A presentation by Larry Cornett of Brilliant Forge used for a Product Management conference. It highlights the power of Product Experience, some best practices for User-Centered Product Design (UCD), a brief discussion of the role of Product Management, and a use case from a product redesign at eBay.

1. The User Experience IS the
Product Experience
Product Management Conference
Larry Cornett, Ph.D.

2. Overview
• The Power of Product Experience
• User-Centered Product Design (UCD)
• The Role of Product Management
• Product Success at eBay
• Q&A

3. The Power of
Product Experience

4. • What the user experience with your product really is about.
What is it really about?

5. • What the user experience with your product really is about.
What is it really about?
Everything

6. • What the user experience with your product really is about.
What is it really about?
Source: engadget

7. • What the user experience with your product really is about.
What is it really about?
©iStockphoto.com/Nyul

8. • What the user experience with your product really is about.
Focus on UE matters
• It wasn’t always the case
• But, customers now have choices
• Competition emerges faster
• A great user experience differentiates
• A great user experience builds loyalty

9. My Background

10. • What the user experience with your product really is about.
What I’ve experienced
Apple’s user experience commands a
premium and generates fanatic loyalty
eBay’s focus on the customer created a
lasting and engaged community
Yahoo created experiences that drove
engagement, retention, and revenue

11. • What the user experience with your product really is about.
Competitive landscape
• Technologies are becoming commoditized
• Platforms enable fast development & distribution
• Rapid iteration and testing cycles
• Intense focus on users, data, and metrics
• Innovative experiences built on top of data & tech
• Race to launch minimum viable product (MVP)

12. Extreme MVP
Source: SeekNuance.com

13. • What the user experience with your product really is about.
Who will win?
• Companies that “get it”
• Companies who listen, observe, & use data
• Companies that solve “pain”
• Companies that obsess over the details
• Companies that deliver great experiences

14. User-Centered
Product Design

15. What is UCD?
Source: simpsons.wikia.com © FOX Broadcasting Company

16. What is UCD?
Don’t Just Ask
Observe

17. • What the user experience with your product really is about.
The UCD approach
Observe the user
Understand the user
Involve the user
Design for the user
Solve real-life problems
Validate with user data
Repeat...

18. • What the user experience with your product really is about.
Integrating UCD & Agile
• UCD integrated into agile development
processes
• <insert diagram image>
Source: Silicon Valley Product Group

19. • What the user experience with your product really is about.
Why does it matter?
Success
or
Failure

20. Innovation success rate
Global innovation average success rate
4% across all geographies and industries
0% 100%
Source: Doblin, Inc.

21. How to succeed
User-centered innovation must be:
• Intentional
• Effortful
• Sustainable

22. UCD Success
Source: Apple Computer

23. UCD Success
Source: Digital Surgeons

24. UCD Success
Source: Netflix.com

25. UCD Success
Source: Mint.com

26. UCD Failures
Google Nexus One
Source: www.amazon.com

27. UCD Failures
Sansa e200 Series
MP3 Player
Source: User Interface Engineering

28. UCD Failures
Source: www.crunchbase.com

29. Typical UCD barriers
• Existing processes
• Lack of understanding
• Unclear ROI
• Time pressure
• Perceptions of cost
• Integration with Agile

30. Who is accountable?
Ultimately...
You
Product Management
must be the champion for
User-Centered Product Design

31. The Role of
Product Management

32. Product management
Usability
Design Engr
ct Experie
du
nc
Pro
e
Business PM Product
Customers
Research Mktg
Analytics

33. What are you?
• You are not:
• Project management
• Program management
• Marketing
• Business analytics
• You are the champion for the Product

34. Being the champion
• Creating a vision
• Defining the strategy
• Specifying the right product
• Executing the plan
• Validating performance
• Defending the product
• Being accountable

35. User-centered philosophy
• Beyond the product and process...
• Champion for the customer
• Champion for the experience
• But, you have allies...

36. Your allies
Research
Design
Usability
Analysts
Marketing
Engineering

37. Product Success
at eBay

38. Defining success
• The marketplace ecosystem:
• Buyer success drives Seller success
• Seller success drives eBay success
• eBay success drives product development
• Every project calculated an NPV
(% Improvement) x ($ of Bids, Buys, Listings, Fees & Registrations)

39. Aligning goals
Business
User Community

40. Redesigning selling
• Increase completion rate for new sellers
• Improve efficiency for experienced sellers
• Develop scalable framework for future
• Create a global platform
• Maintain feature revenue

41. Selling form before
* Source: Micah Alpern, Lead Designer, eBay

42. Unique challenges
• The eBay Community “owns” eBay
• Sellers power the marketplace
• Yet, must balance with buyers
• Support legacy data and systems

43. The process
• Define Goals: User, Business, Product
• Disrupt: Start from a “blank slate”
• Design for elegance + power + scalability
• User-centered product design
• Talk to sellers continuously

44. UCD practices
• Ethnographic field research
• Surveys
• Seller interviews
• eBay “Voices”
• Rapid prototyping and iterative testing
• Data, data, and more data...

45. The result
* Source: Micah Alpern, Lead Designer, eBay

46. Success
• Improved ease of use, efficiency, scalability,
and profitability
• 25% to 50% reduction in the listing time
• Commentthe new SYIseller: It's easy to
“I think that
from a
is awesome.
understand exactly what you need to do. Everything that
you need to see is on two pages, and you can view your
listing without having to open another page. If you make a
mistake, you don't have to go back 7 pages to fix it.
Excellent ideas! I would give it a 10!”

47. Continued success
• eBay Mobile
• Almost $2 Billion
USD in goods sold
through its mobile
apps in 2010
* Source: eBay.com

48. Continued success
• eBay Mobile
• Almost $2 Billion
USD in goods sold
through its mobile
apps in 2010
• Further simplifying SYI
* Source: eBay.com

49. Lessons learned
• Observe customers in real-life settings
• Focus on the painkiller opportunities
• Innovation requires intentional disruption
• Build fewer, bolder concepts
• Get real user feedback early & often
• Share progress with stakeholders frequently
• Ship a viable product quickly and learn
• You must be the champion for the product

50. Q &A