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User research is the systematic study of the people who use your product. The goal is to measure user needs, behaviors, and pain points.

User research comes in many forms. Perhaps one of the most common is the Net Promoter Score, or NPS. The NPS measures how likely your users are to recommend your product to a friend. NPS is measured through a survey offered at key milestones along the user's journey, such as after 7 days, 30 days, and 90 days. NPS is measured on a scale of 0 to 10, with 9 and 10 indicating an active promoter of your site.

Another research vector is an exit interview. This is a survey you show to your users when they cancel a subscription or delete an account. Data from this survey can give you insight into the factors causing user churn, so you can address them.

User testing, on the other hand, refers to the practice of capturing data from users as they interface with your application. For example, a video game going through beta testing is a form of user testing. One you might run into as a web developer is A/B testing. A/B testing involves shipping a new feature to a randomly selected subset of your user base. You can then leverage analytics data to determine if the feature is beneficial.

Finally, user requirements refer to the stories or rubric that your application needs to follow. This can inform the development process. User requirements might be defined by user research, or industry standards. They can even be defined by stakeholder input.

These requirements may be functional, meaning they dictate how your application should work, or non-functional, meaning they define how your application should behave. User requirements are not static, either. The information from both user testing and user research can impact the requirements, and they will change as your user base changes.

Understanding the difference is essential for collecting the most accurate data so you can deliver the best experience for your end users.