Strategy: Product Strategy

This month in Ask UXmatters, our expert panel discusses how objectives and key results (OKRs) can inform UX design. The panel explores how the use of OKRs differs from traditional requirements gathering. Our panelists then discuss the relationship between OKRs and product strategy and common pitfalls of using OKRs.

We also recommend a couple of books that could help you apply OKRs in your work. Finally, I discuss the importance of keeping business needs in mind. Read More

When your organization’s goal is to differentiate on the experience, you must start every product-development project by defining the experience that you want people to have with your product or service. Companies that differentiate on the experience do not begin by defining feature sets. They first define a vision for the experience outcome that they intend to deliver to their users and customers. Only once your team fully understands the experience outcomes that you want users to have can you make good decisions about what features and technologies would optimally support that vision.

This is the fourth column in our series about what companies must do if they want to stop producing average user experiences and instead design great experiences. As we have already stated in our previous columns, great UX teams focus on differentiating their companies through design. If that’s your goal, you need to work for a company that shares your aspirations. Read More

The ultimate challenge for any product leader is to ensure that customers not only try, but keep using your product over time. This is the heart of a product-led growth (PLG) strategy. A great product can be a fast path to revenues, brand loyalty, word-of-mouth, and durable business growth.

Product-led growth is a go-to-market (GTM) approach that transforms the way we design products and deliver them to market. PLG is about putting the product at the forefront of the customer journey to drive conversions, retention, adoption, and expansion by delivering an immersive product experience. Plus, in today’s software as a service (SaaS) environment, in which free trials, freemium experiences, and self-service onboarding are quickly becoming increasingly popular, it’s not a question of whether your company will adopt a PLG strategy, but when your company will adopt this model. While PLG is not trivial to implement, it leads to stronger economic units such as net dollar retention (NDR or NRR), gross revenue retention (GRR), and customer acquisition cost (CAC). PLG can help you unlock organic expansion and growth. Read More