Search for a solution to your problem

Your users’ experience of your brand starts way before they subscribe. What are you communicating when they first start looking for a solution to their problem? Your market messaging, search placement and advertising is generally the first touch point for prospective customers. Doing a Google search and reviewing these materials in the exact same way your customers would discover them can help you to discover whether that information is clear, informative and easy to discover.

Register for your product or service

The steps that allow prospective customers to become real customers – whether that’s creating an account, signing up to your service or getting in touch with a member of your term – are the most crucial. So try becoming your own user; your goal is to check that there are no unexpected barriers to that process. Is the button easy to find no matter when you decide to register? Do online forms seem clear and concise? What emails do you receive immediately after registration, and beyond? Does your site or platform prompt new users on what to do next? You know your product far too well to see what a real new user sees, but it’s important to be confident that everything works as planned.

Order something or complete a task

No matter what kind of product or service you have, try really using it. If you have an ecommerce product, add something to the checkout, process your card details and wait for your order to actually arrive. If you have an application, make sure it’s integrated into your daily life in every way possible. Look out for things that might frustrate or fail to make sense. Your own usage is not a replacement for good usability testing, but knowing your product in and out is important for achieving a smooth and consistent experience.

Try to find answers to a problem

Of course, a little roleplaying is necessary here because you know the answers (I hope) to your product’s inner workings. But if you take a look at your FAQs, is it easy to find an answer if you’re not the product manager? Do realistic search terms bring up clear results in your help section, or does a Google search index any useful articles? Understanding your user journey and helping your customers to stay on it is about preparing not just for when things go as planned, but when they start to derail.

Speak to your brand

You should be as aware of your product’s communication skills as you are its code. Tuning into your brand’s communication in real-time is very different to reviewing copy for proposed emails. Subscribe to your mailing list and follow social accounts. Does the information seem useful and interesting, or is something missing? Does the flow feel right, or does it clash across channels? And try reaching out to your sales or support team anonymously. When do you get a response? What does it feel like to be on the end of your support line? All of this is key to a good user experience that will keep your customers coming back.

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Marquee customers VS fluid masses

When you’ve got a B2B customer base, it’s much more likely that you’ll have fewer, high-revenue customers and that these are individually more important to your product decisions. B2C customer bases however are much more high-volume and individuals come and go. Finding the average use case is much more important than responding to specific needs.

Sales insight VS customer surveys

B2B and B2C businesses have different access to customers therefore the feedback that comes with it. Product managers with internal sales team can benefit from (and also have to push back on) feedback and suggestions funnelled internally from direct customer interaction. B2C product managers however must go direct to the customer themselves and use different methods to reach that insight, which are often much more large scale and broader in reach – such as customer surveys, or focus groups.

Predictable and fixed VS vague and variable user goals

When we’re at work we’re in a more structured environment than when we’re relaxing at home or out with friends. Whereas B2C user goals can be hugely diverse when using the same product, B2B user goals are based on prescribed tasks and are therefore easier to predict. However, this means that the product capabilities you have to account for might be more complex. This is one area where our behavior as people notably shifts – we are often more prepared to learn a product at work if it means that all of our needs can be met.

Decision makers VS financial freedom

Finally, who the product manager must take into consideration when setting product vision and roadmap direction is usually very different between B2B and B2C companies. Consumers are, generally speaking, free to make their own purchasing decisions. If something saves them time, reduces headaches, or is just plain fun to use they’re often free to make their own calls. In B2B markets however, management sign-off, budget approval and even legal departments are the norm before any product is chosen. But be careful with this one. If you need buy-in from the CMO, make sure your product’s what and why offers them value. But don’t forget that you aren’t necessarily designing for the CMO when it comes to the how.

If you’re trying to apply product management best practice to your role, or you’re looking to make a switch between B2B and B2C products, keep these differences in mind. However never forget that whatever they’re doing, your users are always people. Keep the differences explained here in mind when it comes to product lifecycles or roadmapping, however never stop striving for a great user experience that relieves your customers’ frustrations and adds value to their day.

The post Aren’t We All Just People? Building Products For B2B And B2C appeared first on ProdPad.

3 UX principles for better product development

1. Start by eliminating the negative experiences

No matter what your starting data source – from usability testing to customer support feedback – identifying and removing your customers’ stumbling blocks is the first step towards offering them a better user experience. Removing friction to a seamless experience is an essential prerequisite before you can really start to create additional value. Product people have much to learn from the classic psychology principle of negative enforcement: removing adverse stimuli can reinforce behavior for your users to return again and again. And those adverse stimuli should be sought out at every step of the customer journey. Removing friction goes further than high-level problem-solving, and deeply understands user behavior to make sure that a good idea to solve a problem isn’t thwarted by sloppy execution.

[bctt tweet= “Removing friction is an essential prerequisite before you can start to create additional value.”]

2. Stay focused on long-term user goals

To remain experience-focused, product managers must continually seek to balance user and business needs. We could easily argue that this question of balance is misleading as ultimately, these are one and the same thing. Continually meeting their needs puts you in the strongest position to retain your users’ custom. But every product manager knows that day-to-day decisions aren’t immediately that simple. When faced with short-term commercial concerns, technical objectives and even pure asthetics, it’s easy to lose sight of your raison d’être – long-term business success. Paul Brooks has neatly adapted the Steve Covey time management quadrant for this balance, where intelligent design is the sweet spot for meeting long-term goals.

3. Be one step ahead with proactive experiences

Living and breathing your users’ needs means that you can delight customers with proactive user experience design. Going a step further than removing friction, you can actually anticipate where your customers will encounter problems before they come to you with them. Ensure that the products you build guide your users rather than provide them with information to figure it out themselves. And to really meet their long-term goals, dedicate time to imagine features that go beyond the expected. A completely comprehensive approach to user experience considers every possible angle and aims to never leave customers waiting for more.

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Limited time bonus! Join us for the Lean UX workshop on Thursday, September 11th in London. Claim your 15% discount here (good for two workshops).

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