I just saw a good presentation by Annette Priest today on conducting user research with little or no budget. It was titled You Don’t Know Me At All! User Research for the Cheap and Lazy. Here are a few good takeaways.
“No one really knows what the company goals are, take a stab at it.” On this point she talked about how the manager you might be working with could easily be not as in tune with the company goals as you would expect. Don’t be afraid to escalate the question to the executives.
- some good free technology and market research available
- normally subscription based and expensive for access to full database
- also expensive but good data
- provides some free info that can be very helpfull
- Subscribe to the eMarketer Daily Newsletter to receive the free reports
- although not as thorough as the two above, Pew is still worth looking in to and completely free
- this one was highly recommended by her
Trade Magazines
- be sure to find the big trade magazines in your user’s field
- if available, read the advertisers section for info on the readership
- mentioned that it was worth looking into
Social Media Sites
- if you users are specific to a job role, search for that role on Indeed and read the job descriptions
- filter by pay, location, etc. to drill down