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Featured tip:  5 sure ways to identify a product's real audience

The first step to a solution that works is knowing who will use it.  Basis Speech 101 taught us a couple of key points that we must also acknowledge when designing to enhance the user experience: (a) before you address your audience, know to whom you are speaking, (b) effective communication is not measured by the speaker, but by the audience.  So with that said, here are five sure ways to know who you're addressing and how to do meet their needs.

Utilize the marketing team.  Most often our only interaction with marketing is that they hand down to UX a description of the target market.  It is really no fun to try to get the target market redefined, so don't be afraid to approach them with your concerns before they sign off on the project.  Don't be afraid to discuss with them your concerns from a user experience perspective.  Be willing to work with them and give them as much information as you know to help them define the right target market the first time.

Let's face it, it's not always easy to get internal data to support UX efforts to effectively communicate with the audience.  But if you can schmooze the right people, getting your hands on any customer feedback will go a long way in enhancing the user experience.  Customer feedback can help you to get a better understanding of what the user really wants and doesn't want; what they need and don't need; and most important what they will use or not use.  Be a real advocate for your the user and beg, if necessary, for any data logs, call logs, etc. that you can get your hands on. 

You'll need allies.  Establish a strong rapport with the support team.  They are your company's first line of defense or first positive impression.  Support teams hear what the user community really thinks about the company, it's products and sometimes, its employees.  This information is often retained for their own quality assurance purposes, but you are most likely going to be able to glean some very valuable insight as to who uses your products and how that product is or is not helping to them from this type of information.  The information captured in calls to support centers can also be used to benchmark or validate your designs and even aid in prioritizing when certain features or functions are introduced to the user community.

Another great ally is the software testing team.  I know, you're thinking what an unlikely ally.  Software testing teams are in place to ensure the product works "as designed" and are therefore often involved in trial management.  Sometimes "as designed" doesn't come close to matching the user's behavior or expectation.  When that happens the software testing team can become your most valuable ally in initiating change to the intended design before the final product is released to the user community.

Don't be afraid to move beyond UX convention.  Subscribe to market trend resources such as Experian's Simmons research tool or Forrester's market research reports.  There are a number of large marketing firms that offer the type of raw data you will need to discover what the user community is doing, how they are doing it, where they're doing it and maybe you'll even discover some level of why they do what they do.  Using a research tool can offer you the freedom to customize reports to fit your unique product or situation and can also be used to compliment efforts with your marketing team to identify the product's target market.

Other tips you can use

How to identify the real issues

Often UX is engaged to "fix the problem."  Sometimes the problem identified is really just a symptom of the real problem.  As a sample, let's assume you, the UX professional has been engaged to figure out a solution as to why web users are browsing your retail site, even placing items in the shopping cart, but never completing the purchase.  The project, as stated, "get people to complete the purchase process."  The only way to get users to complete a purchase is to first figure out what's causing them to halt the purchase process.

1. Evaluate the purchase process yourself.  Acquire a dummy account (a company charge card that incurs no costs) and walk through the entire purchase process.  Make a note of any usability issues you find.
   
2. Look through data logs to see where the drop-off points exist - where are users dropping out?  If you a trend of users dropping out at the same point more often than others.  There may be a problem on that page.  Compare your findings in step 1 with the findings in this step.
   
3. Check with tech support to see if they have captured any complaints in the purchase process or have contacted support with how-to questions about the purchase process.
4. With all the information you've acquired from steps 1-3, make a prioritized list of issues you think will enhance the user experience as a whole and most importantly, remove the barrier that has prevented the user from completing the purchase process.
5. Have a sit-down conversation with visual designers and developers with your recommended solution.  Ensure you complete this step before committing your ideas an expected deliverable.  This will help reduce rework by ensuring the recommendation is feasible.
   

How to prevent your solutions from becoming phase II fodder

How often have you done the research and offered a viable solution, only to hear something like "well, we'll consider that for phase II development"?  Why does that happen?  You didn't sell it well enough.  Yes, we as UX professionals also have to be willing to put on a sales hat.  UX is not an easy discipline to swallow for those who are not sold on the value we bring to the table.  We must be diligent to always be willing to champion the cause to bring UX to the forefront of any development project.  Here's a few steps you can take to better sell the solution in the current development phase.

1. This cannot be said enough times, vet out your ideas with other business units early and often.  Be sure you keep the decision-makers and project leads inside your head at all times.
2. Encourage and invite project leads, internal executives and stakeholders to get involved in the UX process.  If you're planning a study, get them involved in the tasks to be performed in the study sessions.  Make sure they are aware of the study schedule.  Let them know what type of participants have been recruited (this is the final list of participants). 
3. Make sure everyone involved in the project knows exactly what tasks you intend to perform to bring about a solution.
4. Share any unexpected discoveries along the way.  This could drive changes to the requirements, the design, the budget and the schedule.
5. As much as humanly possible, back up your recommendations with facts.  Charts and graphs are the easiest and fastest way to drive your point home for the skeptic.  Try to present your findings in person.  Your presence makes a big difference between something that gets reviewed now versus something that sits in their inbox for an unspeakable amount of time.