How to do it

1. Long task list: Create a long list (ex: 150-500) of tasks by consulting various data sources:
   • Behavior on the site - Google analytics, Site search queries (date range: 12 months)
   • Customer feedback channels - What are customers talking or asking about?
   • Stakeholder interviews
   • Review available past UX research
   • Comparative analysis of sites of similar products
   • Review every page of the site you are creating the task list for

   As you review the data, ask yourself what users may be trying to do on your site.

   Capture your tasks in a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet should document the task, the general category it belongs to (this helps you organize your task list and makes it easier to trim the list later), the source of where you got that task, and notes.

2. Short list: Trim the list to 70 or fewer tasks:
   • Consolidate duplicative tasks
   • Work with stakeholders to shorten the list to no more than 70 tasks and finalize wording of tasks (consult task wording best practices). This can be done with collaborative workshops using a whiteboard tool.

   Plan for it to take 3-5 weeks to get to a final short list.

3. Survey: Get feedback from users. Ask users to vote on their most important tasks via survey. Collect other relevant data to cross analyze top tasks with those data points (for example, ask participants how long they have used the product. That way you can determine top tasks of new users vs. seasoned users).