Minimize customer drop off
This is where your design strategy shines. While it’s paramount that business needs and customer value drive new product decisions, the user's experience with your products and services will make or break user engagement.
Make sure you are including your design strategy in any product decisions you make, along with business and engineering needs.
Iterative design means incorporating user feedback consistently throughout early research and product development. In the same way, you use these research tactics to define and understand your customers and market opportunity early on, you can use similar methods to learn about how things are going with your existing customers in real time.
Check out how we helped Lola optimize their subscription workflow
Here’s where we start to incorporate usability testing with our user interviews.
Start to test your assumptions and learn from users by having them demonstrate their workflows and describe what’s working and what’s not working for them about the experience. Identify patterns and incorporate a plan for tackling those problems into your near-term roadmap. Here is an example of how Corvus Insurance engaged customers to inform their product roadmap.
An added benefit to interviewing current customers is building brand loyalty. When users feel like they can contribute to the product's growth while adding value to their own experience, it’s a win-win for everyone.
Use Analytics Tooling
Ideally, in the beginning, stages of product discovery, you’re defining what success looks like for your customer and your product.
With clearly defined success metrics, you can plan for how to track them. In some cases, just like with research, the data will be qualitative. In other cases, you should consider leveraging an analytics tool to measure engagement with your product.
There are plenty of low-effort, low-cost tools out there for you, as well as some comprehensive solutions that might meet more complex business needs.
This is another great time to get your full product team involved in the decision-making.