Product design differs from other approaches by aiming to marry user needs with business goals and creating a solution that satisfies both parties. The focus is always on understanding the users and their problems.

1. Value proposition

A value proposition lists why a customer would select your product or service over your competitor’s. It lists the benefits that customers get from purchasing your product by answering the questions below:

1. Design brief

Besides the date and name & signature of the requester a design brief should at least contain the following information:

1. A project description: Explain the project in detail. It should be more than one sentence.

2. Objectives & goals: What is the reason for this project? What do you want to achieve?

3. Explorative questions: What do you need to know before you can start the project? What stakeholders you need to talk to?

4. Target users: Describe the people who will be making use of the product? The more specific the better

5. Research plan: Make a one-page research plan. Get the template

6. Expected outcomes: Describe the outcomes that you expect in detail

7. Success metrics: When will this project be a success?

8. Project planning: When will the project start? How long will it take? Make a roadmap

2. Design criteria canvas

Project success criteria are the standards by which the project will be judged at the end to decide whether it has succeeded in the stakeholders’ eyes. We need to meet these criteria in time and within budget.

We use the Design Criteria canvas as a team effort at the start of a project to determine our must-haves, should-haves, could-haves, and won’t-haves. This is a holistic exercise where all key players—especially stakeholders—must be present.

• Must-haves: These refer to requirements that cannot be negotiated. The project will not work without them.

• Should-haves: These are important for the success of the project/product, but the user can get things done without them.

• Could-haves: Also described as ‘nice-to-haves’. They are not essential and won’t cause a problem in the long run if omitted.

• Won’t haves: Won’t haves weed out anything that is not an absolute priority and can be included in a later release (or not at all).

Continue with this team exercise until everyone feels that the canvas is complete and correct and understands the most important criteria for your Minimum Viable Product and which ones are not important.

3. Project kick-off workshop

Now that we know what requirements must make the MVP, we have a kick-off meeting with every member of the team. A kick-off meeting is an opportunity to:

• Share the high-level outline of the product’s purpose,
• Discuss the product’s milestones,
• Show who is involved in the team,
• How you’ll work together,
• How you’ll stay updated on progress,
• What the intended results or success metrics are, and
• What risks are looming on the horizon.

4. The value of (quantitative) usage data

Learn what users do and then find out why they do it. Quantitative usage data is anonymous information about what users do and which we can analyse. It informs us about how well (or not) a particular product process or activity performs. This is how we understand what is happening. We now need to find out why it is happening which is what we do with qualitative user research.

Analysing usage data is the job of an analyst and unless you are skilled at analysing data, I’d advise that you hook up with one.

5. The benefits of A/B Testing

A/B testing compares two (slightly) different designs. The A/B testing software ensures that each visitor sees just one design (A or B). Because each version will receive the same number of views, it tells us which version is more successful.

When deciding on AB testing, make sure that both versions are live simultaneously. Also, your designs should only have one difference between the versions so that we can determine why one version worked better than the other. This makes AB testing a slow process.
If you want to move faster then multivariate testing can help you out. It’s basically the same as AB testing but it tests multiple variables at once

Whether you perform an AB test or a multivariate test, make sure that you get a large enough sample size (at least 1000 people for an AB test and increase the number of participants accordingly for a multivariate test) so that your results are statistically significant.

6. Collect user feedback regularly

Besides collecting quantitative usage data, we also need to collect qualitative usage data. Examples of qualitative usage data are:

A. Usability testing
This tests the ease with which the product can be understood and used. It tests where the product you aim to build is user-friendly and where it is not.

B. Interviews
In UX research Interviews, you invite a handful of people (5-8) from your target group and ask them to perform a set of tasks with the product. This way, we find where the user struggles and where she doesn’t. It is also a good way to get information about your personas.

C. Ethnographic research
Also known as direct observation, a researcher observes a user carrying out her normal activities (in her real-life environment) while interacting with a system, product, or service. The researcher only observes and takes notes without interfering with the participant.

D. Contextual inquiries
This is similar to direct observation, with the difference that the researcher asks questions during the execution of tasks. This is to understand better the participant’s mental process, interactions and workflow.

E. Group discussions
Also known as focus groups, group discussions have the advantage of getting verbal feedback about your product, which can help you improve it. Focus group sessions are run by a moderator who asks the questions and keeps the conversation flowing naturally without any one participant taking over the conversation. Its key purpose is to understand the user’s emotions and motivations in relation to your product or service.