What techniques can you use to avoid biases and assumptions in product R&D?

1 Define your problem clearly

Before you start developing your product, you need to have a clear and specific problem statement that guides your R&D. A problem statement should describe the pain point or opportunity you are addressing, the target user or customer segment, and the expected outcome or benefit. A vague or broad problem statement can lead you to make assumptions about what your users want, need, or expect from your product. A clear and specific problem statement can help you focus your R&D on solving a real and relevant problem for your users.

2 Validate your assumptions early

Every product R&D process involves some assumptions, such as who your users are, what their needs and preferences are, how they behave, what value proposition your product offers, and how it differs from competitors. These assumptions can be based on your own experience, intuition, or research. However, they can also be influenced by your own biases, such as confirmation bias, availability bias, or anchoring bias. To avoid building a product based on false or untested assumptions, you need to validate them early and often. You can use various methods, such as user interviews, surveys, prototypes, experiments, or analytics, to gather feedback and data from your users and test your assumptions against reality.

3 Use divergent and convergent thinking

Another technique to avoid biases and assumptions in product R&D is to use divergent and convergent thinking. Divergent thinking is the process of generating multiple ideas or solutions for a problem, without judging or filtering them. Convergent thinking is the process of evaluating, selecting, and refining the best ideas or solutions for a problem, based on criteria and evidence. By using divergent and convergent thinking, you can avoid jumping to conclusions, falling in love with your first idea, or ignoring alternative perspectives. You can also increase your creativity, innovation, and collaboration in your product R&D.

4 Challenge your own and others' opinions

One of the sources of biases and assumptions in product R&D is your own and others' opinions. Opinions are subjective and personal views or judgments that may not be based on facts or data. They can be influenced by emotions, preferences, beliefs, or biases. While opinions can be useful and valuable, they can also be misleading or harmful if they are not challenged or questioned. To avoid relying on opinions without evidence or validation, you need to challenge your own and others' opinions in your product R&D. You can do this by asking for the rationale, data, or feedback behind an opinion, by seeking diverse and constructive opinions from different stakeholders, or by using techniques such as the five whys, the devil's advocate, or the pre-mortem to identify and address potential flaws or risks in an opinion.

5 Learn from your failures and successes

The final technique to avoid biases and assumptions in product R&D is to learn from your failures and successes. Failures and successes are inevitable and valuable outcomes of your product R&D. They can provide you with data, insights, and feedback that can help you improve your product and your R&D process. However, they can also trigger biases and assumptions, such as hindsight bias, survivorship bias, or attribution bias. To avoid these biases and assumptions, you need to learn from your failures and successes in a systematic and objective way. You can do this by conducting regular retrospectives, post-mortems, or reviews of your product R&D, by analyzing the root causes, effects, and lessons of your failures and successes, by applying the learnings to your future R&D, and by celebrating and sharing your failures and successes with your team and stakeholders.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?