How should founders think about customer research with older adults?

One of our esteemed AgeTech NYC living lab advisors is Bianca Stern, Executive Director, Health Innovation at CABHI. Our living lab cohort recently met with Bianca to learn how to conduct effective and efficient customer research with an older adult population. 

Join me in learning wisdom and best practices from Bianca’s work to support entrepreneurs with customer research. 

— Sarah Richard

P.S. - if you’re interested in learning more about how CABHI Leap can help your team with customer research, fill out this interest form.

How do I design and conduct a customer survey with older adults?

Bianca Stern: "The key to designing a survey for older adults is clarity of purpose. You need to know what you’re aiming to learn—whether that’s about product features, user satisfaction, or accessibility. Keep the survey short, easy to follow, and free from jargon. You also want to avoid bias in your questions. Test the survey with a small group first to ensure clarity, and remember to mix open and closed questions for both actionable insights and qualitative depth."

What are some tips for gathering feedback from older adults?

Bianca Stern: "Focus groups and direct interviews work really well with older adults, especially when you want to explore new ideas or validate solutions. I recommend storytelling and relatable examples to help participants visualize a product, particularly if it’s a new technology they’re not familiar with. Make sure to create an informal and supportive atmosphere so that participants feel comfortable sharing honest feedback. Also, facilitate carefully—ensure everyone gets a chance to speak, and redirect the conversation if one person dominates."

How should I weight and filter customer feedback?

Bianca Stern: "The importance of feedback depends on what stage your product is in and the purpose of your data collection. For early-stage prototypes, a smaller group can give you insights to refine your design. If you’re validating your product for a larger market, you’ll need more participants. Look out for outliers—sometimes the unique responses can point to innovative ways to differentiate your solution in the market.” Try to gather feedback from lots of different sources to get a full view of customer opinions. Each source offers unique insights. There are a range of tools you can use  to help organize, store, categorize data based on themes i.e. product quality, bugs, customer service, user experience, or feature requests. Segmenting your users helps you see what different customers are requesting. Identify and prioritize the most important issues you want to pay attention to first. Reach out to learn more from subject matter experts in the research/data synthesis field.”

What are the best practices for working with individuals with dementia in focus groups?

Bianca Stern: "When working with individuals with dementia, it’s important to be flexible. Use short, clear questions, real world scenarios they can identify with,  and visual prompts to aid understanding. Caregivers can help, but make sure they don’t answer on behalf of the individual. Keep sessions short and adjust the pace and content based on participants’ comfort levels. It’s also important to build rapport to make them feel comfortable sharing their thoughts. Always acknowledge their input and gently guide the conversation in a warm, friendly, respectful way"