Don't expect your (international) research participants to tell you the full story

With my UX background, I have always been firm on the view that, the best way to fully understand your customers so that you can give them the best experience is by talking to them. After all, they are the ones who will be using your products or services. That’s why user research has been a big part of what I do and offer (apart from advising on global or market-based strategy).

I still strongly believe that.

However, when it comes to your international customers, I now have a slightly different view.

By speaking to your international customers or observing them in their context,  it will tell you a lot of insights, confirming what you assume or telling you what you don’t know already. But, it will not give you a holistic view and full stories of what you hear or see. Yes, you hear me right.

Here is why.

You might learn what they do (their behaviours and attitudes). You might also learn about why they do what they do. I call these WHY’s as ‘the ‘direct why’. They are useful. They are important to enable you not to just take what people say and do on the surface level (as we all well know, it is common that we, human, sometimes say things which contradict with what we do, do what contradict with what we think we will do).

When it involves different cultures, there is another layer to add on top - the deeper level of WHY. This level of ‘why’ is in a bigger context, which no longer on the individual level, but on the society, culture or country level. Very often, unfortunately, you won’t be able to learn about this level of why’s by simply talking to or observing the local customers. 

You tell us ‘We collect money as a group’ and now we know exactly why

As an example, we spent 1.5 weeks visiting HIV, TB and Mental Health patients in Kenya at their homes, talking to them to learn about their patient journey, their use of mobile phones, the support they are currently getting (or not getting), the challenges they are having and so on. We learned that one of the things they do at their support group is for each person to contribute a specific amount of money each time they meet. The money will then either be given to one person in the group who might need the money more than others, or to create a project they can all take part (e.g. to buy materials for sewing activities). However, this sometimes could also be one of the reasons some patients stopped going to these support groups because they can’t afford to contribute.

These stories and insights are all good. We understood their motivations of going (or not going) to a support group which often is beneficial to them to manage their conditions. However, it was unclear to us why it is common for support groups in this country to collect money within the group (informally), not as a fee but just to help. It was not something any of the people we talked to could tell us. It’s not until I dig deeper into the history, politics and the culture of the country, I discovered the root of this ‘behaviour’: The Harambee culture.

Harambee means ‘to pull together’, the spirit of self-help amongst Kenyans. It was popularised in Kenya immediately after independence by its first president as a strategy to pull the country together to build a new nation. This means, living and working as groups, believing in mutual responsibility & effort is what Kenyans are very familiar with. It’s common for individuals to voluntarily contribute their resources (e.g. cash, labour) towards a communal good. For example, raising money for funerals, weddings and medical bills through their community networks. 

The Harambee spirit is why Chama is popular in Kenya. Chamas are informal cooperative self-help, micro-savings groups. It is a way for communities to pool resources, investments, friendships & spirit to help each other to grow economically and possibly achieve financial independence.

They won't be able to tell you everything

These background insights (and ‘the deeper why’) give us the full story, the holistic view of what we hear or observe during our user research. These are not something the participants would or could tell us. Not because they refuse to, but because they might not even see these things which they do as a norm and are familiar with as something special and worth picking out. They would not necessarily know that these are the nuances we would like to pick out as they are unique and could impact how we design and offer our products/services to them. More importantly, it is very likely that they themselves do not know about these relevant triggers anyway or they could never relate them. This is where we, cultural experts, come in.

When it comes to different cultures, there are always one or more reasons why a country functions or works in the way they are, or why the local society behaves the way they do. We cannot rely on the local people we talk to tell us what the reasons are or to explain the background stories for everything they do to complete our knowledge gap.

Knowing what aspects to look into (whether it is the history, politic, infrastructure, economy, geography, nature) and to then link each event or insight together is not an easy task. I must admit, I probably was not able to do it well a few years ago (even though I have already done hundreds of user research sessions in more than 25 countries outside the UK by then). It comes with experience. It's interesting and it's one of the many reasons I love about what I do.

Having a holistic view is what it matters

This post is not about telling you not to do user research or devaluing the benefits of conducting one. Talking to your customers and observing what they do is very important and will tell you a lot. It would probably give you a more solid understanding and insight than any other sources. If you have the budget and resources, you absolutely need to do it. No doubt.

But, if you want to go a level further to have the full picture, then you need to look and explore further. If you like this approach, appreciate the value it brings and want to know how it could be used to guide you in making design or business decisions, do get in touch.