The development of the internet very quickly spreads throughout the world and affects the development of human life in all fields, such as finance, transportation, learning, shopping, etc. This raises new opportunities in developing companies engaged in technology, such as startups. A startup was developed to solve various problems in society using the help of technology. Basically, startups are developed based on the problems felt by customer users.

As a startup founder, of course, we must be able to identify the problems felt by users in order to develop a startup that can actually solve the right problem. A suitable method of conducting research is needed to find a problem. There are two research methods that can be used in finding problems, namely qualitative and quantitative.

Qualitative Data Research

In qualitative research, the data processed is non-numeric. Opinions, comments, user behavior, feelings, or motivations, for example, are examples of data processed for qualitative research.The purpose of qualitative analysis is to understand user problems in terms of their behavior and activity patterns. The results of data collection problems from qualitative research are better able to explain the reasons why something happened.

There are several methods used in qualitative research, namely :

• Guerilla testing: this is the fastest and cheapest method by way of field observation, review of paper sketches, or using online tools for remote use.
• An interview: an interview with the aim of describing their interactions, thoughts, and feelings in relation to the product or service, or even the product environment.
• Focus group: participants are led through discussions and activities to collect data about a particular product or service.
• Field studies: research more into the user’s environment and observe while taking notes or taking photos or videos if possible.
• In-lab testing: observation where users complete certain tasks in a controlled environment. Users are often asked to describe their actions, thoughts, and feelings for recording and later analysis.
• Card sorting usually helps to understand information architecture and name conventions well. It can be very useful for sorting large amounts of content into logical groupings for users.

Quantitative Data Research

While quantitative research examines more things related to numbers or statistics that can be used to find opinions and also user behavior, Some of the ways include :

• User surveys: distributing questionnaires in a structured format, targeting specific users. This will be useful for collecting large amounts of data. One popular online tool to help with his research is Surveymonkey.
• First click testing: testing to analyze what the user clicks on first to complete the intended task. This can be helped with paper prototypes, interactive wireframes, or existing websites.
• Eye tracking measures what the user sees. This can be an expensive test, but there are cheaper heatmapping alternatives.
• Heatmapping: visual mapping to show how the user clicks and scrolls through the prototype site. An online tool that is quite famous for this method is Crazyegg.
• Web analytics: data collected from a website or an integrated prototype can help to see user demographics, page views, and also funnels about how users move on the website. A well-known online tool for researching this is Google Analytics.
• A/B testing: comparing two versions of a web page to see which is more usable for users. This is a way to test the placement of buttons, colors, banners, and other elements in the user interface.

Qualitative research can be done at any time, while quantitative methods are better when the final product is finished. The reason is that the purpose of quantitative research is to evaluate the metrics and solutions of the finished product. This data is used to find out the shortcomings of the product.