Defining your Product Strategy using UX

Defining your product strategy using UXJacques Woodcock

@kitportal@jacques_thekit

Thursday, November 17, 11

A little about me...

- Degree in Design

I started by getting my degree in design...

- Degree in Design- Multimedia Designer

...then started doing multimedia design...

- Degree in Design- Multimedia Designer- Multimedia Programmer

...then multimedia programming...

- Degree in Design- Multimedia Designer- Multimedia Programmer- Coldfusion, Javascript, PHP

...then started learning most web technologies....

- Degree in Design- Multimedia Designer- Multimedia Programmer- Coldfusion, Javascript, PHP- Project Managment

...then on to project management...

- Business Dev, Ops Managment- Project Managment

...business development and operations management...

- Business Dev, Ops Managment- Project Managment

- Strategy/UX

... and am now focusing on strategy and UX.

First, to make sure we’re all on the same page...

What is UX?

- UX is simply designing for the needs of your end-user in a manner that the end-user would expect or can easily interpret.

What is UX?

- Of course this is an oversimplification but I believe when you get rid of industry jargon, technical speech, you'll find this is the essence.

UX + Business Strategy

- So what does the design have to do with Business Strategy?

Design?

- Well, what is design?

Design?

- Most people will say it's making pretty pictures or something that has to do with art.

Design?

- I argue it has nothing to do with making pretty pictures or art, but it is a creative process.

Design is...

- Design is simply the structuring of elements into a pleasing, or usable, product for the target audience to consume.

- Okay, so why should we care about UX when defining our products.

UX Design as Business Strategy

- Let's look at it this way. Say, I'm tried of reading stupid websites that rates restaurants from some ambiguous person's perspective and they use some arbitrary rating system that doesn't mean anything in the real world.

I'm good with computers so I decide I'm going to make an App that allows my friends to rate restaurants and this rating system is something like dirty dishes dirty cook, great food, cheep food poor service, beer selection to die for and so fourth and so fourth.

Then you want to be able to favorite restaurants and book reservations.

UX = Defined

- Well, you've just designed a user experience.

UX != Completed

- Sure, you haven't put drapes on the walls yet, but you know the room has 3 windows, hardwood floors and skylight.

Product/Business Model User Experience

- The point is we come up with product ideas, business models and service ideas all based around delivering a desired experience to a group of users.

Product/Business Model User Experience

- Even if it's providing an experience that you know your users want but they don't know they want, it's a user experience that you are selling them.

Product/Business Model

User Experience

Incorporated

- We seem to forget this when we incorporate.

User Experience

Market Research

Business Climate VC

User ExperienceUser Experience

- We can hide behind market research, business climates and VC questions all day long and justify changes based on any of these points, but the fact stands that what forces your concept/product to change is each of these areas' understanding of what best user experience to deliver.

User Experience

Market Research

Business Climate VC

User ExperienceUser Experience

- So it alters your original vision. Some times this is good, some times this is bad.

MonetizeUser Experience + Product/Business Model=

- Of course you still have to find a way to monetize your product, but if you are solving a problem for a user, or should we say a customer, wouldn't they expect to pay you in some way?

- How many UX designers are here today? You're not going to like this much.

Product/Business ModelUser Experience =

- Okay, we've defined that our products are packaged user experiences and that all business strategist are actually part UX designers.

- Boy, UX designers will beat me for saying that.

- So the point here is embrace the fact that you MUST consider the user experience in all your business decisions, not just from a top level of "this product allows you to rate restaurants" but all the way down to "you can search by location or name,

then you get a page with all the reviews that you can scroll through and even add your own review to, or get a phone number, website address or book a reservation, also save to your favorites."

User Experience

search by location or name

scrollable page with all the reviews

add your own review

get a number/website address

book a reservation

save to your favorites

- Consider this depth of thinking when you consider your strategy.

User Experience

add your own review

book a reservation

Innovation

- I think when you embrace planning your business strategy around your user experience you'll start to ask the questions that will lead you to innovation.

User Experience

add your own review

book a reservation

Innovation

- Innovation is rarely found in a technology alone, but is found when it's coupled with a user experience that allows that technology to be easily digestible by large masses of consumers.

I don't want to just sit here and debate definitions of Business strategy and user experience, I also want to talk about some techniques and tools for incorporating planning your business strategy around your user experience.

1. Dialogue

- The most important thing you can do no matter what you sell, is to have an open dialogue with at least 10 customers that make up the majority of your user demographic.

1. Dialogue

- Get to know these people, first names, families, friends, let them get to know you. Buy them drinks, coffees, lunches, sports games, whatever; just get an open dialogue with them.

1. Dialogue

- You'll find that this dialogue will be more crucial to you than just surveying your user base. You want/need the free opinions of a set of your users to be unfiltered and unsolicited.

1. Dialogue

- Survey's are typically questions that you answer yourself, from your perspective.

1. Dialogue

- To be a digestible survey, you have to provide preset answers. While you can dive into some great information, it's still filtered by your preconceived ideas when structuring the questions.

1. Dialogue

- So have these relationships with an open dialogue.

1. Dialogue

- You'll find that you probably already have these relationships, but with other business owners and other strategic thinkers, but do they use your product everyday?

1. Dialogue

- That's great insight to get, but it doesn't tell you what your users really want and need.

2. Test

- You need to be testing all facets of your product, all the time.

2. Test

- Analytics, AB testing, setting up funnels and heat maps are all great. Use them.

2. Test

- Find out what features are working now and it will help you understand what will work in the future.

2. Test

- Use them to fine-tune your offering. If less than 10% of your user base is using a feature, consider dropping it.

2. Test

- You'll save on support of the feature, have a cleaner offering and a tight user experience.

2. Test

- Some tools that I recommend using beyond analytics are focus groups and screen capturing.

2. Test

- I can't say enough about screen capturing. Check out Lucky Orange. It allows you to actually see, in realtime, where your users are from, and how they use your site, even all their mouse movements.

2. Test

- Of course that is great for web offerings, but what about none web-based offerings.

2. Test

- It's hard to think of products now a days that are not tied to the web. Take advantage of that.

2. Test

- If they are not, focus groups are good, but don't compare to actually going out to see your product used in the real world.

2. Test

- Look for product groups, or spend time at a shop that sells your product.

3. Prototyping

- So how do you test for new products and business models?

3. Prototyping

- Prototyping.

3. Prototyping

- Quickly mock something up and get it into the hands of your potential users.

3. Prototyping

- You'll get what you spent on the prototype back in knowledge and save in future expenses.

3. Prototyping

- Prototyping can tell you if a product has the potential to sink or swim.

3. Prototyping

- Prototyping doesn't have to be perfect. It's main goal is to start a conversation with your potential market, to learn what will make it perfect.

4. Refine

- Is there ever a point where a product is perfect? We all know that answer, no.

4. Refine

- Be it for changes in technology, changes in market, or changes in user behaviors.

4. Refine

- Over time, the populace gets smarter about technology and what their expectations change.

4. Refine

- They may still want to sign up for emails, but the way they want to do it today is not the same way they wanted to do it 5 years ago.

4. Refine

- So refine.

4. Refine

- A tight product that is easy to understand as much as it's easy to use will never feel old to a user.

Finishing Up

- Lastly, on the point of finding innovation in business by focusing on your user experience, let me ask you what innovation is.

"a new idea, method, or device"

- Webster sums it up as "a new idea, method, or device"

"a new idea, method, or device"

- I believe this to be a wrong definition of what it means to be innovative.

"the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are

accepted by markets, governments, and society."

- "the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society."

Innovation

- This to me means innovation.

New != Innovation

Better = Innovation

- What's the difference, the simple additions of "better".

Better = ?

- What ultimately makes something better?

Better = Problem Solved + UX

- Solving a problem & the user experience.

UX = Product

- Solving a problem & the user experience.

Defining your Product Strategy using UX

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