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Or, why user-focused questions are the only way to make successful products

What could content brands be asking themselves about their customers before, and whilst, making and iterating their products?

I work with both large and small brands and I think that design that focuses on the user is neither new nor the exclusive territory of big brands with research budgets and huge dev teams. Every scale of operation can make a picture of its customers and their needs. What is important is that teams are analytical and involved in ways of thinking about the situations in which people buy and use their products to be successful.

Here are five questions everyone involved in the creation and design of content products needs to answer when they are setting out to solve problems:

ONE – WHY DO PEOPLE COME IN THIS SHOP?
We need to understand what people actually want from our products and answer those needs. Individual guesses, needs or opinions:’I reckon…’ or ‘last time… Or ‘why don’t we add…’ will not, in themselves, solve anything. Focusing on the idea of a user in a market will.

More incisive results might come from asking: Are people buying a thing itself? or is purchase actually a means to a different goal? Do you know what that goal is? do they? For instance – do they want to own something? or be part of something? or share something?

An older magazine model was partially about being seen with a product that said something about who you were – what psychologists might call an identity claim. In publishing that behaviour may of been erased by tablet usage – where people can’t see what brand we are reading. Do we want to be seen to know about the latest in music or fashion? Or do we just want to know? Your users actual motives are not always clear to themselves or you. Establishing those motives can be tough but presuming them can be disastrous.

TWO – IS THIS HONEST?
When we create brands – and the artefacts and products that represent them – we they need to be truly representative in every way possible. An honest environment will obviously create trust and clarity. Honesty can only be created with a mixture of both art and commerce. Metrics alone will not make a delightful, enjoyable product.

So many more people will experience representations of products that they will the actual products themselves – be that an ad, a review or description, or a ’lite’ version of a digital product. Questioning the honesty of a product will serve the user and the makers as the more expectations will be met – or hopefully exceeded! In an environment where everything is shared you need to ask are we creating a trust in this brand?

THREE – WHO? NOT HOW MANY?
Only huge brands will be able to garner broad audiences. Everyone else should be looking for communities and the communities their audience are involved in.

Paul Lamere (The Echo Nest’s director of development. Recently purchased by Spotify) presented a study at SXSW 2014 (Stuart Dredge in The Guardian. 11.03.2014) . His research divided listeners into four groups:

1 – Savants,
Around 10% of music listeners. their lives are wrapped up in music, and they spend $1,000 or more a year on it.

2 – Enthusiasts and the engaged
20% are enthusiasts: they love music, and perhaps spend $100 a year on it, but have other interests too.

3 – Casuals
30% are casuals, who quite like music but aren’t that engaged, and may spend just $10 a year on it.

4 – Indifferents
The remaining 40% who fall into the indifferents category. “If music went away, they might not even notice,” he said. They might spend a dollar at most a year on music.”

What if your reader groups broke down like this? It would loosely fit with a variety of commonly held assumptions about some glossy magazine brands. If 10% (or even 50%) of your readers are the “savants” of you brand and content that might not be enough anymore. Your community should be invested in you.

FOUR – WHAT IS IT THAT NEEDS TO BE UNIQUE?
The technology might not need to be unique but the content will. As templates & Platforms become more sophisticated and accessible they are becoming secondary. Great content for your audience is what will count and the ability to share it. They can’t see the technology. If it doesn’t work they will leave your shop. If it is a new experience and enriches their lives they will stay.

FIVE – IS THERE ENOUGH DETAIL?
Attention to detail shows respect for your customer and makes things easy to use at every level – not just the surface level. This is the why good typographic values will make a great product. In spite of this a lot of digital makers often show little reverence for type & journalism. The end result is often a clever product that looks plain, old fashioned and free. All their technology is wasted because they have made not something look compelling or of its time or easy to read. These factors are strangely enough, what companies and individuals talk about the most once a successful product is finished and successful

Conclusion
“A business should seek to develop ‘the same traits we like in our friends’. He outlined these traits as being cleanliness, up-do-date appearance, generosity, courtesy, honesty, patients, sincerity sympathy and good-naturedness” (Matt Watkinson – from his book “The Ten Principles Behind Great Customer Experiences”. )

Matt Watkinson pulled this quote from an article in a 60 year old edition of the New York Herald Tribune. I love it because it says that, in some ways, there is nothing new about what makes a product succesfull. I love Matt’s book because it says that if we “delight customers” they will be loyal to us and we will be successful.

Is there is anything new about making great content? and packaging and distributing it in an appropriate manner for the user?

So, two more questions tailored for the audience: Can my team make great content for a specific audience? and get it to them on a platform thats suits as many needs as possible? Go!