Interview #2 - Freelance product designer

The Employee Benefit Program was set up by Peugeot to fix the mobility programs employer have with their employees. Employees who are entitled to the program can lease a car of one of the three Peugeot brands which discount per month. Your company could be partner of the program, which means you could be entitled. My name is Paul Brouwer and I am conducting target group research to gather information of the wants and needs of people who are looking for a car.

If you look at these questionnaires (V1, 2 and 3) what, in your opinion would be a good approach?

I remembered when my dad wanted to buy a new Tesla, it was really easy to configure. Tesla's configurator contained 5 steps - model, colour, wheels, interior and exterior. Every step had only one to three options, so it was really easy to configure. Before that, my dad wanted to buy an Audi A6, a relatively big car. At the moment we where at the showroom, my dad asked me and my brother to sit one after another because we are both tall. In this way, he could see if it was possible for us to sit comfortably and have enough space. The salesman kept asking what my dad had in mind for a price and what kind of car he had before. By asking what a user already drove, this could reduce the scope when he or she wants a similar car.

You would recommend to ask for the price?

Yes of course, when somebody, for example, wants a lot of power but finds out that power is quite expensive (out of the budget), he or she has to go over through the whole process. If you do no ask what their budget is, they will be surprised about the prices they will see at the end of the process.

So, in your opinion a ranking system would work counterproductive.

Well, I do think it can generate a possible selection. Only it seems too abstract. I would ask an open question at first, for example, what did you drive before.

Another participant recommended me to ask demographic questions. For example age and zip-code. Do you also think this could work well?

Oh, that might be a good approach as well. If you would ask, beforehand, where they live and right after that if they want a small or a big car. When people live in the city, then you could set default selections on smaller cars and when someone lives in village big cars could be default selected. This would direct users into the 'right' way. In follow up you could ask what they drove before to leave out the price.

Leave out the price? In this scenario?

Well, both ways are possible. When you do ask for a price, you start guessing. You can not know if someone want to drive a similar type of car.

Well, that is a fun thing. Asking what type of car someone drove before can work in certain context. But then, you should ask a follow-up question like: Are you looking for a similar car? And, in addition, maybe someone is buying their second or third car. Then it would not be likely that that someone is buying a similar car.

You could ask if the user want to rate their experience with the current car. Only that would mean you need to keep asking follow up questions.

Indeed, I want to keep it simple and clear. If I ask for complicated questions users maybe would not like it and do not use it.

Well, then I think asking for demographic data is a good starting point. When you are a woman with an age of 55 living in small village with no children, you are not likely to buy a big car like an SUV or Station-wagon. In case you are a young man with no children, it would. Age and gender can use quite well, only they are assumptions.

In addition to demarcate the outcomes I thought of asking what kind of options their car must have and what could have. What do you think of that?

That would work like a funnel. Start with a basal questions and then make it more nuanced. In the end, the data that would be generated could be valuable for Peugeot as well. I do not know if that is your case as well, but it could work.

That is a bit too complicated but it would indeed! My biggest challenge actually is to connect the users. They not only should configure their contract, but also extend or configure again. A good example is the Helix Sleep quiz, which let you find the right mattress by asking simple questions beforehand. I am trying to create something similar.

At Audi you can configure everything, a questionnaire beforehand is really nice when someone has no interests for all that nonsense. This Helix questionnaire is really awesome, it seems so friendly by just looking at it. In your case, you could ask for name, gender, children(family composition) and age. And after that, ask for the type of car.

Okay, but for you it is clear what the name of the type includes. For other people, for example the first participant who knew nothing about cars, this is very confusing.

You could include images(icons) and information bubbles, so people can learn from the questionnaire. They can read what it includes or use scenery or images or examples of that type. Nevertheless, I think this is a really good approach. Start with asking demographic questions and move on to the type. From there you could ask questions about the contract: mileage and duration.

Mileage and duration, people can do that afterwards during the configuration.

Well, it helps them to find the right car with the right contract which both are influence the monthly fee. For mileage, you do not have to ask precisely what they driving, because I assume that a lot of people do not even know how much they drive. Instead, ask for private and work and add an indication. For duration, you could ask if they want a longer duration (cheaper) or if they want to switch more often (bit more expensive).

Could we keep that all in five steps?

If you ask for demographic data, type of car, contract and motorisation you already have four questions. At last, you could ask about the options. Let the user choose whether they want a prefixed model with the basic options per version or let the user decide to configure themselves.

Wouldn't it be better to let the user select their options?

No, show the user the prefixed models with standard included options. When user want more, they can choose to configure. Prefixed models work for people who don't care about options, only let them choose the colour. People who want all kind of fancy stuff, can go into the the configurator.

I need to reconsider the possible questions, but this really helps me a lot. Thank you very much for you time and input.

No problem, you are welcome. If can help you another time, let me know.