This is my 15th post as on Linkedin Pulse as a Linkedin influencer:
To create a compelling user experience, keep the ‘user’ first, always. But remember, keep it lean!
Product companies are popping up almost everywhere I see. The startup culture has also inspired many large companies to move their bureaucratic weight and innovate. The ultimate winner is the customer!
What do the smartest product companies do: to create word of mouth?
The smartest product companies on the planet have internalized the fact that word of mouth generated by inspired users is far more powerful than any marketing.
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Build an experience, not a product!
All successful product companies know, its not what their product can do for the customer but how ‘well‘ does it deliver what it promises!
The experience driven approach to product design creates powerful differentiation in the mind of the customer. (differentiation won’t just be a marketing matter to you)
Define ‘well’ please!
- How does the user ‘feel’ after using the product?
- How dead simple is it for the user to do what he wants to?
- Will it become another ‘by-default-it-exists’ in the users life?
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Design is the experience! Engage the customer across all stages of ‘design’
Apply the lean principles of design and make your customer part of the user experience, in the early stages of product design. The smartest way to do this is to use rapid prototyping tools which enable you to create working HTML’s of your user experience flow.
Rapid prototyping gives the customer an almost real experience of the product.
If you’re building a web app, ensure that you use a tool which creates ‘responsive’ user experience and the related HTML.
I used Rapid Moon for my startup primarily because the team in London engaged me in a manner which made me a believer in their mission! This post is partly inspired with my experience & learnings, working with them.
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The design must be part of the customer’s story
A product can be a product OR it can be an emotion. Depends upon how you make it part of your customer’s life.
The smartest of the startups (in the lean user experience definition phase), engage customers emotionally. Its not just about the problem, its much more. How the problem affects your customer’s life in a larger sense.
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Stories give birth to reactions
The smartest product managers know the value of ‘customer’s reactions’ while using the product. Catch the most ‘expressive stimuli’ and build on it repetitively. This leads to the product having ‘viral’ features.
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Reactions demand great support
When your users react, listen. Listen with patience. Listen with great zeal, enthusiasm. And once you are ready, share a plan with your customer on how their ideas/ reactions will be made part of the product in the future.
Be 24/7 available to the customer. Whether you are a startup OR a large company. The customer ain’t bothered about it!
Go build great products, change the world!
Image credit (searched via Google Images)