Product experiences: recognizing and creating stand out moments

The nuts and bolts of an amazing product.

What are the staples of a great product? It’s hard to boil that down to a few key points, but if you look across many successful products, you’ll see a lot of common themes.

1. An amazing product helps achieve a task or fix a problem.

At its core, a product is designed to help a user efficiently and effectively achieve a task, fix a problem, or perform an action. Whether that is something physical, like a paintbrush, or digital, like an investment app.

2. An amazing product makes the experience as pleasant and enjoyable as possible for the user.

A good example of this would be a tool like a screwdriver. Its job is to twist screws into holes–if it can do that, then you’ve designed a screwdriver. It achieves #1 here, but it’s just another boring screwdriver. Same as the majority of fitness apps mentioned above.

To really make it great, the product must lean into what it does and implement what we call the “surprise & delight” factor—it really has to make the experience of using it as pleasurable and joyful as possible.

Now, let’s think about one of the best-selling screwdrivers on the market. It twists screws into holes just like the other one does, but this one has a soft, ergonomic grip that doesn’t hurt your hands. It’s also magnetic to keep screws attached to the bit and to recover lost ones. The handle also houses various bits of different sizes that can be swapped out in an instant. I can go on and on about all the different features and benefits this screwdriver has. But you know what else? It also comes with amazing packaging and an unboxing experience that is super cool.

Does this screwdriver do the actual job of twisting screws any better than the first one? Nope. But damn, the experience of using it definitely sets it apart.

This is a rather simple example but it's a great metaphor for approaching digital product design. To really differentiate your experience and be set up for success, you need to go the extra mile to surprise and delight those who use it—which is no easy task!

3. An amazing product has form vs and function.

A great product must help achieve a task or solve a problem, be enjoyable to use, but does it have to look good? Is a killer user interface (UI) a must? Does typography really matter? What about colors?

Yes. 100% yes, to all of those.

Form and function have a similar relationship to how we think about the head and heart. One without the other is a life without balance; our choices become skewed and blinded when we only look at the world from one perspective.

Reference #1 above: products are meant to do a job. Many think that is the entirety of “function,” but here at ZoCo, we don’t believe you can create a truly great and efficient experience without considering form as well.

Just because a product can “do the thing” doesn’t mean it has served its functionality fully. Is it efficient? Practical? Seamless to use? Optimized for the user? If yes, then a more complete functionality starts to take shape, which then leads form. I.e., how the data is displayed, color theory, typographic hierarchy, and much more.

Combining form and function is what makes products intuitive, useful, and memorable. It's not “form vs function” it's “form and function.”

The roadmap for creating an amazing digital product (and experience).

Create space for research to inform the right path.

It all starts here. Research helps products and organizations meet their potential—it's your spark. It helps answer so many different types of questions and sets you up for success.

Research creates a strong foundation to build upon. And sometimes people lose the idea that there are different kinds of research and they serve different purposes.

You can leverage research to really understand users:

• Their psychology, motivations, and decision-making process
• How they're segmented into different groups
• Who you’ll be most likely to win with

You can also use research to remove ambiguity:

• Generate or validate new ideas
• Evaluate an experience or audience
• Prioritization based on what matters most to your users

Research helps guide product and design decisions, removes ambiguity and risk, helps with prioritization, reduces rework time, can even help with funding, and so much more.

However, we understand research must be treated as a luxury and not a necessity in some cases. We recognize the importance of speed and quick iterations with some projects. Whether that's because there is an important funding round approaching, a stakeholder meeting, or otherwise, there are still ways to accomplish the things above without cutting out research completely.

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Set a vision and know when to pivot.

There are a few things to make sure you check off your list and be conscious of as you plan, build, and execute your product.

Find the right people to bring your product and vision to life and listen to them.

The team that is going to get you to the finish line will be made up of all kinds–investors, external partners, decision-makers, strategists, executors, and more. The key is to make sure they all believe in the product, the vision, are excited about it, and can do their job at a high level.

And then listen to them, which may be the hardest part. Listen to their suggestions, questions, concerns, and wins.

Have a clear vision for where you want to go, but be willing pivot at any moment.

This can be a tough pill to swallow but there are so many factors, internal and external, that can derail a project.

Here are a few ways to help make necessary shifts less dramatic:

• Build a deep understanding of needs
• Business needs, user needs, market needs, etc.

• Build an even deeper understanding of your users
• Take it a step further. Find out not just who your users are but how they think, feel, make decisions, and more.

• Prioritize doing something right over doing something fast.
• You can do it right or you can do it again. If speed is a must, there are right ways to get things done quickly. Need a rapid prototype? There is a right and wrong way to do it.

Final reminder: don't forget your user's experience.

Always try to lead the decision making process with the user's experience in mind. The path forward becomes much clearer once the customer is at the heart of every conversation. And leverage that superpower! Use research to build a deep understanding of your needs, including those of your users. That rockstar team of yours will then have the  right information they need to bring your vision to life.

You'll be set up for success if you do this. But you still have to execute! Don't forget the nuts and bolts of your product. It's easy to get caught in the moment chasing that wild assumption, that golden goose. But remember the keys to what makes a great product, crush those, and then begin further exploration.

What next?

• Have a project you’re working on and need some support? Reach out to us.
• Do you just want to chat about product, UX, research, process and methodologies? We’re down for that too. Reach out to us.
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