Talk to your users - but how?

So you're looking for insights on how to improve your user experience, why they're not using it like it was supposed to be, and why they are not coming back...? Well, I am.

You could make interviews, surveys, use software to track behaviour, insert some logs into your application, observe your users while using prototypes, etc.
And still, you would have to pick an approach: do you want to discover your user's "real needs"? Do you want to explain your "why's and why not's"? Do you want to improve in an specific behaviour or action?

The problem is: there's too many possibilities!

Here's my approach: believe in your guts!
(Yeah, right.. what the hell does it mean?!)

Ok, I'll explain.
When you started your software you had some premisses... You made the software with an specific target-user in mind, hoping that he would use your software for some specific needs, in an specific way, and for the use of your software you were implicitly considering that some context would hold.

Like: they will find your concept interesting and will want to register; they will tell their friends, they will have an iPhone or an Android; they will whatever... If you didn't think about this yet, it's about time. Check out The Entrepreneurs Guide to Customer Development in the section that it talks about MVP's - there you will learn about what I mean with "premisses". Read Crossing the Chasm, and there you will learn what I mean about your initial target-user. These are your guts talking to you - and so far it's the only one talking to you...

...So, before trying to improve anything, or to discover new things, or listening to someone else like your users, try talking to your guts first: test your premisses. Do your beliefs hold? Turn your beliefs into facts.

Only after this consider asking someone else. But this first part is hard enough...
Right now, you don't want to explain, neither discover and neither improve anything - you wanna test if you are right! Maybe second phase would be explain.

But first, test your beliefs the fastest, simpler and less costly as you can. Be creative.
Do you have ideas on how to test them? I surely have some ideas to share. Bring your beliefs on...

Well, this post is about just a part of the answer - the "where to start?".
But there are others, like "what to test?", "what to ask?", "how to ask?"...I might have some insights and references about them too.

Wanna talk about this?
What do you think about the subject? Leave your comments...