the situations when these approaches are applicable
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36User testing or usability testing?
In this lesson we will discuss the differences between user testing and usability testing and how to conduct user testing correctly.
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37ACTIVITY: Design an A/B test
In this lesson we are going to plan an A/B test using everything that we have learned so far.
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38Section wrap-up
In this lesson we will summarize the learnings from this section.
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39Final test