User interviews
Before committing to a specific solution, it was really important to assess if our assumptions were correct, and if our ideas are desirable from the people using OFN. The best way to test this was to talk with them. We found some really kind producers and hub contributors that were available for interviews.
- 6 participants
- 3 countries (AUS, UK, FR)
- 4 HUB managers, 2 hybrid producers/HUB managers
- 3 using inventory
We asked them open ended questions, and reviewed the prototype with them to understand if it was something they were interested in.
In a nutshell, the outcomes of these interviews were:
Things that we are now highly confident in
- Yes to consolidation of Product List and Inventory
- Yes to a bit of UI revamp, more clean and clear interface
Things that we have medium confidence in
- Interest in calculations for sourced/linked variants, but it’s understood only by the most advanced/inventory users
Things that we are not confident in
- Concept of sourced variants was not really understood by most participants, unless explained. This might be because the flow is unclear, or not fit for their needs right now
- Network: low interest for HUBs right now in expanding the OFN producers they work with - easier to create their own enterprises and manage everything themselves
As you can read, the response for sourced variants was not as positive as we were hoping for. This is good. We reduced the risk of building something that people might not understand and adopt. We still gained some insights on aspects that people found useful (high confidence), which leads us to the next steps for the inception of network (next post).
PS: if you’re interested in understanding how the process of interviewing users works, you can find an explainer video here.
This was also an opportunity to start to expand on our proto-personas. If you’re interested in that topic, and to learn more about different types of producers, you can find more here.