Three things land in one week. A customer in a research session describes giving up on finding her renewal date and phoning instead. The head of sales says customers want a dashboard. Analytics shows two in five sessions ending on the account page. Which is a user need as the Service Manual defines it?

The principle — three inputs in one week are usually three different kinds of thing, and the useful move is to say which is which.

Why the key is correct — the definition is that ‘User needs’ are the needs that a user has of a service, and which that service must satisfy for the user to get the right outcome for them. The research session gives both halves: the need is of the service, and the outcome is knowing when the renewal falls due. The sales input is covered by the instruction to Treat any opinions or suggestions that do not come from users as assumptions that have to be proven by doing research. and the analytics number is an observation that something happens without saying what anyone was trying to do.

Why the others are wrong — behavioural data records that sessions ended somewhere and is silent on what those people wanted, which is the half the definition turns on. The sales suggestion did not come from a user, so it enters as an assumption regardless of how much the team agrees with it. And treating all three as needs abandons the definition in favour of anything anyone wants.

Remember this — a need names the service and the outcome; everything else is an assumption or an observation.

Sources — the UK Government Digital Service Manual on learning about users and their needs.