It’s Funny ’cause It’s True

Hello buddy designer, researcher, entrepreneur. Are you looking for an opportunity for improvement or a problem to fix with your product? Or maybe you want to reveal some hidden painpoints of your customers?

It’s often told that everybody is a designer. And this is true. I would add to it that everybody is also a researcher. There is a nice and enjoyable way of conducting research that anyone could use. And you will definitely get the insights. They might be a bit random, but if you’re not looking for anything specific, but the product ideas, then it will work for you.

Let’s think who else is collecting relevant problems, making them public and getting fast feedback without calling it the user research? Before you answer, yes, I literally suggest stealing their knowledge. And there will be no crime.

You might think of journalists first. Which is a good idea too, but usually the list of topics is limited and discussed problems are huge and well known. Also the feedback loop is not really there.

So, here is my story. Recently I was watching a Louis C.K. show and at some point I’ve realized that he (as any other comic) is doing a great research job: he is observing people around, looking for a problem that everyone could relate to, and making it very visible and funny. And the laugh indicated that the problem is relevant for this exact audience. Isn’t it great?

Let’s say, you’re designing a car rental service and looking for the possible improvements. Here is a Louis’ masterpiece:

Which insigts could we extract from here?

Painpoints of returning a car :

1. The office is too far from the airport

2. You can’t leave until someone checked the car

3. It takes time.

4. You need to take a bus to the airport then.

5. If you’re late for your flight, then you have stress on top of everything.

We don’t know if it’s a true story about dropping the car, but the pain is real.

In continuation of the automotive theme. Here Louis was describing a mindset of a certain driver persona.

I’m not sticking to Louis, he was just a wow moment for me. Pick any stand-up comic you like. What’s also great about stand-ups is that there are plenty of short talks online in any language. You could search for specific topic in a specific language/region.

Actually any comedy could be used for this. I prefer stand-ups because they are more up to date. Fresh series might be of a help too. For example Norsemen from Netflix. You could find many metaphors of a modern life, corporate culture, employee experience, fashion and etc.

I could go on with examples, but I believe you can can find them yourself.

I suggest using it as a side research activity. Everyone in your team could do it, no preparation is needed.

So, if you’re into stand-ups and are looking for a problem to fix, or need to better understand a certain group of people and their perception of whatever product/event/situation, then this method will be both enjoyable and productive research activity.

It’s a great way to look at the problem from another angle or find something obvious that you couldn’t see before, but it was laying right in front of you.

But stay professional and check what is the audience that is laughing. Is the video somehow edited or is it live recording. When and where was it filmed. And why do they show the applause sign after each joke.