Conversations with corporate researchers
Katharine Giari and Brittany Williams
UX Researcher and Market Insights Manager, respectively, Etsy
Etsy has such a diverse community of sellers that take part in the quickly changing world of e-commerce. What is the biggest challenge when gathering insights to drive sales and product development? What challenges do you see for the future?
Giari: From a research perspective, one of the biggest challenges with having a diverse community of sellers is making sure we target the right groups when we recruit for qualitative studies. While around 80 percent of sellers on Etsy are women, they are at vastly different stages in their careers as sellers. Some are content to sell part-time, while others are on a different trajectory and aspire to become full-time business owners. Sellers also face unique challenges specific to what they sell. For example, someone who makes custom jewelry has a workflow that looks very different than someone who sells vintage furniture. Add another layer of complexity when you factor in sellers’ location – within or outside of the U.S. Recently we’ve been working on a seller segmentation project that tries to go beyond demographics and business metrics, to look at the more attitudinal and emotional factors at work – we hope this will help us fine-tune our recruiting efforts over time.
International research remains an exciting challenge. We are a growing team but we don’t speak every language in the world and there are only so many of us. We’re working on some solutions such as an online international user community that will help get us actionable insights and provide the cultural context that is necessary for developing successful international launches. Another advantage of using this methodology is that we don’t need to conduct lengthy and expensive studies in every market – and exhaust our sample of buyers and sellers while we do so.
Williams: We also work closely with other functions across the organization to help us refine who we’re speaking to during studies, especially because the input and perspectives of other teams at Etsy gives us a much better chance of building meaningful research studies that will influence product development. For example, we work closely with product managers and designers to ensure a full understanding of what we’re building – Why are we building it? What user needs are we hoping to address with this product? – and with product marketing to understand our communications strategy and help validate the product launch plan. Working in this way has helped us incorporate moments of delight into products, which makes our users smile and feel good about using Etsy. For instance, when building our seller app – Sell on Etsy – we learned that sellers loved hearing the cash register “cha-ching!” on their computer each time they got a sale. So, we incorporated this into the app so they have instant gratification when someone finds one of their items and makes a purchase.
As a company that reaches users around the globe, what research methodologies do you find most useful for authentically representing consumer voices?
Giari: It sounds obvious but I’ve realized since working for Etsy that you can’t simply translate a Web site into other languages and expect the experience to be the same. There are very subtle localization cues that, when handled badly or not at all, significantly impact the user experience for people in non-U.S. markets. For example, a buyer in Germany looking for pants would type “hose” into the search bar only to turn up pantyhose in the English-based/non-localized search results. To ensure that Etsy is internationally relevant for buyers and sellers we aim for product launches that are global in scope.
One of the methodologies we use is an online international community, which we’re in the process of recruiting groups of buyers and sellers in core markets to participate in an online community. Our goal is to set up a space where buyers and sellers can provide feedback to us in the form of group discussions, bulletin boards, polls and other activities. A second is in-person qualitative research sessions, which is conducted in local language with simultaneous translation in core markets for product/feature development. A third – quantitative surveys – are translated into local language and used for benchmarking, scoping opportunity for new products, post-launch product/feature feedback and overall site satisfaction. Finally, we use ethnography to help stakeholders understand the broader context of their initiatives rather than solely relying on raw research data.
What new research projects and/or methodologies will you be focusing on in 2016?
Giari: We’re developing our online international community and plan to use it to maximize the feedback we can get with a fairly small sample of buyers and sellers in some of our markets outside of the U.S. One of the core challenges with international research has been keeping pace with product development and attendant research needs without overwhelming the smaller base of international users. Through the online community we can get valuable insights to help inform global launches without conducting slow and costly qualitative lab research for every research need. Note that this is not a silver bullet. It is one methodology among several and will be used judiciously. However, by using an online community for international research we can maintain some flexibility and provide regular feedback to our product teams.
Williams: In addition, we’re working hard to incorporate more innovation-oriented research into our portfolio. For example, in 2015 we launched Etsy Manufacturing, a new platform for manufacturers to list their services and connect with Etsy sellers. We began our research with manufacturers with an internal workshop to uncover our hypotheses, gaps in knowledge and open questions, and then created a series of design provocations, which we used as prompts during exploratory interviews with manufacturers. It was really important for us to conduct these interviews in person and to speak with manufacturers in a variety of industries, from jewelry to apparel, and to have other Etsy teammates be a part of these interviews. As our understanding of manufacturers grew, we were able to refine and home in on a more clear-cut vision of what the product might become. At the end of the day, this meant that we could build a product that took into account both manufacturer and Etsy seller needs.
*Credit for Katharine Giari's photo goes to Yang Jiang