With the rise of smart speakers and voice search, a client wanted to better understand consumer behavior around smart speakers, particularly related to audio content such as music and podcasts. The client’s goal was to identify potential pain points, explore consumer routines, understand content discovery, and find opportunities to enhance their marketing efforts through better user experience.
My role in this research project was to determine research methods and questions, facilitate focus group discussion, survey creation, gather data, and present findings to the client. I enlisted the help of a colleague for note taking and assistance gathering data.
Challenge Statement: Understand user interactions with smart speaker and voice search in order to identify pain points, trends and opportunities.
Goals
The client is new to the smart speaker and voice search market though their content is being accessed from users via smart speaker. There are very few brands in their market taking advantage of this new technology, which presents a unique opportunity. The client currently has a few employees exploring opportunities and pain points on a small scale related to their own product and experiences using smart speakers but hasn’t gathered data from actual users. At the end of my research, the goals are to present valuable data and insights regarding:
Actionable next steps in developing smart speaker/voice search strategy
Potential opportunities in the smart speaker/voice search space for the client
Consumer routines and uses centered around the smart speaker
Pain points related to finding content via smart speaker
General sentiment around this emerging technology
Research
I chose to use both a survey and focus groups. First, I created a short smart speaker survey using SurveyMonkey, which was promoted through the client’s various consumer facing channels, such as email lists and social media. I set up two in-house smart speaker focus groups with ten participants total to learn more about consumer daily routines, with a colleague taking notes during the sessions. I also attended an Alexa Conference to better understand the market landscape and consumer behavior, which was helpful in determining important questions and framing the findings for the client.
Survey
I began the research process by creating a short survey with eight questions aimed at smart speaker users, and took users about two minutes to complete. The survey questions explored a variety of uses and information, including open ended questions regarding:
Number of smart speakers and placement in the home
Daily routines centered around or aided by a smart speaker
Types of content accessed from the smart speaker
Pain points related to content discovery and interacting with the technology as a whole
The survey was promoted to smart speaker users using targeted Facebook Ads, the client’s email subscriber list and organic social media posts over a three week period. By the end of the survey promotion, over 1200 users participated.
Time Frame(Survey): 3.5 weeks (including running 3 week long ad and gathering insights)
Focus Group
The focus group sessions included two separate hour-long sessions with ten total participants who owned smart speakers. I led the focus group discussions and enlisted a colleague to take sessions notes. While many of the focus group topics centered around similar questions and themes as the survey bullet points above, I was able to better understand sentiments and go deeper into actions and habits. Below are selected notable quotes from participants:
“I enjoy the convenience of being able to give the smart speaker general commands like ‘play soothing classical music’ or ‘play upbeat pop music’ to easily listen depending on my mood…”
“We use it as an intercom throughout the house, from playing music to communicating with the kids upstairs…”
“I use my smart speaker to set timers almost every day!”
Time frame(Focus Group): 2 Days
Data & Insights
Below are selected key insights and data from both the survey and focus group sessions. Please note that some data and insights are omitted due to client privacy.
Survey
Over 60% of users had one or two smart speakers, while 37% of users had more than three smart speakers in their homes
Of daily activities users reported, playing music, checking the weather, setting an alarm and asking a question were the top activities
Nearly 90% of users reported listening to music via smart speakers weekly, with 57% listening every day
Most popular types of content listened to on smart speakers include news, podcasts and audiobooks
Smart speakers are essential to daily activities that tend to be screen-free, such as getting ready for work, cooking, household chores and entertaining on evenings/weekends
Focus Groups
Smart speakers used mostly while relaxing, cooking, household chores, getting ready for work and other screen-free tasks
Some users reported listening to podcasts or albums exclusively during specific tasks, such as cleaning or cooking
Favorite uses for smart speakers include music, timers, games, reminders and intercom function
While users enjoyed the convenience of smart speakers, they are hesitant to trust the device due to privacy concerns
Common pain points included voice search not returning results the user wanted, the device turning on/off with being activated, and lack of visual interface making content discovery difficult
Time Frame: 3 days
Next Steps
After reviewing data and results from the survey and focus group, I compiled a list of next steps to grow and develop the next phase of the client’s smart speaker/voice search efforts. Please note that information has been omitted due to client privacy.
A/B test instructive marketing campaigns and analyzing results for a smooth user experience and optimization
Explore and test content designed for users to incorporate into their key daily routines, including playlists and audio for screen-free tasks
Address common pain points related to content discovery by optimizing content names and invocations(phrases used to find specific content)
Developing customer journey maps and personas
Tools
SurveyMonkey, Google Docs, Google Slides, Skype