Me and My Shadow

Me and My Shadow is a powerful way of understanding your customer, but it comes with a catch: it is hard to observe your customer in such a way that your observations don’t change how they work. The observers should emphasize thinking of themselves as a shadow, so that any negative interactions caused by your observations are minimized. It works best when you can observe your customers in their native habitat (with native guides in tow).

This activity consists of observers carefully recording a participant using a product or service. You may want to segment your customers based on perceived motivation: those who want to use your product, those who are indifferent about using your product, and those who don’t want to use your product but cannot find or justify an alternative, and in rare cases, those who may be forced to use your product. The observer(s) sit next to the participant to watch for and listen to actions, expressions, comments, and suggestions. Observer(s) ask questions of the participant, such as "Why are you doing that," or "what are you thinking at this moment".

Capture many kinds of observations, such as: 1) People who interact with your customer; 2) Your products and services that they use; 3) Products and services that they use at the same time they are using your products or services; 4) Utterances, body language, or facial expressions that give insight into their emotions as they use your products or services; 5) The physical environment and larger context of their workspace; 6) Your own feelings and reactions to what is going on.

Then Assess each observation along the following dimensions: 1) Novelty: The degree to which the observation indicates a novel or unintended use of the product; 2) Performance gap: The degree to which the observation indicates a performance gap between desired and actual performance. Large gaps mean large problems; 3) New opportunity: The degree to which the observation indicates a new opportunity for solving a customer problem.