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A great mobile product manager is often seen as the ambassador, leader and #1 fan of their mobile app product.

This can be a challenging role to fill, especially when you’re tasked with being the lifeblood of your organization who must keep developers, designers and marketers perfectly aligned with your customers’ core wants and desires.

But, when an app organization or sole company has to create an excellent mobile app product, someone who is both tech-savvy and responsive to genuine market demands has to stick around to manage the entire mobile product creation process. And while understanding how developers think is a skill that absolutely everyone in this industry should possess — it’s the rare ability to channel customers’ honest-to-goodness thoughts, beliefs and feelings into mobile solutions that gives great mobile product managers their enormous competitive edge.

Trying to be a mind reader in the mobile app industry is like playing the lottery.

It’s only when you can extract the hidden truths from your target audience that the most enjoyable, addictive and valuable user experiences come to life.

This is not an easy endeavor. To truly get into the minds of your users, you’ll have to…

Know how your app is currently being used if it’s already on the market, and understand what this says about your audience’s desires (primary market research)
Leverage the information that’s already available about your target market and conduct competitive analysis (secondary market research)
Speak directly with your prospects, and ask them the right questions that go deeper than surface level (primary market research)

While all three of these strategies are integral to the success of a mobile app, we would like to zone in on the power of strategically speaking directly with your current or prospective users and how it can help you better understand your audience on a personal level.

The following questions will lead you towards being able to form stronger connections with your audience, while also helping to craft a UX that gives your users the right combination of feelings and value that they crave.

1. “Why are you interested in using this kind of app?”

Asking your users “why?” early on is a good way to figure out the reasoning behind their various needs for using your app. Are your users searching for a simple solution to a big problem they’re experiencing? Or, maybe they simply want a new form of entertainment to pass the time? Whatever the reasoning is, it’s going to be important to hear it from your users first.

2. “Which apps do you use most often?”

While this straightforward question might seem like it does not dig too deep — the answers you receive may surprise you. If you can detect a commonality between the types of apps your users like, then you should be able to grasp a much better idea of where your users’ greatest interests lie. Plus, any patterns that you find can be streamlined into your product.

3. “Can you describe what you want in an app?”

The truth is that most people haven’t stopped to think about what exactly it is that they’re looking for in a mobile app, so this question might startle some people at first. However, it’s your job to understand your market’s underlying thoughts and feelings, and this question is vague enough to help you provoke some of the feelings that your users may be searching for in a mobile experience.

4. “Is there anything about this app that makes you want to use it regularly?”

Making sure that your app has the potential for strong user retention is certainly a priority. However, it’s also a priority to determine if your app doesn’t have the potential for strong user retention, so that any possible flaws may be fixed. We’re only looking for honest answers here…and staying open to hearing both good and bad will benefit everyone.

5. “Can you tell me more about the last few positive/negative ratings that you left in the App Store or Google Play Store? Any notable positive or negative app experiences that you had in general?”

Asking this two-part question is mostly about gauging character traits. What makes your audience happy? What makes them upset? Different user demographics can vary greatly, so figuring out what makes your particular audience “tick” is essential. Once you’re able to determine what compels your audience to leave App Store or Google Play Store ratings, and how they interpret positive/negative app experiences in general, you’ll also know what causes your users to invest in an app and what causes them to mentally eject.

6. “What goes on in a typical day of your life?”

Towards the end of your interviews, your users will typically become much more comfortable with answering any in-depth questions that you may have for them. This will be the time to figure out what your target market does for a living, where they’ll use your app, what kind of people they associate with, and even what they think about on a day-to-day basis. Your app has to seamlessly integrate with your audience’s entire lifestyle — so asking for the finer details about their life will be crucial.

7. “Can you explain to me how this app could do more for you?”

It’s important to believe that we can always do more for our users, but knowing how to do more can sometimes be the golden nugget of information that wins users over into the long-term. You can think of this question as an opportunity to seize authentic, one-on-one user feedback that you can’t always receive from users remotely.

In Conclusion

While you’ll obviously be analyzing the actual contents of your users’ answers in response to these 7 questions, it will also be important to monitor how your users interact with you throughout the interview process.

Since some of the most telling human communication can take place nonverbally, staying conscious of small details like body language, tone of voice and even eye contact can help you to gauge how your audience thinks about certain aspects of your app, or even how they like to use technology in general.

Effective mobile product managers are constantly looking for any competitive advantages they can conjure, so picking up on the smallest of details in user behavior can possibly lead you to your next breakthrough feature or viral release.

You never know what can happen in the mobile app industry.

But, one thing we do know is that mobile product managers who consistently satisfy the right human desires, listen to and empathize with their users, and create valuable user experiences for their mobile users are those who maintain the best odds at making wide-spread positive impacts…and possibly even acquiring millions of mobile app installations in the process.

This article was originally posted on Product Mavens.

7 questions mobile product managers should ask their users was originally published in prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

7 questions mobile product managers should ask their users

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