3 PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESSFUL PRODUCT DESIGN

Yes, of course. There are many other components that come in to play in delivering successful product design. These 3 following principles are what I've found to be helpful in bringing your design team together, centralizing its mission and approach. The rest can and should be discussed/implemented to suit the needs of your organization once these fundamentals are established as a starting point.

1. User Experience is Customer Experience

“Consistent, cohesive, and delightful experiences…”

These are some of the words we hear in regards to successful UX design. But for too long, we have kept our UX design thinking hat away from the rest of customer experience. For customers, any encounter online or offline associated with a brand remains as a memory of their customer journey — the memories of which form their perception of a brand. Successful UX is no different from successful customer experience. Moments on screens are an extension of a customer journey, and those moments are opportunities to establish a powerful brand story.

That brings me to my next approach:

2. User Experience & Brand Strategy [Must] Intersect

Brand strategy brings differentiation to a company. It also brings differentiation to digital experiences. Yes, in enterprise software design as well. B2B brands are still brands, and they build relationships (good and bad) with customers — except their customers hold much larger buying powers.

Ask yourself: If you had 3 HR platforms that offered the same scope of features and level of service, wouldn’t you trust to partner with the brand that understand your and your employees’ needs and provided a personal and emotional support on screen? In a world where retention is the root system of growth and stability, brand strategy is a critical tool that informs lasting UX decisions.

3. Keep Your Value Prop Focused

We all love bells and whistles. But when they all ring on their own, they’re nothing but a distracting noise. Part of effective brand strategy is also identifying your core value proposition and only doing things, including building product features, that strengthen this value proposition.

Don’t get me wrong, a truly successful company possesses a mastery of reinvention and innovation, but only by staying true to the original mission and identity.