You can try to put yourselves in your customers’ shoes, start with a Persona (typically defined by your customer insights organization based on market research), put them in a particular context (leisurely planning, emergency situation, trying to get out of a fix, needing to build consensus before they can move forward, etc.), and use your own instincts to describe the customers’ typical conditions of satisfaction (e.g., I don’t want to work overtime on this project, I want my kids to think my choice is cool).
But the best approach is to get your customers to do the work. You’ll gain incredible insights about what really matters to them. They’ll define their ideal outcomes and metrics in ways that will surprise you. They’ll provide rich details about their situations that your product designers, policy-makers and/or business process mappers usually don’t appreciate.
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