Repeat after me. “I am not the target audience. I am not the target audience”.
When we design new products or services it’s easy to forget that we are not the target audience. And remembering this fact is always important, but especially in the financial services sector.

When we spend a large proportion of our time focused on a particular area, naturally it becomes more familiar. We have a better understanding, we know the ‘correct’ language, it’s something that WE believe is important.
Even when our target market looks similar to us demographically, it does not mean that they will have the same level of knowledge or place the same importance on the topic as we do. And why should they? It’s not their career!

Therefore, it’s dangerous to make assumptions and why we need to do research with our target group, whether it’s #UX #marketresearch or #advertising

And when we do research, we must think about how we do it, what we’re observing, what we’re asking and how we analyse the feedback. Whilst we may have spent weeks agonising over features, colours, descriptions etc. it may be something that consumers really don’t give any time or thought to. By asking them for their opinion, we’re putting a spotlight on it, and giving it more importance than it actually has in people's lives

Remembering that we are not the target audience is step 1.
Thinking about what we want to understand and how best to capture this is step 2.
Asking people is not always the best option.