Customer researchers have an enormously responsible job. They play a key role in creating product strategy and thus have a significant impact on an organization’s success. However, being in a customer researcher position can be a tough job according to our study.

While we started our research to understand how well customer research tools and methods work, we quickly realized that the key challenges for people in charge of “finding out what customers need” lie somewhere else. They are rooted in a lack of understanding for their profession. And if this would not be enough, the discipline itself presents lots of challenges.

These challenges are:

• • Dealing with qualitative (soft)/highly ambiguate data and trusting their own conclusions

• • Need to use a multitude of methods to narrow down insights

• • Specialist status with little opportunity to exchange thoughts with like-minded people

• • Need to educate stakeholders, i. e. leaders, customers, and co-workers, about the value of profound, product-agnostic customer research

• • Ongoing need to defend their methods or justify their position

• • Lack of trust, appreciation, and even respect by stakeholders

Download the study report.