Synthesis. It’s such a beautiful word.
Oxford defines it as “the combination of ideas to form a theory or a system”.
My perspective is that the ability to synthesize is a key skill for Product Managers who are obsessed with their customers. Synthesizing what you learn from customer interviews determines what you build to solve their problems.
The outcome of a Customer Discovery Sprint is to arrive at and present your synthesis. It’s a 3-5 sentence statement, distilled from ongoing interviews, that turns insights into a product. This is closest to the “Define” mode in design thinking, done in parallel with “Empathy” and before “Ideation”.
Best part is that it is learnable and I’d love to show you how.
Here’s the TL;DR of this article:
What and Why
Synthesis is the art of transforming raw data from customer interviews into valuable insights that shape product strategy. You are going to use various frameworks to understand your customer’s needs, pain points and desires.
How You Interview Matters
Elicit stories from your customers. Be very mindful of the “Say-Do” gap. What customers “Say” is very different from what they “Do”. Stories eliminate the gap.
Techniques (Frameworks) to Distill Information
I offer you 5 techniques to use during Customer Discovery – Empathy Map, Persona Development, Affinity Map, Jobs to Be Done, Story Map.
Synthesize to Communicate
There’s a very simple template, used by top management consultants, on how to present your synthesis and team. Present this to your team up front so everyone knows what they’re aiming for.
It’s Ongoing
Synthesis takes place during the entire Product Development Cycle. And since you’re likely always talking to customers, you’re always synthesizing something.
What and Why of Synthesis
The What
Synthesis is the art of transforming raw data from customer interviews into valuable insights that shape product strategy. You are going to use various frameworks to understand your customer’s needs, pain points and desires.
The Why(s)
It identifies the opportunity
Continuously speaking with customers allows you to identify recurring patterns and pain points. You’ll see the gap between what they say they would do and what they actually do. This shines a light on what solutions can be brought to market.
It’s your justification
Synthesis is the foundation for making an informed decision on what to build, based on user insights rather than assumptions. And it’s what you’ll share with your leadership team.
- It identifies the opportunity
Continuously speaking with customers allows you to identify recurring patterns and pain points. You’ll see the gap between what they say they would do and what they actually do. This shines a light on what solutions can be brought to market.
When interviewing, collect stories
People love to talk about themselves and the easiest and most fun way for them to do that is to share a story. Most people freeze up when being asked a list of questions, so other than 1-2 opening questions, move towards exacting a story. You can do this by saying something like:
- “Oh, that’s interesting, tell me more about that.”
- “Tell me about the last time you (did xyz)”
- “What happened when you tried to (do xyz)?”
Those statements will start the movie in your customers minds and they’ll give you a rich account of their experience. Remember, we’ve been trained since we were kids to think, talk and react to stories.
Techniques to Synthesize
Empathy Map
For each customer you speak to, use the following template to capture your interview findings. Using the same template across interviews makes it easier to identify their pain points. You’ll have as many of these as you have interviews.
Develop a Persona
A user persona is a fictional representation of a target user based on real user data. Sections include demographics, demographics, goals, motivations, challenges, and key insights derived from the interviews. You should have just a few of these, they will describe your target audience.
Affinity Map
As you are working in your team, a random stream of Ideas, Thoughts, Concerns will pop up. Capture these! Even if it seems random and useless, it could lead to an insight. However, don’t try to force this stuff into a framework, it’ll just slow you down. So just create an area where you and your team dump all these ideas.
Jobs to be Done
The JTBD framework focuses on understanding the functional, social, and emotional “jobs” that customers are trying to accomplish with a product or service. The framework typically includes a statement of the job, desired outcomes, and the context or circumstances surrounding the job.
Create a Story Map
Story Maps are wonderful tools to understand the customer experience. A step by step map of their experience shows you what’s going well and what is most painful. The parts that are most painful for your customers are the opportunities for your product.
Synthesize to Communicate
The moment you’ve been working towards! After interviewing “enough” of your customers, you and your team should have enough data (stories) to come up with a synthesis. But what does a synthesis statement actually look like? I’ll give you something to start with and you can modify it as you need.
“In order to (drive business outcome), we should build (describe the opportunity).
This is because we found that our customers need ways to:
- JTBD #1
- JTBD #2
- JTBD #3
Our next step is to build a prototype and test it to see whether that addresses the customer’s problems. If the prototype succeeds, then we’ll launch it and continue to test whether the solution drives (business outcome) and (customer outcomes).”
If you are asked to tell more, launch into the story that you created above.
It’s Ongoing
Note that once you’ve created your “theory or system” for your customers, you will continuously update this. It’s not static. Your next step is to Ideate ways to solve the “Jobs To Be Done”, build a Prototype, and Test. You’ll learn even more and refine your synthesis, until eventually you’ll reach a set of requirements for a product launch.
Conclusion
There you have it. Keeping synthesis in mind as you run your Customer Discovery Sprint will focus your team towards an end goal. In fact, share the template above (or create your own) before you start the sprint so that you and your team have a target to hit. Using the techniques and frameworks above will help you arrive at your synthesis.
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions feel free to reach out. And if running a Customer Discovery Sprint is something you’ve never done, or simply don’t have the time to set up and execute, I’d love to discuss how I could help you.