Imagine this scene.....your team is called in by a new client to assist them with the UX design for their to-be-released SaaS offering. The app has been under development for a few months and there is a prototype being shown to prospective channel partners and early adopters. Members of the client's Business Development team complain that prospects don't perceive any real points of differentiation between the client's product and the competition. The CEO wonders if we can fix the problem with some snappy graphic design. In reviewing the prototype, you observe that the development team has included lots of bells and whistles, in terms of features, but the raison d'etre for "why" a user would select this app hasn't been addressed. After leaving the client's office, you wonder how a group of very talented people allowed themselves to go down path of development, only to end up with a lackluster prototype. How could this have happened?
The above scenario is an abstract of three real-life situations we have been called into over the past year. In a nutshell, these are Train Wrecks waiting to happen. Money is being spent to develop apps that no one needs (or lusts).
Some root causes for why product development Train Wrecks occur:
- Mistaking possibles for probables. This is another spin on the cliche, "You can't be all things to all people." New offerings crave a user base. However, product managers often make the mistake of fishing for a wide audience of possible users, versus a more narrowly defined base of probable users. They hate the thought of alienating any possible user and thus incorporate more features than necessary. The end result is bloatware.
- A lack of primary research into users' needs and wants. Every startup with a business plan and pitch deck has done some level of secondary research - pulling industry analysis to justify their market size. But what about direct primary research through one-on-one interviews, surveys, and focus groups? Surprisingly, very few do this. Instead they rely on personal opinions and hunches.
- Ask your customer directly. These days, it is so easy to set up a focus group or online survey. If you are on a limited budget, you can round up 8-10 people in your network and have a 90-min conversation on what's wrong with XYZ condition in the market. You can capture the footage with a few iSite cameras hooked to your Mac or regular videocams. Reimbursements do not have to be extravagant - free lunch or a $25 gift card will work. A few hours on iMovie and, voila, you now have a historical copy that can be shared with current and future development team members. As for online surveys, WuFoo has a very cost-effective platform to create surveys and capture results. The main thing to remember is that people love to share ideas if they think you are building a product that is relevant to their needs.
- Personas to the rescue. Personas are powerful tools to help focus a product development team. Your primary research will likely yield new insights into variations among target audiences, such as differences in usage patterns, technology familiarity, and the likely scenarios a user will encounter as they work with your application. These differences will allow you to craft the design personas for your primary and secondary audiences. It is likely that you will discover 5-10 potential personas. However, you'll only want to build application features that appeal to the primary and secondary personas. If you can nail the interaction design and overall UX for these audiences, then you'll have an app that will probably be used (and lusted after), versus an app that may possibly be used. Features that appeal exclusively to tertiary personas have no place on the product roadmap for your beta or version 1 release.
