Mimeo Lounge

Is “Print Buyer” Part of Your Job Description?

Posted on October 3, 2007 at 11:50am, written by Product Management

Of course, Mimeo customers buy printing products and services from us. But, virtually all of our users would not identify themselves as “print buyers.” First and foremost they are program and departmental managers in a variety of industries who are responsible for communicating to internal and external audiences in a variety of ways, including print. Mimeo is often a mission critical tool when our users communicate via print, and our job is to ensure that our users’ message is received and read on time, every time.

To meet our customer goals, Mimeo’s product management team is working to improve our mix of offerings as well as our user interfaces. We are striving to construct our service for the corporate document producer regardless of their level of experience in dealing with print vendors. Mimeo wants to work the way you do… not force you to think like a print-buyer.

Our product management and design team have been conducting extensive user research within our customer base. Using a technique called “contextual inquiry,” we do a combination of interviewing, observation, and tasks with users in their own work environment. Our goals were to gain an understanding of customers’ roles, needs, and workflow within the context of their organizations, learn how Mimeo currently helps them meet their needs, and identify thing we can do better.

As a part of the interviewing process, we will conduct a “cultural inventory”. We will examine the processes employed by our users, and ask questions about how they make and distribute documents. Participants give us a “tour” of their work environment and the things they have nearby. In this process, participants tell detailed stories about the tools, environment, and people that support their work, which helps us better understand how we can serve them.

Applying this combination of methods has resulted in a deeper understanding of user behavior than using one method alone. We’ve identified a variety of user types and roles. We’ve discovered users in enterprise environment who manage the Mimeo library for others, but do not make or order documents. Others only make documents that their colleagues distribute. As a result, we are building new user interfaces that are streamlined to fit the variety of user types.

Our research is ongoing and our participants have enjoyed their participation… It’s exciting for them to see their requests and ideas implemented in new designs. We are in effect, collaborating with our users as an extension of our design team. If you’d like to help us and participate, please reply to this post and I will reach out to you through email.

Tags: contextual inquiry, product management, user interface, user research