There is a fundamental problem with product design. We want things to do everything for us, instead of focusing on one thing. When planning products, it’s so easy to get caught up in the excitement of “what ifs” that we forget to focus on what is actually needed and what will users actually use. This issue extends beyond just digital products. We see it in the physical world all the time. However, when we try to include everything under the sun in one product, we end up creating something that is completely unusable. This is the problem with a lot of startup products. They try to do too much too soon without any actual input from their customers. I applaud them on their excitement and dreams of changing the world, but I promise you that any startup or product will have a higher rate of success if you can find the one thing that will bring customers and encourage them to use your product over and over again.
We’ve seen examples of products that have done extremely well by focusing on one thing initially and then expanded out their feature sets from there. Instagram, Google, Dyson, Medium, and Zappos are just a few examples of companies that started with one idea and feature figured out how to execute it at a level that no other company could do and launched. Instagram wasn’t the first photo-filtering app in the app store and Google wasn’t the first search engine, but both companies peeled back all the other features they could have included in their first product down to one primary focus. This helped generate the right user-focus for them to become multi-billion dollar organizations.
How do you know which features will be the ones that end up in your first product and will generate the best return? You ask your target customers. Feedback from the market you wish to appeal to is the most valuable and often overlooked piece of any product build. Even if you are building a product just for yourself, you may benefit from the input of others doing similar things while having a similar problem that you wish to solve. This doesn’t just apply to startups either. Established companies can gain incomparable insight in their customers just by asking. There have only been a handful of cases where this isn’t true. Steve Jobs always believed that customers didn’t know what they wanted until you showed them. He was right when it came to the iPhone, iPad and other Apple products, but this isn’t the norm.
Conducting simple interviews with your target can greatly impact your business direction. You can still put together simple mockups to show and allow users to interact with but know that people lie and often try to tell you what you want to hear. People are scared of sounding stupid or wrong so they will give you the answer about a feature they think you want to hear. Now I know I just said you should ask your target what they think and what they want, but make sure that you collect a large enough sample of data to determine the outliners. Then take that data and turn it into a series of user stories and personas, then evaluate against your initial assumptions. You may find that you were right on the money, but you may find that none of the information you’ve gathered fits. This allows you to go back and test new assumptions again until you nail down the feature set that drive traffic and interactions but can also be executed at a level beyond the competition.
One of the biggest concerns with this user-focused approach is that it will stifle creativity. I disagree. In fact, I’ve seen it increase the level of creativity that designers can bring to a project. The reason behind this is that the designers now have concentrate solution they need to reach. The designers are able to have stronger conversations about how to get to that solution and what ways they can deliver on that promise. Knowing where you are going and what you want to achieve can make the work far more meaningful and open your mind up to an infinite amount of possibilities.
I’ve found over the years that clients find it hard to let go of certain ideas about marketing and connecting with customers. They struggle with the notion of focusing the strategy and design efforts on users rather than business goals. Now to be fair it’s not really their fault because in most cases the designer or agency they’ve been working with doesn’t know any better either and is just looking to bill the client and deliver a solution that the client is happy with. What happens then is six months down the road the client comes calling again saying that everything is broken and they haven’t generated any leads, traffic to their site is down and they need a redesign. The designer or agency of course agrees as it helps his or her cash flow and keeps everyone employed. But I want to offer a different approach to you.
Instead of just delivering on the business objectives of any project, turn your focus back to the users. Conduct the interviews, surveys and test features with your target before delivering designs. Take the time to show clients that finding and focusing development on the features that their users actually want will meet the business objectives met and more than likely exceeded. This can be scary for clients so help them understand that users don’t want X, Y and Z. They would rather only use W feature. Gain clients trust by showing them the data and the feature story. Remove the expectations that every feature under the sun needs to be apart of their product.
Teach clients that having one feature executed extremely well will create a deeper connection with their users, a level of trust and provide a greater understanding of future growth within their organizations. It will also lead to new innovative techniques that solving user problem. If you are starting a new company, it will create a system of features that your customers will actually use leading to a higher potential level of success. Finally for the established organizations, it will keep clients happy, as they will see all the objectives that effect their bottom line met.
