By: Carol Vercellino, CEO & Co-Founder
You’ve now learned that an End-User Needs Assessment is the process of evaluating the needs of the people who will be using your software or app.
An end-user needs assessment typically has three phases: the preparation phase, the investigation phase, and the decision phase.
In this video, we’re going to show you how to conduct the investigation phase.
What is the investigation phase?
In the investigation phase, you’re working to wrap your head around your present situation. For example, what is your existing system or process? And how does it work? Then, you want to identify alternatives to that existing system.
If you don’t have an existing system, consider what else exists on the market or what your competitor uses.
As you dive into the investigation phase, make sure you understand how your system works – at least well enough to explain its function to your project team. We recommend listing out all of your system’s (or competitor’s systems) features and functions so your team can easily identify deficiencies or opportunities for your new system.
Also, problems – like going over budget or having to delay the launch – arise when companies assume they know what their users like or dislike about their product, only to discover later that they missed the mark and have to go back to the drawing board to fix it. So, it’s vital to engage your end users and stakeholders in the investigation phase to nail down exactly what it is your users want from the start.
How to conduct the investigation phase with your team
Here are some questions you and your team should ask to evaluate your present system:
- What features of the existing system do your users like?
- What features do your users not like?
- What features do your users think are missing or wrong?
- How can the existing system be improved?
List out every possibility – big or small. You can decide later, in the decision phase, what features are feasible to develop.
Conclusion
Once you’ve completed the investigation phase, you can move on to the decision phase where you’ll flush out the new proposed system and how you’ll build it.
Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter to learn more in Part IV of our End-User Assessment video series.
Don’t have a tech idea yet? Find the sweet spot between what you know and what the world needs by downloading our free retooled SWOT framework. Get it here.
