When thinking of User Experience, we often think of a simple, beautiful, and easy to use feature-set of a product, that makes the user’s life easier. But as a matter of fact, features are merely a small, fragile part of the product. They are only a few of many thinkable solutions for a user’s problem...
Every entrepreneur has the dream of making their startup’s product go viral. But too often this is couched in a naïve understanding of virality. “Let’s make our app viral!” Or your investors ask you, “Can you take your app and add a little bit more virality?” (I often hear this described as growth hacking, too.) Sometimes...
Design principles are timeless, but the past few years have been amazing for great design. More organizations are beginning to value design as a competitive advantage. A cohesive design strategy moves beyond just the web and print, as it expands to mobile and other platforms. The best design trends will continue, but we'll also start...
Journey Maps are a popular and important method in customer and user experience optimization. Here are some best practices for creating Journey Maps that will be effective in transforming your customer’s experience. The infographic discusses: -What journey maps are and why create them -The high-level steps to create a customer journey map -The essentials of…
This infographic recommends 8 best practices for creating a viable, streamlined user experience. Follow these steps to garner cohesive, consistent digital experiences. Observe Your Users. Empathize with your users by observing them in their natural habitat. Then, create personas to summarize their goals, needs, behaviors, emotions, and pain points. Create user journeys to understand…
Jonathan Golden, Airbnb’s very first product manager and now Director of Product, knows that flexibility can get you far in his line of work. Last year, it even got him to Cuba. While the island nation had always been effectively closed to Airbnb, the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with the U.S. in 2015 opened a door…
Most companies try to avoid problems. Experian actually goes looking for them. In fact, it has set up a specific unit – Experian DataLabs — to actively seek out unresolved problems its customers are having and use them as a launchpad to seek out new opportunities and create new products. In doing so, it has…
Inevitably, if you work as a product manager, it can be assumed that you have done project management to some degree in your role. Additionally, you may have worked in a department without a designated project manager, making it necessary for you to take on more project ownership outside of your core product responsibilities. This helps perpetuate the confusion around what the core responsibilities are…
Many founders begin with an idea for an offering they think people want, often spending months, or even years, developing a product or service without showing it to users or customers. When their offering fails in the market, it happens because the startups never spoke with customers to determine if their product was needed. The…
