As product managers we’re always asking why people visit our company’s site. We can ascertain this in many ways – user feedback, analytics, surveys, etc. Avinash Kaushik explains that you can go a long way with just three questions. Of course all of this is goals based and not only can it return some insightful data but it can be rather confusing.
Another way to really get into a user’s head is through a listening lab. The whole point of a listening lab is to make the participant comfortable enough to get more legitimate data. The more comfortable they are the more frank they will be and less likely to be lead by the moderator. One thing that comes through crystal clear is what mode they’re in while on the site. Usability expert Eric Stephens uses two modes – travel mode or arrival mode. Users are either trying to find what they want (travel mode) or have found it (arrival mode). Modes are an easy way to quickly see how your site is performing and understand how visitors use it. For example, when on your homepage users are in travel mode and will likely ignore any important alert on the page.
Eric Stephens goes into more detail in his interview with Mixergy about listening labs.
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