Creating a digital product that makes end users happy and drives engagement isn’t an easy task to take on. It can be difficult to anticipate user needs, challenges, and ever-changing expectations. However, this certainly doesn’t mean that the endeavor should be avoided altogether. After all, there is a way of tackling all of the above-mentioned uncertainty. Having spent years delivering software products that align user requirements with business needs, we are happy to share the expertise Velvetech’s team has accumulated. Learn about the powers of the user-driven software development approach and uncover the best practices of A/B testing, surveying, and direct feedback collection so that you can create solutions that are embraced by end-users. All this and more is available in our on-demand webinar: https://www.velvetech.com/events/user-driven-software-development/

1. User-Driven Development:
The Art of Creating a
Software Product
Prepared by Maria Gorokhova
02/17/2023

2. MARIA GOROKHOVA
Lead Business Analyst, Velvetech, LLC
• 10+ years of experience in business analysis
• Possesses expertise in aligning digital products with
end-user requirements and business goals
• Guides tech products from ideation to market
About the Speaker

3. What Is the
User-Driven Approach?

4. WITH ITERATIVE USER-DRIVEN
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT YOU CAN:
• Validate your idea
• Test it out
• Avoid too much commitment upfront
Importance of the User-Driven Approach
USER
DISSATISFACTION
HIGH
DEVELOPMENT
COSTS
DELAYED
TIME TO
MARKET
LACK OF
INNOVATION
POOR
COLLABORATION
INCREASED
RISK
LACK OF
COMPETITIVE
ADVANTAGE
SOFTWARE PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT CAN BE RISKY

5.  Active user involvement
 Iterative development
 Continuous improvement
 User-centered design
 Usability testing
 User empathy
 Rapid prototyping
 Data-driven decisions
 User satisfaction
What Is User-Driven Development?

6. Key Elements of User-Driven Development
ALIGNMENT OF BUSINESS NEEDS WITH USER NEEDS
USER FEEDBACK LOOP THROUGHOUT THE PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE
ITERATIVE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
USER INVOLVEMENT FROM THE BEGINNING
1
2
4
3

7. USER-DRIVEN APPROACH BENEFITS:
 Access new ideas
 Avoid bias
 Lower development costs
 Improve customer satisfaction and loyalty
 Increase market share
 Boost adoption rates
 Avoid developing unnecessary functionality
 Provide customers with a sense of ownership
Why Rely on the User-Driven Approach?
“People ignore design
that ignores people”
— Frank Chimero
Source: Adobe

8. User-Driven Approach
Techniques

9. USER-CENTRIC APPROACH FOR ANY PROJECT STAGE
From Idea to Product
User-driven techniques are suitable for various
stages of the development process. Some are more
prevalent at the early stages, others at later ones.

10. 1. Determine who to conduct interviews with
2. Outline your questions and goals
3. Create a trusting, comfortable atmosphere
4. Avoid preconceptions or biases in your mind
5. Save the answers and analyze them
User-Driven Techniques: Interview
Illustration by Tom Fishburne from Talking to Humans

11. • Online survey panels
• Social media
• Email lists
• Targeted advertising
• Online communities
• In-person surveys
User-Driven Techniques: Survey
WHERE TO FIND PEOPLE TO SURVEY:
DON’T WORRY…
IT’LL JUST TAKE 10 MINUTES. REALLY!

12. • Sketch or diagram
• Wireframe
• Clickable mockup
User-Driven Techniques: Prototype
A PROTOTYPE CAN COME IN VARIOUS FORMS:
95%
OF NEW
PRODUCTS
FAIL

13.  UNDERSTANDING MARKET NEEDS
 ORGANIZATION
 FEASIBILITY OF THE CONCEPT
 LIMITATIONS OF THE CONCEPT
 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
User-Driven Techniques: PoC
BENEFITS OF CREATING A PoC:
A PROOF OF CONCEPT CAN COME IN THE FORM OF:
• Code snippet
• Basic script
• Simulation
• Detailed presentation
• Documentation

14. • Gather in-depth feedback
• Get a better understanding of your audience
• Assess the acceptance of your product
• Make changes prior to full-scale deployment
User-Driven Techniques: MVP
AN MVP ALLOWS TO:
“A Minimum Viable Product is that
version of a new product which
allows a team to collect the
maximum amount of validated
learning about customers with the
least effort.”
— Eric Ries

15. To continue improving your solution, you can again
turn to the previous techniques, but also:
Final Solution
INTERVIEW SURVEY PROTOTYPE PoC MVP A/B
TESTING
ANALYTICS DIRECT
FEEDBACK
• Conduct A/B tests
• Run analytics
• Collect direct feedback

16. • User behavior and engagement
• Target market characteristics
• Sales data
• Customer loyalty and retention
• Feature adoption
• Support requests
User-Driven Techniques: Analytics
WHAT SHOULD YOU ANALYZE?
“Analytics represents a unique
repository of potential value to
positively impact financial outcomes
and operational efficiency across the
product value chain”
— Deloitte
Source: Deloitte

17. A/B TESTING PROCESS:
1. Pick a variable to test
2. Identify the goal
3. Create a “control” element and a “variation” one
4. Split your user sample equally and randomly
5. Decide how significant your results need to be
6. Test both variations simultaneously
7. Wait until the A/B test produces enough data
8. Ask for feedback from each user group tested
9. Take action based on results
User-Driven Techniques: A/B Testing

18. • App store reviews
• Social media comments
• Automatic user log collection
• Emails to support staff
• In-app surveys
User-Driven Techniques: Direct Feedback
DIRECT FEEDBACK CAN COME IN THE FORM OF:

19. How to Implement the
User-Driven Approach
in Your Project

20. • Complete control
• Fully committed team
• Direct communication
• Partial in-house control
• Access to international
talent
• Easy scaling of software
team
• Access to international talent
• Easy scaling of entire team
• Less involvement required
• Ability to part ways after the
project
• Typically, lower costs
FULLY
IN-HOUSE TEAM
OUTSOURCED TEAM WITH
IN-HOUSE PM
TOTAL PROJECT
OUTSOURCING
Ways to Implement the User-Driven Approach

21. Summary

22. CUSTOMER CENTRICITY ENSURES
MORE PROFITS FOR THE LONG TERM
THE WHOLE TEAM HAS TO COMMIT TO DELIVERING AN
EXCEPTIONAL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
PRODUCT ROADMAP SHOULD BE
DIRECTLY BASED ON CUSTOMER FEEDBACK
Summary
1
2
3

23. Thank You!
+1 (847) 559-0864
sales@velvetech.com
www.velvetech.com
601 Skokie Blvd.,
Suite105,
Northbrook, IL 60062