User research for a product users have never used

1. When should you not do user research?
2. What is product user research?
3. How many users do you need for user research?

When should you not do user research?

1. When you can answer your research question with analytics, secondary research, or by talking to your team. User research is not omnipotent. It's not the best way to answer every single question your team could think of asking.

What is product user research?

User research is the discipline of learning about users' needs and thought processes by studying how they perform tasks, observing how they interact with a product, or by using other data-driven strategies.

How many users do you need for user research?

Summary: Elaborate usability tests are a waste of resources. The best results come from testing no more than 5 users and running as many small tests as you can afford.