Playbook
User Research Methods for PMs
Every research method a PM should know — 1:1 interviews, surveys, diary studies, unmoderated tests. What each answers and when to use it.
Method Matrix
Which method for what question
- 1:1 Interviews (5-15 users): "Why did they do that?" — motivations and workflows
- Surveys (100+ responses): "How many feel this way?" — quantify prevalence
- Diary Studies (3-7 days): "What happens in real life?" — contextual behavior
- Unmoderated Usability (10-20 users): "Where do people get stuck?" — friction points
- A/B Tests (production): "Does this actually move metrics?" — causality
When Quant Beats Qual (and vice versa)
Rules of thumb
- Discovery = qual first (find the hypothesis)
- Validation = quant second (measure prevalence)
- Diagnosis = both (qual for why, quant for how big)
- Post-launch = quant + subset of qual (measure impact + investigate outliers)
Running Research Without a Research Team
Solo PM playbook
- Use UserTesting.com or Maze for unmoderated tests
- Pull 5-8 users from Intercom + product analytics
- Google Meet + otter.ai for 1:1 recordings
- Airtable to synthesize themes
Master These with a Coach
The cohort drills every framework and template with live feedback from FAANG PMs.