It’s the Experience That Makes the Product, Not the Features with Lee Dale presented on March 07 2015 at FITC's Spotlight UX/UI More info at www.fitc.ca OVERVIEW All too often, products are brought to market with a feature-first approach. A list of functions that are needed to meet business goals such as sign-ups or downloads, views or shares. There’s little thought that’s gone into who the user of the product will be, what their goals are, and what it will take to provide meaningful value to them. We’ll look at what it means to bring a focused, valuable Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to market. An MVP that can help you learn how to better serve your users, and the business that’s footing the bill. OBJECTIVE To understand that no great product began with a list of features. It’s the experience that engages users and drives adoption, so it’s the experience that you need to focus on when bringing a product to market. TARGET AUDIENCE Product Owners, Developers, Founders, UX/UI Designers. ASSUMED AUDIENCE KNOWLEDGE This should be a great introduction for folks who are thinking of bringing a product to market or are working on a product which isn’t quite connecting with its intended audience. FIVE THINGS AUDIENCE MEMBERS WILL LEARN Great digital products do just one thing really well. They serve a target that can’t live without that one thing. Features are a byproduct of the product experience—they don’t drive the experience. You need to deliver a focused MVP to market. Then learn from that MVP and continue to refine the experience for your users, and your business.

1. It’s the Experience
That Makes the
Product, Not the
Features.
Putting experience first
from the MVP on up.
#experiencefirst
@smack416 at
@yousayyeah

2. Let’s talk product.

3. Features, therefore product.

4. Engineering only products
consistently fail.

5. Just because something
functions doesn’t mean it
serves a purpose.

6. “When we started talking to our
customers and seeing how they
used our service, it was the
defining moment of success that
turned the company around.”
Joe Gebbia, AirBnB
@jgebbia

7. User-centred design leads to
better products.

8. The rise of
the MVP.
Photo by Kristina Servant

9. Minimum
Viable
ProductPhoto by Kristina Servant

10. An MVP is anything you can
get to market quickly and
easily to prove your
product’s viability.

11. MVP doesn’t necessarily
mean code.

12. MVP does mean high-touch
customer engagement.

13. You need to:
Find your market.
Find your advocates.

14. Video.
Concierge MVP.
Landing page.
Newsletter.
Prototype.
Above all, experiment.

15. Wash’n’fold concierge MVP.

16. Kipu beta signup.

17. Kipu price test.

18. Kipu video.

19. Kipu features page.

20. Buffer product MVP.

21. Buffer price MVP.

22. An MVP is a tool for turning
questions into answers.

23. You can’t improve without
user insight.

24. Get to market early and often
to gain insight.

25. “Shipping is a feature.”
John Gruber
@gruber

26. Features are a distraction.

27. Features are a distraction
for you.

28. Features are a distraction
for your users.

29. So how do you decide which
features to add?
Let’s look at 6 considerations.

30. Does the feature add clarity
to the core purpose of the
product?

31. Will the feature delight
your users, adding
unexpected value?

32. Will the feature be
used often?

33. Will the feature be
difficult to ship?

34. Will users understand the
feature?

35. Will users talk about the
feature?

38. “Product/market fit means
being in a good market with
a product that can satisfy
that market.”
Marc Andreessen
@pmarca

39. Construction app Bridgit,
conducted 500 interviews at
construction sites.

40. Zappos began with
no inventory.

41. “In a startup no facts exist
inside the building, only
opinions.”
Steve Blank
@sgblank

42. Dropbox lessons learned.
From CEO Drew Houston’s slide deck.

43. Deliver an experience.
Photo by Everett Mar

44. Define the core user need.
Make a product that meets
just that need in a delightful
way.

45. “I wanted to take the scheduling
feature of many Twitter clients
and apps and make that single
feature awesome.”
Joel Gascoigne, Buffer CEO
@joelgascoigne

46. Think in terms of benefits,
not features.

47. 4 clicks to auto schedule a
tweet to a single account.

49. Features are a distraction
from defining and measuring
experience.

50. Do less better.
Photo by Mr.TinDCCupcake vs Dry Cake model from Brandon Schauer, Adaptive Path

51. Photo by Don Buciak II
Think big.

52. Start small.
Photo by Gurjot Bhuller

53. Not big and dull.
Photo by Carrie Grayson

54. Photo by Ree Roebeck
And definitely not this.

55. Experience every
step of the way.
From Henrik Kniberg

56. The simplicity
of Hyperlapse.

57. No user accounts.
No video editing.
No file manager.
iOS only.

58. Simple, but magical.

62. Wellcast

66. But how do we get there?

68. Experience is holistic.

69. Experience goes well
beyond the product.

70. Customer expectations.
Marketing.
Support.
And so much more.

71. But even focusing just on the
product, experience is the
sum of so many parts.

72. Your product’s purpose.
The value to your users.
Ease of use.
Interactivity.
Consistency.
Personality.

73. “PERSONALITY MAKE
PRODUCT FRIEND. YOU HELP
FRIEND. YOU FORGIVE WHEN
FRIEND NOT PERFECT.”
Fake Grimlock
@fakegrimlock

74. Keep the overall
experience in mind.

75. “Sometimes you don’t need
to change the way a product
works, you need to change
the story.”
Ilona Posner
@ilonaposner

76. Don’t be so quick to code.

77. “Success is not delivering a
feature; success is learning
how to solve a customer’s
problem.”
Scott Cook, Intuit

78. Remember, MVP.

79. Benefits, not features.

80. Your product should serve
just one need delightfully.

81. Make your MVP an
exceptional experience.
Photo by DixieBelleCupcakeCafe

82. Every effort that follows
needs to extend, not
diminish that experience.

83. Every feature you add is a
distraction.

84. Don’t add a feature unless it
serves the core user need.

85. Or you’ll end up with this.

86. Being disrupted by this.

87. Say Yeah!
@yousayyeah
Lee Dale
@smack416
Thank you.