solve the right problems - create a clear product & experience strategy

Solve the Right ProblemsCreating a Clear Product & Experience Strategy

Aureliuswww.aureliuslab.com

@AureliusLab

Brought to you by:

Tell Everyone How AWESOME This Is

@zacknaylor

@Aureliuslab

#TCSW16

#productstrategy

WHY WE’RE HERE

If we solve the wrong problem, on time and on budget,

it doesn’t matter

WHY WE’RE HERE

Talkin’ ‘bout that sweet product strategy

Creating a clear strategy for your product and user experience

Getting everyone aligned

Solve the right problems

Build stuff that matters most for your company and your customers

OUR AGENDA (tentatively)

10:00 Opening Introductions & Voting

10:15 Goals

10:25 User Research

10:35 - break -

10:45 Creating User Research Insights

10:55 Making & Communicating Design/Product Decisions

11:00 Measuring Success

11:10 Final Considerations

11:15 Wrap Up / Q & A

11:30 FIN

11:45 …you ain’t gotta go home but you can’t stay here…

SOME OF THE THINGS THAT ARE NOT ON OUR AGENDA BECAUSE WE WON’T BE TALKING ABOUT THEM

Marketing Strategy/Execution

Operations & Running a Company

Building a Business End to End

Business Strategy

Legal & Finance (…really?)

• why we’re here

• outline/what we’ll cover + timetable (what we won’t cover)

• about me, about Aurelius

• what is product strategy? what is experience strategy?

WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?

Aureliusaureliuslab.com

CEO, Co-FounderZack Naylor

GET YOUR VOTE ON

WHAT EXACTLY IS PRODUCT STRATEGY?

“An informed, intentional approach for a product or service driven by both customer needs/behavior and the goals that will maximize your success as an organization.”

@zacknaylor@Aureliuslab #TCSW16#productstrategy

WHAT EXACTLY IS PRODUCT STRATEGY?

A collection of smart, informed decisions


DECISION

RESEARCH INSIGHTSGOALS METRICS

COMPOSITION OF A GOOD DESIGN OR PRODUCT DECISION

GOALS

Define what we are trying to accomplish, how it

will affect the experience and what should

happen as a result of this project or effort.

GOALS

• what we are trying to do as a business

• who we are serving

• what problem we are solving for customer, our

company, or both

“Goals should convey our intentions in a way that explains the expected benefit to both our company and our customers”


statements to improve a certain metric in a vacuum

profitability targets

prescriptive of a solution or action

GOOD PRODUCT/UX STRATEGY GOALS ARE NOT…

EXAMPLES OF GOOD PRODUCT STRATEGY GOALS

“Improve our new customer on-boarding process”

“Provide more meaningful content for our first time visitors”

“Deliver deeper value to product managers with our add on mobile app”

“Better enable designers and product managers the ability to

communicate designs, features and product recommendations”

Aurelius

EXAMPLES OF GOOD PRODUCT STRATEGY GOALS

“Effective strategic goals provide definition for what good design or product decisions are”


DEFINING GOALS

An effective strategic goal for your product/experience should have…

Statement of what we’re trying to accomplish

Expected impact to the product/experience

Success indicators

Better enable designers and product managers the ability to communicate designs, features and product recommendations

More people signing up for the product

Statement of what we’re trying to accomplish

Expected impact to the product/experience

Success indicators

Improve AdoptionImprove Customer Retention

DEFINING GOALS

New vs. Existing Product/Service

Company Duration or Maturity

Market and Audience

Considerations to have…

TOOLS & TACTICS FOR CREATING PRODUCT STRATEGY GOALS

Stakeholder Interviews

Team Workshops

USER RESEARCH

Why user research is absolutely critical…

Identify customer needs and behavior

Define what problems exist and more importantly why

It’s the way we learn how to meet our strategic goals

MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT RESEARCH

“we don’t need research”

“too much time/money”

“we lack the expertise”

“quantitative data vs qualitative data”

“our experience vs customer perspective”

“In a startup no facts exist inside the building, only opinions.”

@zacknaylor@Aureliuslab

Steve Blank - The Four Steps to the Epiphany

#TCSW16#productstrategy

DOING THE RIGHT RESEARCH FOR YOU


Step 1:

Review your goal(s)…



Step 2:

Form research questions…


How do designers/product managers communicate designs/features/product recommendations today?

What is the process of creating a design/feature/product recommendation for most designers and product managers?

What challenges in communication exist for designers/product managers in their roles today?

What tool(s) do they use to do this work today?


current tools

Step 3:

Create themes and/or categories to collect notes…

processcommunication challenges

designers product managers


Step 3:

Choose research methods and have a plan…

COMMON RESEARCH METHODS

Usability Testing

User Interviews

Field Study/Contextual Inquiry

Web Analytics

CONDUCTING THE RESEARCH

Be relatively organized and prepared

Take notes about EVERYTHING

Follow your themes and categories to ensure you’re collecting relevant notes and data to your goals

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

How many users/customers to research with

Incentives

Duration of research sessions and your entire study

Where, when and how

TAKE A BREAK

CREATING INSIGHTS FROM RESEARCH NOTES

Applying meaning to raw research data

Raw Data + Context = Insight

CREATING INSIGHTS FROM RESEARCH NOTES

Creating insights beyond raw data is absolutely critical because…

We need to communicate what we learned from customers about how to meet our goal(s)

Decision-making from singular or raw data points is dangerous

Meaning is worth more than fact

Raw Data

tools

process

People struggle to show their

teams why a design decision/

recommendation is best

because they use separate tools

for tracking research and actual

product/project actions

Research notes about…

+ Context = Insight

Understanding of “why”

we saw/heard what you did

DECISIONS

What are we doing and why?

“You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.”

@zacknaylor@Aureliuslab

Harlan Ellison

#TCSW16#productstrategy

DECISIONS

Make decisions or recommendations

that create a clear connection between

the research insights and our goals

RESEARCH INSIGHTGOAL DECISION

+ =

RESEARCH INSIGHT

GOAL

DECISION

Create a page or view that shows the links between research insights, goals and the decision/recommendation made

Success Indicators:

Better enable designers and product managers the ability to communicate

designs, features and product recommendations

Which should help us: Improve Adoption and Customer Retention


People struggle to show their teams why a design decision/recommendation is

best because they use separate tools for tracking research and actual product/

project actions

We should…

…because we learned…

…which will help us…

METRICS

Measuring the success of your design

and product strategy

METRICS

Choose metrics that tie back to our goal

and its success indicators that will

measure the success of each decision.

METRICS

Example Metrics:GOAL

NPS

Total time on site/page

Sign Up Count


Success Indicators:

Which should help us: Improve Adoption and Customer Retention


Follow up Surveys/Usability Testing

METRICS

Considerations for choosing metrics…

New vs Existing products/features

Quantitative AND Qualitative

Available Measurement Sources

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

DECISION

RESEARCH INSIGHTSGOALS METRICS

PRODUCT STRATEGY

DECISION DECISION DECISION DECISION DECISION DECISION DECISION

PRODUCT STRATEGY

ORGANIZATION VISION STATEMENT ORGANIZATION VISION STATEMENT

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

Market opportunityIndustry

Operations and logisticsResources

TimingBudget

ROI“business goals”

Technology landscape or advances

CLOSING & THANKS

Aurelius Product Strategy Blueprint:

www.aureliuslab.com/blueprint

web: www.aureliuslab.com

twitter: @AureliusLab

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