What are some good ways to assess how competent and comfortable our users are with technology? What baseline knowledge should we expect users to have?
This is a regular sticking point in my meetings with internal stakeholders. New, high-priority features are regularly proposed that assume the user has at least an intermediate understanding of technology. But then, worries arise that the new feature will be too difficult for non-technical users. I'd like to be able to say, "Our typical user is comfortable with X" or "Our typical user needs more help with Y," but I'm not sure how to gather that information.