Why test before you build?
Whether you are just at the ideas stage or armed with prototypes and wireframes, researching and testing your planned product enhancements before you commence development is an essential step in your product strategy.
Our product strategy expertise can propel your project beyond ideas by assessing the response to potential features and functions using a range of techniques that include user testing, focus groups and product research.
How we can help your team?
- Your management team are not fully committed to your product roadmap and you need to validate and test potential approaches to get the green light to proceed
- Your product team are stuck in a rut and need external support to help them see things more objectively
- You need to develop a business case to gain funding for the development of a new or existing product
- Your product team have developed prototypes, design ideas and you need to validate them with target customers
Our process to validate your strategy
Our team can help your management and product teams assess and validate your product strategy and plans. We do this by using a number of techniques that bring structure and clarity to your planning, budgeting and help validate and mature your product strategy.
-
Product Strategy Workshops
We conduct workshops with your key decision makers to help assess and evaluate your product strategy. We facilitate an interactive process that brainstorms product ideas, develops potential concepts, features and opportunities to deliver value to your customers.
Product strategy workshops are an excellent starting point for any digital product journey and ultimately help your team to gain consensus on the route they want to take for the product.
-
Focus Groups
We recruit target customers from our user panel to participate in the focus group. We manage, moderate and record the entire process. The objective is to validate your ideas, concept and features to gain an understanding of their sentiment and opinion before you progress any further.
-
UX Research and Analysis
We help your team to conduct independent competitor analysis and market research to help you understand where your product concept and vision sit in the market. Our research services help to identify risks and opportunities that will inform and direct your strategy before you further commit to the developing the product.
-
Persona Creation
You would be surprised at the amount of companies that don’t profile their customers. They make generic assumptions that most customers are the same and therefore a standardised approach should tick most of the boxes.
Customers are not all the same, their demographics, preferences, needs and experience differ and your business needs to understand these variations in order to develop digital products to meet their needs. We help you create profiles or personas of your customers to really understand the nuances that will help you target your product strategy to meet their requirements.
-
Usability Testing
Asking your target customer to use your prototype or product concept provides immediate feedback to your team. We ask participants to carry out tasks specific to the product and observe them, with the goal being to identify any usability problems and determine the participant's satisfaction with the product. There is no need to develop a fully functioning product; we can help you conduct usability testing with concepts and simple wireframes.
What we deliver
We provide your team with a range of services to help you assess and define the strategy for your product. We are focused on helping you understand the opportunity and customer needs to ensure your product is tailored to meet the needs of the market.
-
Product Strategy Workshops = Product Vision Statement
We document the entire process and present the results to your team. Our intention is to help your team understand where you are in the process by articulating the opportunities, risks and concerns that need to be assessed to move the process forward. Our reports are detailed, focused and concise. The product strategy workshops and delivery of the report is typically completed within 10-days.
-
Focus Groups = Customer Needs Report
The dynamic of the focus group is captured in an exit report that documents how participants were recruited, the methodologies used during the session(s) and the feedback, sentiment and opportunities identified. The process typically takes 10-15 days. In a nutshell we agree the focus group program, identify and recruit the participants, conduct the session(s) and document the results. The focus group can take place in our studio or at a suitable location. We arrange everything for you.
-
UX Research and Analysis = Insights & Opportunities Report
The delivery of research and audits needs to be visual, focused and actionable. The delivery of research needs to be visual, focused and actionable. We will measure your product strategy against a set of principles and assess and compare how market peers achieve these criteria.
Our methodology begins with agreeing the scope and coverage of the research with your team. Once agreed, we commence the research and document as we go. We deliver the result to your team typically within 5-15 days.
-
Persona Creation = Customer Profile Report
Customer persona research guide your product strategy, helping you to focus your investment on delivering solutions that meet their needs. We work with your business and product stakeholders to identify your customer types to build up detailed profiles of their preferences and behaviours. Typically this process can take between 5-10 days to develop, review and complete.
-
Usability Testing = Usability Report
Usability testing gives your team immediate feedback. Your customers response is filled with insights and recommendations, all ready to be absorbed and filtered by your product team. We work with you to select the usability testing audience, we recruit the participants, host the test and deliver a detailed exit report. The process is typically delivered within a 5-10 day timeline.
Our industry track record
We advise a wide range of businesses to plan and develop their product strategies.
For example we work with:
- Financial services firms: to explore how they can provide their customers with smarter and intelligent digital services
- Retail brands: to improve their online conversions and develop new engaging services to improve customer satisfaction
- Membership organisations: to develop better experiences and value for their customer
- Tourism brands: to develop compelling and engaging experiences for international travellers
- Utilities: to define new product features that can streamline customer service and self-management of their energy usage
- Healthcare brands: to increase participation and interaction between practitioners and patients
- Governments: to deliver information and services to citizens both nationally and across the world