Research in your own nest

Conducting customer research for the internal project might be tricky. First, one is tempted to think that actual research is not needed. Shouldn't you know it in and out already? Aren't the expectation clearly communicated? Isn't that you are solving your own problem? To the same extent, all the above is true. But due to the human and organization nature, one can end up building something unuseful or broken, just assuming that the information loopback is not needed.

So where is the point? All the data sources are available. There is no barrier nor procedure that blocks you from obtaining data. You are encouraged to collect it regularly. So why it fails so often?

One time check
Unless you make it a habit to collect the feedback in a repeatable way you may end up with the assumption that you know where are you heading. You do the check once, looks good. What can be wrong? Automate the feedback process, and keep on looking at data on a regular basis. You will not get as much data (number of internals is far less than external consumers) but this shouldn't be neglected.  That leads to the next point...

Not representative data
Let's assume you are working on an internal library. There may be several different groups using it. One may like the direction you have chosen, others don't. Obviously, sometimes the goal is not to cheer everybody. But if one simply closes eyes on the feedback that doesn't fit his vision, it's fair to just communicate it clearly. They may find an alternative. If we want them to be our users we should treat them with respect. Acknowledge the requests and try to address them. This may end up in a hard discussion. And this is where the last point occurs...


Personal bias
This can't be totally eliminated in the environment that people might and tend to know each other well. If you ask for non-anonymous feedback you may expect that part of your data will be useless. It's like asking your mom if your idea for the multimillion business is brilliant. In most cases, it's a waste of time. Give your users the comfort of saying critical things on your work. This is the fastest way to make it better.