The Three Minute Rule to better Understand the Consumer

Anthony Tjan shares:

While there are obvious ways to gain significant customer understanding, such as surveys and focus groups, some of the most interesting insights come from less direct analyses. Take our three-minute rule as an example. You can learn a great deal about customers by studying the broader context in which they use your product or service. To do this, ask what your customer is doing three minutes immediately before and three minutes after he uses your product or service.

Makes sense. I’ve seen the immense value of huge user experience flow charts that maps out the entire consumer journey. Unfortunately the complexity and resources required to create these flow charts are often huge, especially if the flow chart is comprehensive. Perhaps the 80/20 rule applies here, in that you can gain 80% of your insights by looking at the 3 minutes before and 3 minutes after using your product.
Via: HBR