Embracing a User-Centric Approach the Right Way

From the article by Debbie Levitt titled "Shift From Product First to Product Last" several key takeaways emerge for a product manager:

• Focus on User-Centered Design: The article critiques the "product first" approach for often sidelining the actual needs and tasks of users. Instead, it advocates for a user-centered or customer-centric approach, emphasizing the importance of understanding the tasks, experiences, and pain points of target audiences early in the product development process.
• Importance of Research: Before jumping into solution mode with product features or ideas, it’s crucial to deeply understand your users and their problems. This involves conducting thorough research to gather evidence, data, and knowledge about user needs and the root causes of their problems, staying solution-agnostic during the early phases.
• Quality Over Speed: The article challenges the notion of prioritizing speed over quality, noting that a rapid release of features without ensuring their effectiveness and quality can lead to poor outcomes and dissatisfaction among users. It stresses the need for a balanced approach that considers both efficiency and quality.
• Redefine Success Metrics: Rather than focusing solely on business metrics like conversion rates or average order values, it’s important to also measure success from the customer’s perspective. Understanding and improving upon how well your product or service enables users to achieve their tasks and goals should be a key measure of success.
• Embrace a "Product Last" Philosophy: Levitt suggests a "product last" approach where the product itself is the outcome of a strategic and tactical process that prioritizes understanding user needs and solving their problems efficiently. This means starting with a clear understanding of user tasks, needs, and problems before considering potential solutions, whether they be product features or services.
• Critical Thinking and Strategy: Moving away from a feature-centric "feature factory" approach requires more strategic and critical thinking. It involves prioritizing problems to solve based on their importance to both the business and the users, and then carefully crafting a strategy to address these problems efficiently and effectively.
• Measure True Outcomes: Lastly, it’s crucial to measure the real impact of your product on users. This includes assessing whether your product or service has made tasks easier, more efficient, or more accurate for users, and whether it has reduced the need for support. These outcomes are indicative of both customer and business success.

These takeaways emphasize a shift in mindset from a product-focused approach to one that prioritizes understanding and solving real user problems as a pathway to creating valuable, desirable, and successful products.