Learn Why Users Switch

Users do not switch tools because a feature matrix told them to. They switch because something changed: a workflow got painful, a workaround stopped scaling, a teammate needed proof, or a buyer could not explain the cost.

UserTold helps you capture that decision in the user's own words. The goal is to learn what progress they were trying to make, what they compared you against, and what would make them leave.

The pain this solves

Without source evidence, teams tend to argue from opinion:

• "People want exports."
• "Pricing is the blocker."
• "The dashboard is too research-heavy."
• "We need more integrations."

Those might be true, but they are not specific enough to ship against. UserTold records the moment behind the request: what triggered it, what the user did instead, what they feared, and what outcome would make the product useful.

When to use it

Use this guide when the product question is about choice:

• why users try the product in the first place
• why trial users fail to activate
• why buyers hesitate before choosing a plan
• why customers keep a spreadsheet, doc, or internal tool around
• why a shipped feature does not replace the old workflow
• what would make a team stop using the product

If you mostly need to watch whether a task works, start with Find Where Users Get Stuck.

How to run it

Anchor the interview on a real recent moment. Avoid broad preference questions.

Recommended study shape:

1. talk: Reconstruct the last time the user tried to solve the problem.
2. observe: Watch them use the current product or repeat the workflow if behavior matters.
3. talk: Ask about alternatives, hesitation, workarounds, and what would have made the choice easier.

Example:

{
  "id": "decision-context",
  "mode": "talk",
  "title": "Decision context",
  "talk": {
    "goals": ["understand-switch"],
    "system_prompt": "Ask about the most recent time the participant tried to solve this problem. Ask one question at a time. Anchor on the trigger, old workaround, alternatives considered, hesitation, and what made the final choice acceptable."
  }
}

Better questions

Ask for the story, not the wishlist.

Instead of	Ask
"What features do you want?"	"What were you trying to get done the last time this came up?"
"Would you use an export?"	"What did you do with the information after you found it?"
"Is pricing clear?"	"Where did you hesitate before choosing a plan?"
"What integrations matter?"	"What tool did you need this to connect to before it became useful?"
"Do you like the dashboard?"	"Who else needed to understand the result?"

These questions create evidence that explains the work, not just demand for more surface area.

Why the method works

The practical idea is light: people use a product to make progress in a real situation. UserTold turns that into usable evidence by preserving decision moments as quotes and source links.

The fuller basis is in Methodology, but the product habit is simple: capture the trigger, the workaround, the hesitation, and the outcome the user needed.

What good evidence looks like

Weak finding:

Users want export.

Source-backed finding:

A team lead copied evidence into a spreadsheet because engineers did not use the dashboard. They said, "I need something I can drop into our planning doc."

That finding points to a product problem: the handoff format does not fit the team workflow.

Turn the decision into work

## Problem

Team leads export project evidence because they need to brief engineers who do not use the dashboard.

## Evidence

- Quote: "I need something I can drop into our planning doc."
- Workaround: copies evidence into a spreadsheet and removes internal notes.
- Decision point: hesitated before inviting engineers because the dashboard felt too research-specific.

## Delivery direction

Create a shareable engineering handoff view that preserves source quotes and hides reviewer-only notes.

Next step

Use this guide before changing positioning, onboarding, pricing, handoff, or retention flows. For delivery handoff, use From Interviews to Linear and GitHub Issues.