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Author: Tushar Nandwani, Content Writer, NeoDove Technologies

The development of technology at a staggering pace is leading the global market to develop as well. Today more goods and services are being offered every day, industries and markets are more saturated and highly competitive than ever before. And with the increasing number of customers moving online, the key differentiation for businesses no longer lies in competing against other brands, but also in delivering the best product user experience.

Customers are expecting immediate access to services and products from anywhere and at any time. So, we need to focus on the overall customer journey that takes place within the product itself. Starting from when a customer logs in until they quit using the product or service. Therefore accessibility, personalization, speed, simplicity, and every other process that occurs within the digital wall of a product, is paramount for great in-product experience.

Companies are heavily investing in and shifting their efforts towards Product Experience Management (PXM) to achieve great in-product experience. Project experience management is the process of adapting your products and services to each digital platform and presenting them to customers in the most effective way to ensure a unique user experience.

What you need to understand in order to apply Product Experience Management?

• In-depth knowledge about your product or service
• A total understanding of the overall user experience
• Comprehension of technological tools

Who is in control of the product experience design?

The core product functionality, user experience, and design are created and owned by the product engineering and design teams. But to create a unique product user experience, you need clear and defined alignment across all product, sales, marketing, and customer success departments.

Product: The product engineering and design department, manages a product development strategy and vision. And they are in charge of creating strategies to drive feature adoption as well.

Sales and Marketing: The marketing department is responsible for creating campaigns and generating content to drive awareness of product value. And the sales department is responsible for conducting personalized demos and guiding users to use the product.

Customer Success: The customer success department helps with onboarding customers, training, and upselling to them. They are also responsible for implementing strategies to constantly re-engage with existing customers.

And what are the characteristics of a product that achieves a great in-product experience?

The Product Fit

Your product or service must be fit for purpose, where its key features should achieve a certain product goal. And it should address a single and very specific user persona, without overwhelming them with a bunch of unnecessary features.

And to attain that, you must know your customer. Because if you don’t, then there is no point in designing a product experience.

Intuitive

The ability to learn and predict how to intuitively use the product or service is one of the main characteristics of a solid product user experience. SaaS solutions, for example, are based on technologies that create familiarity among users, which allows users to easily learn how to use the product or service with a little trial and error.

Sensory Design

Your product must be visually appealing. If it is a platform or website for example the colour, font, heading sizes, button style, image styles, image sizes, light intensity, and backgrounds are among the pieces to keep consistent.

Control and Safety

Users want more control to override automation and make their own decisions. This concept leads to user motivation and engagement. In the same context, users want the system to provide them with a sense of security when it comes to processes. For example, a product should provide users with a safe environment where actions can be undone, to prevent mistakes from happening and cues that emphasize on important actions.

Integrations and Customization

A unique and personalized user experience is the key element of modern UX design. Companies want products to adapt to their business needs, not for the business to adapt to the product’s functionality. This includes the ability to integrate with other platforms, portability, and accessibility from anywhere and at any time.

Purpose

Users are attracted to products designed with a purpose. A simple interface with a limited number of actions that lead to value makes users believe that the product revolves around their centricity. So this purpose-driven interface is a vital component of great product user experience.

Product Feedback

In the age of freemium business models and free trials, customers are trying products by themselves in order to make a quicker and more reliable buying decision. And to get product feedback during this phase gives users a clue on how the product functions or it shows them the effect specific features/options within the product.

How can the product team deliver an exceptional product experience?

Rely on analytics and make data-driven product decisions: Product team can leverage analytics to make informed and compelling roadmap decisions. By using the right data, you’ll be able to confidently deliver a better product experience that’s backed up with clear insights. You will understand which customer behaviour leads to using a particular feature in your product?

Which feature experiences result in abandonment and cancellation?

Allow users to feel the impact of product investments: You can accelerate the on-boarding and adoption process by using an in-product guide that allows users to have the optimal experience.

Engaging customers: Reaching out to customers with the right type of engagement can increase adoption and reduce churn rate. New users need an engaging on-boarding process with a basic education on how the product works, which gets them to complete initial tasks that lead to meaningful usage. Also, when a product adds new functionality/features, you must share this knowledge and inform users about these add on benefits and how to best access them.

For example, if you are selling a tele-calling solution, you will explain to the customer how this product will facilitate their agent’s day-to-day operations, increase their productivity and efficiency. But it will be more beneficial for the customer if you inform them that equipping their agents with the right script increases their overall performance as well.

Collecting feedback: You must collect feedback on an ongoing basis, to understand what customers think of, feel about, and want from your product. But it is important to act on their feedback as well, as it is a critical ingredient to your product experience management process.

Designing a successful in-product experience requires that each phase of the user experience journey be visualized, analysed, optimized, and strategically implemented. And with an eye on the consistency of the product, every process needs to be mapped separately to lead users to their desired outcome.

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