This document contains advice from Beka Rice, Head of Product at SkyVerge, about building eCommerce products. Some of the key points discussed include: 1) Starting out, it's best to do client work first to understand eCommerce workflows before building your own product. 2) Determine customer needs by reading industry news, comments, and conducting surveys/interviews with potential customers. 3) When defining the scope of the first version (v1) of your product, focus on delivering value as quickly as possible by selecting one essential job the product can complete. 4) Gather actionable customer feedback through interviews that uncover motivations and pain points rather than just opinions, and

2. @Beka_Rice
Heya!I’m the Head of Product at SkyVerge.
Our team has built over 70 eCommerce
products for WooCommerce, Shopify, & Easy
Digital Downloads over the past 5 years.
SkyVerge.com | Jilt.com
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slideshare.net/bekarice

3. Validating ideas and creating a v1

4. “
@Beka_Rice
How can I build something
eCommerce stores need?
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5. @Beka_Rice
If you’ve not worked with eCommerce
stores yet, my best advice is to do some
client work first to learn about workflows
and store management before building a
product in this space.
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30 Vital questions for eCommerce projects

6. What pain points will this product solve?
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7. @Beka_Rice
7Do we need to know about Peter, or what Peter wants from a Snickers?

8. @Beka_Rice
Framework for understanding the
needs of your customers. Rather than
understanding who uses it – via
personas or user stories – it focuses
on why they use it, or what job the
product was hired to do.
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Designing features using Job Stories

9. “
@Beka_Rice
Products don’t match
people; they match
problems.
Des Traynor, co-founder, Intercom
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10. Understand your audience
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11. @Beka_Rice
Even if they use an unrelated product, dig
deep into existing pain points. See if your
product job aligns with current customers.
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A framework for JTBD interviews
Creating B2B personas

12. “
@Beka_Rice
How do I figure out
customer needs without
any customers?
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13. @Beka_Rice
What if you’re starting out?
￮ Read industry news and guides
￮ Read the comments!
￮ Drive traffic to landing pages + ask for
surveys / interviews
Getting people to talk to you isn’t easy, but
it’s worth it.
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14. Making v1 product decisions
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15. “
@Beka_Rice
How can I determine
what’s in-scope or
out-of-scope for my
product?
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16. @Beka_Rice
Feature complete doesn’t mean
feature rich. You can deliver value to
your customers with a project that is
smaller in scope than you think.
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Path to a Minimum Lovable Product

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Pick one essential job
for your product.
This is your North Star.
Use it to define feature
complete for v1.

18. @Beka_Rice
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Deliver value to customers as quickly
as possible. Like compound interest,
this will increase total value from your
product over time vs waiting to
deliver more value later.
The Time Value of Shipping

19. Building for several user roles

20. Reframing the way you view the site’s role
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21. @Beka_Rice
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Development practices should adjust:
￮ Rethink role of site caching
￮ Be aware of JOINing data across several
tables (e.g., orders)
￮ Don’t overload WP-Cron
￮ Background processing
￮ Reliably handle incoming data (IPNs,
shipment, etc)

22. Be aware of dual context
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23. @Beka_Rice
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Your customer isn’t the only customer.
￮ Experiences for your customer, and their
customer = dual context.
￮ Use relevant messaging and logging
￮ Show notices contextually

24. @Beka_Rice
Not simply visual design, but your
product design and user experience.
What does “decisions, not options”
really mean?
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25. You’re not only building for merchants + customers
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26. @Beka_Rice
Try potential customizations yourself
and be sure they’re possible. Allow
for more customization than you think
you need.
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Exports for any server environment
Our WC Plugin snippets

27. Optimizing for longevity

28. “
@Beka_Rice
How can I set my
product up for long-term
success?
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29. Prioritizing fixes and features
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30. @Beka_Rice
Develop a formula for customer value.
Add multipliers for features that
reduce churn or ship faster – and
assess new projects using this
formula, including bugs.
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Ruthless Prioritization
Software has bugs. This is normal.

31. “
@Beka_Rice
How do I gather
actionable customer
feedback?
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32. @Beka_Rice
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What customers say they want and what
they need may be different.
￮ Ask: “I want to subscribe to a service
that gives me updated tax rate CSVs
as tax rates change.”
￮ Need: An easy way to incorporate
changes to tax rates in a store.
￮ Best solution: Tax service integration

33. @Beka_Rice
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Interviews
Survey existing customers
and schedule as many
interviews as you can.
Uncover motivations (jobs)
and friction.
Support
Support isn’t separate
from the software
experience, it’s part of it.
Use support to inform UX
improvements.
Developing a Customer
Service Tone Guide
How to Structure Customer
Development Interviews

34. @Beka_Rice
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Listen to your happy customers as
much as unhappy customers or sales
leads.
People who already pay you can help
you see existing value, and ensure
you don’t lose it.

35. @Beka_Rice
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Research it with customer development, and keep
your product scope tight & opinionated.
Be as intentional about updates as a v1, and maintain
focus on customer needs.
Adjust development practices for a dynamic
environment where performance means money.

36. @Beka_Rice
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Let’s dig into questions!
SkyVerge.com | Jilt.com
slideshare.net/bekarice

37. @Beka_Rice
Special thanks to all the people who made
and released these awesome resources for
free:
￮ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival
￮ Photographs by Unsplash
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