Why do products fail? Part 3: Underinvesting in user experience design

In today's world every person touching a tech product is used to smartphones and consumer websites that have heavily invested in design and user experience. Simply put, people expect similar experience from any product they use or consider purchasing. Companies and product teams are waking up to this reality but not always investing adequately and in the right manner. Here are some things to watch out for.

1. UX as a patch
Companies start building a product without including a designer (or someone with design thinking) at the beginning. Typically a product is built first and "UI/UX people" are brought in to clean up the mess. First of all, UX or user experience is not the same as UI or user interface. While UI forms a key part of UX, it is not the only thing. This topic has been written about extensively and you can search the web for more information.
Many are confusing design with pretty interfaces and good colour schemes.That misses the core of what design has to offer. At a minimum a good user experience should accomplish the following: reduce the burden of learning on the user, let the user complete what he or she set out to do, don't make the user feel bad/stupid, make the user's life easier in some way. Ideally the user experience should delight the user and should evoke an emotional response. Remember that each product has a different purpose. While a product for logging customer complaints or identifying fraudulent transactions should seek to complete that in minimum amount of time a fan website or social media will seek to engage and retain the user much longer. Include a competent designer(s) in the mix early in the development cycle, listen to that person or team and evolve your processes in order to succeed.

2. Blindly copying competition
"XYZ is great and has a better product." You may often come across feedback like this about a competitor from a customer or even internally. While it is certainly an opportunity to learn and emulate, be very wary of copying without understanding. Your competitor may have a different target customer, different set of skill levels and people and often a different underlying technical architecture. Attempts to copy even if well meaning may not succeed and then you can get stuck with an ugly hybrid that nobody seems to love. Seek to emulate others who are better in the market but only after tailoring it to your company, product and people. Keep in mind that product and user experience need to to continuously evolve with the user demands. Invest in improving the underlying technical architecture to allow for rapid and easier iterations of the interface and experience.

3. Waiting for perfection and falling in the "person with bigger pay check is right" trap
There is often a tendency to hold internal reviews with different levels in the organisation successively. Each reviewer feeling compelled to comment and advise on colours and layout. While there are exceptions, your internal management team is not your target customer. Be very cautious of catering to all internal feedback and delaying what matters most. You can churn, modify and update the interface and experience multiple times before launch but you may not learn enough until you put the product out in front of customers and prospects. Get it out there and learn before you make too many iterations.

4. Ignoring mobility
Advent of highly functional smart phones and tablets has changed user behaviour across the world. In developed nations increasingly users are accessing websites and applications on mobile devices and in some developing countries many people often only have mobile devices and are unlikely to ever acquire a PC. Given this situation whether you target is consumers or business, having a mobile strategy and designing a mobile experience is critical. At a minimum your product should work well on mobile devices and depending on the use cases served investing in a mobile app is necessary. High cost of developing mobile websites and applications is no longer an excuse. Several prototyping tools allow you to go from design to product at a low cost and skill level if you can bring the right expertise/people in the mix.

5. Limiting experience work to the product
Customer experience spans the entire process of getting to know about your company typically from a website, email blast or ads, reading materials from your website, interaction with phone reps for sales and support, meeting with pre sales and sales people and finally any negotiation and contracts work before purchasing. Potential customers may never see your well designed product if they face hurdles in getting to know about it or are turned off by their interaction with a phone rep or sales person. Look at each step of this process of acquiring and selling as an inherent part of the experience that you design. Consider it an opportunity to delight your potential customer.

This concludes the series on "Why Do Products Fail?"
If you missed the earlier articles, you can find them below.

Why do products fail? Part 2: Sales and Pricing

Why do products fail? Part 1: Lack of Customer Connect