Many times when interviewing a customer, it is difficult to really understand what it is like to be in the customer's shoes. Sometimes we don't have the right amount of experience in the customer's world to relate to some of the things they are saying. Other times, they are not able to fully explain what we need to know.

You will find, when interviewing a customer about their experiences, that sometimes they are just too close to their own issues to see the big picture. Other times, they have learned how to get around the various roadblocks and obstacles we have created for them by making poorly-defined products, and they have learned to accept their situation and the status quo. And still other times, you will find that customers just "don't know what they don't know." Of course, this is why we do the VoC in the first place. If the customers could just tell us what we need to build so we could sell them tons of equipment to make them more successful, they would; unfortunately, they cannot.

Unfortunately, even conducting a rich VoC session with a customer is not enough to truly understand what they see and what they are going through. This is why ethnography or observational VoC is such a valuable component to doing a VoC for so many industries. Only by watching a customer interact with their environment, with your products, and with your competitor's products do you begin to understand their world, their problems, and their roadblocks to success. Observational VoC helps us, as VoC practitioners, begin to make sense of the "messy world" of the customer. Often customers will tell us one thing during a VoC session, but their true needs become much more apparent when you can watch the customer trying to interact with products in an effort to accomplish a goal.

Take a case study that could have been done for TV remote controls:

During the customer VoC the customer said the following: I need a remote that is a universal remote to control all my AV devices I need a sleek black design	Proposed offering based on customer VoC:
When observing the target customers: Watched TV in the dark Constantly checked the TV guide and switched channels Family had favorite channels they watched often Would misplace remote in the dark Younger members of family used smartphone for everything else Had a number of other smart devices that were not AV that they needed to control
The observational VoC solution: Two different ways to control the AV equipment was preferred Parents preferred to use a dedicated remote and children preferred to use a smartphone app Not black in color, so easy to see buttons in the dark Not black in color, so less likely to misplace remote in the dark Able to control thermostats, lights, dimmers, and door locks from apps Easy to save favorite channels

If you are able to conduct an observational VoC during your interview, try and keep the following things in mind as you observe the customer: