Author: Anna McKee

It’s never the end: Continuously evolving product improvement

Post author By Anna McKee
Post date December 18, 2023

About this series: Great products are built using good problem-solving, and the best way to solve problems is to define needs and then meet them in every user interaction. Alignment across teams and channels ensures that expectations are set correctly and delivered on effectively at every stage of the user journey. Great design starts way back at defining the problem and extends through the entire product lifecycle, continuing long after launch and into the ongoing iterations of product development. Great design is a cornerstone for great products, driving great business, and creating opportunity. Read on to learn how ongoing iteration and innovation in the product design process makes great product design and the business value it creates sustainable. If you missed the first two installments, be sure to check out the other blogs in our series:

The design journey continues post-launch

Embarking on a successful product launch is a journey that requires planning, strategic collaboration, and continuous improvement. Crafting an effective launch strategy is the foundation, involving comprehensive market research, targeted messaging, and utilizing diverse marketing channels to build awareness and demand. Integrating a motivated and informed team becomes paramount as the launch unfolds, fostering a collaborative environment where each member contributes to the product’s success. Post-launch, the journey doesn’t end; it transforms into a dynamic cycle of continuous improvement. User feedback emerges as a guiding force, steering the development team toward iterative enhancements that align with evolving user needs. The importance of great design in this phase cannot be overstated, as design systems, seamless handoffs, and branding alignment contribute to a visually cohesive and engaging user experience.

Crafting effective launch strategies for product success

Launching a new product is challenging and the foundation for success is laid in the earliest stages of product development with a well-thought-out strategy centered around a clear and strong problem statement. That problem statement should provide connective tissue through the product development process and into planning for the product launch, including product positioning and go-to-marketing messaging. Ensuring that your product strategy as a whole is driven by a clear problem statement will help ensure consistency and alignment at every stage of the product journey. Additionally, you must leverage the right mix of marketing channels based on your target audience’s preferences and behaviors, such as social media, email, and influencers. This ensures a broad reach and sustained interest leading up to the launch. This comprehensive approach creates excitement and establishes a strong foundation for the product’s success in the market.

An effective internal launch paves the way for a successful external launch. Creating buzz and anticipation across your cross-functional team is a crucial aspect of a successful product launch. A cohesive team that is well-informed and motivated can significantly impact the outcome. Communication is key; share the vision, goals, and milestones with your team to foster a sense of unity and purpose. This will ensure that a single vision will be promoted across the team and translate seamlessly into the customer experience. When every person on the team knows how the pitch will go, they can all use their collective resources to lean into launch.

Allowing team members to contribute their unique perspectives by encouraging open dialogue and idea-sharing is also important as you consider external launch. By involving everyone in the process, from marketing and sales to product development, you harness the collective energy and expertise of your team. This collaborative approach not only generates creative ideas, but also ensures that everyone is aligned and committed to the launch’s success. Crafting an effective internal and external launch strategy is a dynamic process that requires adaptability and ongoing assessment to ensure the success of your product in the ever-evolving market.

Learn more about Tallwave’s Digital Experience Design Services.

Driving iteration with user feedback in the continuous improvement process

As a new product is launched to the market, it’s easy to assume that’s where the product team’s job ends and the marketing team’s job begins. But in truth, product launch is a phase that should bring these teams even closer together to bring the product to market while closing the feedback loop to drive continuous product improvement. Following launch, monitoring the performance of the product and features is paramount. This holistic approach to performance evaluation provides valuable insights into customer preferences and behavior. Utilize analytics tools to track key metrics, such as user engagement, conversion rates, and customer feedback. By analyzing the broader landscape, you can adapt your strategies and address any issues that may arise swiftly.

Continuous improvement is a cornerstone of long-term success, and by keeping a close eye on performance metrics, you can make data-driven decisions to refine your product and marketing strategies for sustained growth. Regular updates and releases based on user insights not only demonstrate responsiveness to customer needs but also foster a sense of trust and loyalty. This iterative approach transforms the product development process into a dynamic, user-centric journey, where each iteration builds upon the last, leading to a more refined and valuable end product.

The role of design in continuous improvement strategies

Great design plays a critical role in driving iteration and responding to user feedback effectively. Design systems provide a framework for consistency, enabling seamless integration of new features while maintaining a cohesive user experience. Additionally, well-managed handoffs between design and development teams streamline the implementation of design changes, reducing friction and accelerating the iteration process. Aligning branding elements across marketing channels and into the product will ensure user expectations are met at every turn. During iterations, a holistic approach to design, design systems, handoffs, and branding alignment ensures that the process is not only efficient but also results in a cohesive and engaging user experience.

Product success factors and the pursuit of excellence

In the ongoing journey of product development, launch is never the end; it’s the beginning and it launches the team into a cycle of perpetual refinement. Our products can exceed audiences’ expectations by embracing user feedback and integrating it into the continuous improvement process. The collaborative spirit within teams and the strategic planning behind launches form the basis of success. Throughout this dynamic journey, it’s important to celebrate the milestones achieved, learn from the challenges faced, and remain committed to the pursuit of innovation. The combination of effective launch strategies, user needs-driven iteration, and thoughtful design ensures that products stay relevant and evolve into solutions that resonate deeply with users. Here’s to the continuous pursuit of excellence in product development and the exciting possibilities that lie ahead on this ever-evolving path of innovation.

Are you ready to pursue product design excellence with a team that understands cross-functional teams and embraces continuous innovation? We are. Let’s talk.

Tags business strategy, customer experience, customer experience design, product design, product development

UX Design

Unlocking success: The impact of collaborative product development

Post author By Anna McKee
Post date December 11, 2023

About this series: Great products are not just about great functionality, pretty graphics, or even revenue. Great products are about solving problems for the people who use them so well that they return again and again. It’s easy to miss the needs those humans have when focusing on the individual components from a specific (and inherently limited) perspective. Each department in your business sees a different part of the story and a different way that customers engage with products. As we continue to explore the business value of great design, remember that only the BEST problem statements deliver the best designs. And when it comes to delivering the best problem statements, cross-functional teams have the advantage. Let’s unlock the potential of great design as the ultimate path to great business and how cross functionality advances it.

See the first installment of our three-part series here: Define the problem, not the solution.

What happens when teams align?

Design excellence requires more than individual brilliance; it demands diverse talents and perspectives. Digital products today are so easy to build that great digital products must shine brighter than most, which means solutions must be sourced from across the business landscape and not just from one person or team. Collaboration is pivotal for exceptional design and each player has a vital role toward innovation in product development and customer experience.

There is power that arises when different disciplines converge, contributing their unique insights to sculpt a solution and then align on building that experience together. Let’s look at the magic that happens when teams align for collaborative product development.

Introduction to cross-functional teamwork

The concept of cross-functional teamwork is easy to grasp; when more perspectives are available, there should be fewer gaps during design and build. Executing well on a cross-functional team, however, can be incredibly challenging and depends on many factors, including leadership, organizational structure, time and talent available, and individual personalities. Much of the challenge of effective teamwork in general is alignment. It can be difficult for a company to work toward a single strategic goal if one team is doing something radically different. Cross-functional teams have a distinct advantage in this situation as they can draw on team members’ experiences from various disciplines to move toward a singular goal. Collaborative product development enhances efficiency and becomes a cornerstone for cultivating a culture of creativity and adaptability within an organization.

When companies organize by customer experience or mission rather than by feature or technology stack, there is a lot of opportunity to build cross-functional teams with shared goals. This strategic approach allows a customer outcome to be analyzed and improved from various perspectives, unlocking gaps or opportunities that might have otherwise been missed. Think about a customer that is signing up for a new software product. In that single customer experience, they will likely encounter the general marketing of the company and the product itself, as well as welcome emails, onboarding tutorials, and probably a community of users, not to mention new targeted social media ads. In a cross-functional team, there are a lot fewer gaps than if different team members handle each of those customer touch points.

Building cross-functional teams

At the heart of building effective cross-functional teams lies the intentional structure of diverse skill sets to propel creative problem-solving. That doesn’t mean that all skill sets are required all the time. Building a cross-functional team is as much about communication and timing around when and how skill sets are brought together. Understanding how and when to bring team members in and out of the conversation (with the right amount of context and background) is a skill that each organization must build and refine.

As we shared in the first part of this series, great design starts with a strong problem statement. But problem statement development can also be the starting point for effective cross-functional collaboration. Sharing qualitative and quantitative UX research results across a diverse team to build a great problem statement will ensure that the right team members are being consulted for the cross-functional team to create the best customer experience to solve that problem. It’s useful to bring various stakeholders together during a solutioning conversation, essentially beginning with the ‘entire’ team to get perspectives on the customer experience and potential solutions. It might seem like a design or marketing team is all that’s needed in this ideation stage, but it’s incredibly valuable to bring varying perspectives in at this point. After that, it’s more useful to think of all of those participants as stakeholders who need to be ‘informed,’ but the responsibility will shift from department to department as the development progresses.

As in the example above, there are various customer touchpoints that different teams might own, but all of the stakeholders involved need to be informed each step of the way in order to ensure a cohesive customer experience. For example, when the marketing website for a new product is being launched, the product design team needs to ensure that the expectations set on the marketing website reflect the realities of the final product. Similarly, the customer success team needs to ensure they aren’t asking customers for information they’ve already provided via the marketing website or other pre-sales activity. By keeping these cross-functional team members informed, they can hold each other accountable for gaps, missed opportunities or missed expectations throughout the customer experience.

We know a thing or two about communication across teams. Learn more about how Tallwave builds bridges between business and technology.

Critical information for critical stakeholders

Cross-functional teamwork is vital to the success of a good product but that doesn’t mean that each stakeholder must be present for each conversation. Being efficient when sharing critical information can really elevate the communication across team members. Documentation and communication needs to go beyond live, collaborative communication to consider how to effectively institutionalize critical information in a way that contextualizes it for different stakeholders while driving alignment to an overarching vision and topline business goals. These versatile communications become more than just documents or “updates;” they evolve into powerful tools that communicate a unified vision, fostering cohesion and alignment among teams and organizations. A well-built roadmap is an excellent example of a flexible communication strategy that can share the most critical information to a variety of stakeholders. When presenting to leadership, the roadmap can be collapsed to only show the highest level strategy and initiatives. As conversation is required and/or different stakeholders are included, the roadmap can be expanded to show various tasks and strategies that will come together to deliver the initiatives. Leveraging communication tools that can adapt to the intended audience is a valuable way to keep communication up to date across team members.

Summing it up: Embrace a collaborative process

Creating and fostering a strong cross-functional and collaborative culture may not be the most obvious enabler to exceptional product design. But the impact of driving diverse perspectives into the product design process is key to unlocking its full business value. It can be difficult to create a highly collaborative environment, particularly when time is tight, the strategic importance of collaboration isn’t clear, and organizational silos get in the way. Enlisting the help of a neutral third party can be an effective way to broker buy-in on the value of strong cross-functional collaboration, align priorities across different teams and departments, and challenge historical organizational silos. Beyond the product design strategy and execution support we provide to our clients, we often find that the role we play in uniting cross-functional teams behind a common goal and achieving a shared point of view is equally valuable.

Are you ready to embrace a cross-functional and collaborative design process led by a strategic partner? Tallwave is ready to get to work and help your organization excel. Let’s talk.

Tags brand strategy, customer experience, product design, product development

Customer Engagement Product Design Reaching New Customers UX Design

UX design: Define the problem, not the solution

Post author By Anna McKee
Post date December 4, 2023

About this series: In the fast-paced business world, it’s all too common to hear about companies striving to become “product-led” and chasing after metrics like velocity and conversion rates. While these numbers undoubtedly hold significance, they often overshadow the underlying force that drives the success of great products: design. Design is not just about aesthetics; it’s about understanding your customers, empathizing with their needs, and crafting solutions that meet and exceed their expectations. In this exciting three-part blog series, we will dive deep into the realm of design and design strategy and its pivotal role in achieving business goals. Let’s unlock the potential of great design as the ultimate path to great business.

Understanding the cornerstones of great product design

In the ever-evolving landscape of product design, success hinges on the ability to navigate a maze of user needs and expectations. Understanding the need at hand and then defining the actual problem is a crucial first step that can make or break the entire journey. You might have a fantastic idea for a product but if you aren’t drilling down to the true problem that this product is solving, then you aren’t going to be able to truly satisfy customers. This design stage uncovers true pain points for customers to ensure your product is solving the right problem and a real problem. Understanding user needs and defining the problem are cornerstones of successful products, ultimately paving the way for continually high business value.

Empathy: The heart of a user’s needs

User needs are the foundation of good design, placing the customer at the very heart of the product development process. It’s imperative to empathize with users’ unique experiences, desires, and pain points when creating designs that resonate. User needs specific to a problem serve as a constant reminder that humans (specifically users) are at the core of the design process. By placing the human at the center of design, user needs act as constant reminders that the end goal is not just a product but a solution that addresses real-life challenges.

Moving from good to great design requires more than just a surface-level understanding of desired functionality. It requires a combination of both qualitative and quantitative UX research techniques that delve deep into user needs. First, quantitative UX research methods provide a structured and data-driven approach to learning about user behavior and preferences. Understanding the numerical data and statistical analysis can help you quantify user interactions, preferences, and performance. Surveys, questionnaires, A/B testing, and analytics tools are common examples of quantitative research techniques. Teams don’t need to use all of them every time, but carefully selecting a combination of methods will bring some helpful data to the surface as you assess user needs. These methods allow for the identification of patterns and trends, enabling UX researchers to create informed hypotheses about user needs. Quantitative research complements qualitative research by offering a more objective and measurable perspective, providing the necessary data to think through problems and have support for business decisions.

Qualitative user experience research methods provide valuable insights into the intricacies of user behavior, emotions, and perceptions. These methods delve deep into the more nuanced and harder to quantify psychological aspects of user interactions, aiming to understand what users do and why they do it. Qualitative research techniques, such as in-depth interviews, usability testing, and ethnographic studies, offer a way to channel the individual perspectives and experiences of users. Open-ended questions and real-time observations can help researchers uncover users’ needs, pain points, and desires, shedding light on the nuances that quantitative data often cannot capture. Qualitative research is an indispensable tool for human-centered design, enabling designers and businesses to truly understand user needs on a deeper level.

User needs are the baseline of effective design and encapsulate the essence of what the user truly desires and values. Before jumping to solutions or pixels, design teams must first empathize with their target audience, truly understanding their hopes, aspirations, and pain points. Taking the time to crystallize the human-focused needs and desires of the users ensures that every design decision is rooted in empathy and a genuine desire to enhance the user experience. Businesses that research, prioritize, and build products for these needs are not only better equipped to stay competitive in an ever-changing market but also to forge lasting, meaningful connections with their customers.

We know a thing or two about consumer values. Check out our post on the new persona playbook.

Crafting the perfect product design problem statement

With a solid understanding of user needs in hand, next up is crafting a clear problem statement to fuel product creation. A well-defined problem statement encapsulates the precise challenge that needs to be addressed, serving as instructions for design teams. Outlining the problem’s scope and context ensures that the design effort remains aligned with the customers’ real pain points and needs, allowing for a solution that truly resonates with them. This clarity and alignment fosters creativity and innovation in finding the optimal solution. It ensures that the entire team is headed in one direction, toward solving one problem. A well-crafted problem statement that is based on solid UX research guides the design process toward an excellent customer experience.

When thinking about the parts of a perfect problem statement, you must consider the person as well as the problem. This might be a problem that only a certain type of person has or a problem that lots of people have but only at specific moments in their lives. The person in the middle of the problem is just as important as the problem itself and cannot be separated from the problem statement. In addition to the who, problem statements must also consider the why but without the how. When the right amount of research has been done, there should be no trouble succinctly explaining for whom the problem exists and why. As the team sets out to create a solution for this problem, user needs and problem statements come into play. The goal is to reach an actionable problem statement that defines for whom you’re building the product or feature and why.

The positive impact of a clear problem statement reverberates through the entire business ecosystem. First and foremost, it reduces the risk of costly missteps in product creation. By defining the problem clearly, teams can avoid the pitfall of investing time and resources into solutions that do not address the root issues. It ensures that design efforts are aligned with the actual needs and pain points of the target audience and that the team is setting out to solve for the user and their why. As a result, products are more likely to resonate with and create value for users, leading to enhanced customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy. A great problem statement empowers businesses to differentiate themselves in the market, gain a competitive edge, and drive sustainable growth. In sum, a clear problem statement acts as the catalyst for great design, and when design excels, so does business.

Learn more about Tallwave’s Digital Experience Design Services.

Wrapping Up: Great design, greater user experience

In the realm of product design and business success, two critical elements stand out as paramount: crafting well-defined user needs statements and clear problem statements. These statements act as the guiding light that illuminates the path to exceptional design and, in turn, outstanding business performance. User needs statements distill the essence of what customers truly value, enabling design teams to create products that resonate, cultivate customer loyalty, and fuel lasting trust. Clear problem statements also serve as a map for design, defining the challenge, scope, and objectives. They streamline decision-making, stimulate innovation, and ensure that design efforts align with real customer needs, ultimately reducing the risk of costly errors. The result is a positive ripple effect that enhances customer satisfaction, differentiation in the market, and sustainable business growth. In sum, these foundational statements are the key to unlocking the synergy between great design and great business.

Are you ready to embrace great design and improve customer experiences? We’re all ears. Let’s talk about your next project. And there’s more on the way; stay tuned for the second installment of this series! We’ll delve into how collaboration leads to the best design outcomes.

Tags brand strategy, customer experience design, empathetic marketing, product design, product development, UX

Customer Engagement Reaching New Customers Strategy

Customer at the center: Why human-centric CX matters now more than ever

Post author By Anna McKee
Post date October 23, 2023

Customers continue to be dissatisfied with digital experiences. The Wall Street Journal reported on the National Customer Rage Survey in March about the increasing issues Americans are experiencing with products and services. There are so many things to think about when we talk about “Customer Experience”, it is easy to misplace goals like “Best in Class Customer Experience.” At times, it just feels like a buzzword that digital products must use. When you take inputs into account (like usage data, retention metrics or KPIs) without considering the human customer at the center, you put the quality of your CX at risk. Putting the customer at the center of all experiences will allow companies to return to excellently designed customer experiences. Learn what’s at stake when it comes to CX and how to put and keep the focus of your digital product strategy where it belongs: on the wants and needs of your customers.

The customer has spoken: Experience is everything

Customers care about experiences and they are not afraid to report on those experiences online. Social media and review sites are full of issues and complaints about experiences that fell short of customer expectations. And they’re not afraid to deploy “revenge” tactics to make companies pay extra for their bad experiences.

To avoid negative interactions (and their cost to brand reputation), companies need to put customer problems directly in the center of their digital experience. Don’t solve for the perceived problem, solve for the human involved. Great digital products and services come from a human-centric approach to design that will take your customer’s experience from good to great. As Tallwave CEO, Jeff Pruitt, outlined in a LinkedIn article earlier this year, there are three key considerations for leaders who want to put their customer in the center.

Curate great automation

Automation can relieve the burden of live customer support on teams and lower costs for operations. It seems so simple to line up a workflow that customers experience often and give carefully scripted responses to their questions. When it works, it can save customers time and save companies money. Unfortunately, automation can easily fail. One misplaced automation step or edge case can trap customers in a maddening circular workflow or drive them to give up altogether.

Automation can and should be used for straightforward and simple scenarios, but there should always be an exit strategy. Don’t let your customers get caught in a loop of wrong answers or assumptions. Automation creation and testing is a great time to utilize cross-team collaboration. Working with multiple teams illuminates biases so you can eliminate them. Your customer support team probably has lots of examples of workflows that could be built into automation that would be good for customers. Giving a variety of teams an opportunity to test automation will bring a unified approach to automation experiences.

Unify data collection

Many, many years after the Big Data revolution, we are still trying to figure out how to collect, manage, and utilize the vast amounts of data available to us. In digital products, we can collect and curate data on the usage of our own product as well as many other contributing factors to the customer experience (demographics, device type, traffic, etc). When we leave the marketing data up to the marketers, the usage data to the product team, and the support data to the service team, we miss the opportunity to visualize the entire customer journey through all relevant lenses. Centralizing and using quantitative data as an input in all company decisions, but especially decisions about digital product strategy, is critical for keeping the customer at the center of CX. Quantitative data isn’t the only input— research, field studies, and classic conversations about experiences are still important—but it can drive internal discussions across teams to act in a holistic way to enhance customer experience.

Fix organizational silos

How often has your company reorganized its teams in the last 5 years? Especially for growing companies, re-orgs feel like second nature. Your team may do it to shake things up or to re-align as priorities move or the market changes. While changing your organizational structure can certainly be commonplace, organizational silos shouldn’t be. Don’t let the company changing around you break your focus from cross-team collaboration and overall company strategy toward great customer interactions.

Even without the fracturing effects of restructuring, preventing siloing between teams that all play a role in CX delivery is important. Product-led companies, in particular, need to align on problem statements across marketing, customer service, product development, and support. If a single team is out of step with the others, customers end up confused or misguided by the experience. When the customer problem statement is forefront in everyone’s mind, the alignment can be spectacular. Every single team across the organization working to solve customer problems with great customer experiences can create really powerful momentum and the collaborative relationships it fosters between teams can help solve automation and data issues that can pop up. When you focus on creating great cross-team dynamics, you will be surprised at what else will start to fall in line.

(Want to know more about AI/SGE trends, data collection and silos, and CX heartbreak? We have more on these topics, too.)

The bottom line: Delight and ignite

Keeping the customer at the center of digital experiences is more vital than ever. It won’t just create loyalty from both customers and staff, it will also change how you consider customer experience design. People learn and change every day and we must stay ahead if we want to succeed in delighting them. Being thoughtful and inclusive about when and where to deploy automation will break down organizational silos and keep customers feeling supported. Unifying data collection and usage across teams will keep alignment on the central issues and ensure teams are talking realistically about what the data is telling you. Keeping the customer at the center of the experience will create opportunities to work across teams, solve problems together and create great experiences that delight your customers and ignite your products. Are you ready to create human-centered solutions and experiences for your customers? We’re ready to roll up our sleeves to delight and ignite. Let’s chat.