Here's how you can infuse user feedback into your design process for more user-centered solutions.

1. Collecting User Feedback 2. Analyzing User Feedback 3. Identifying Pain Points and Needs 4. Creating Personas 5. Iterative Design Based on Feedback 6. Prototype Testing with Users 7. Incorporating Iterative Changes 8. Final User Validation 9. Implementing User-Centered Solutions

There is always going to be a difference on how you do the research part of any solution. If you have no research team behind, who can provide help with testing and reports, sure, you will have to do it yourself, do interviews, usability studies. But you should always understand the problem first. What is the pain point, what doesn’t work that you need to fix? What helps me more, sometimes, is going through metrics, like using Pendo, to see where users get stuck or give up completely. This way you can be more immersed in how users are interacting with your product, giving you more insights about users pain points.

- Don’t be afraid to fail. We learn from mistakes. - Don’t strike for the perfect solution on the first take. - Sync with development team as early as possible. - Be sure you understand the problem prior to proposing a solution that might not be even close. - Be creative and opened to changes.

First, the ability to communicate design compellingly demonstrates intelligence. And while designers may be clever and reasoned, having the ability to articulate design decisions assures stakeholders they can be trusted and have the expertise necessary to complete the job. Second, having good communication skills indicates that we have a level of confidence in our abilities. As designers, we possess the knowledge and experience to understand the user’s needs while also having the craftsmanship and expertise to interpret these needs into practical and aesthetically engaging solutions. To demonstrate our understanding, we must be able to articulate a considered design approach without reservation.

You should never say “great, design is done, I am done”. As designers, we usually say we do the work so users would have a better experience, but sometimes we do task after task, leaving us little time to keep an eye on the released solutions. Gathering feedback after release is an important step too, the design process isn’t linear. What helps me is to sync regularly with the development team, keep an eye on usage metrics and ask the support team for received feedback or issues.