Beyond Features: Optimize Product Experiences

What's product experience?

Product experience refers to the customers overall experience with the product. It encompasses the entire customer journey with the product — from their awareness about it, to the time they stop using it.

The loosely paraphrased definition is credited to Pine and Gilmore. It's an attempt to simplify an important aspect that determines the success of a product, more than anything else.

B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, in their 1999 book The Experience Economy, coined the term 'product experience', defining product experience as "the sum total of all the interactions a customer has with a product or service before, during, and after the purchase.".

In their book, 'The Experience Economy', a must read for product managers, product developers and business owners, Pine and Gilmore state that the experience economy is replacing the goods economy and the service economy. In the goods economy, businesses compete on price and quality. In the service economy, they compete on convenience and customer service. In the experience economy, businesses compete on the quality of the experiences they provide to their customers..

They argued that customers are now looking for enjoyable and memorable experiences that go beyond mere functional aspects of products and services.

Why should product experience matter to us? Business, especially digital ones, have realized that product experience is a crucial factor in customer satisfaction. It is important that we plan, create, manage and measure product experience effectively to build businesses that sustain and grow, despite volatile market conditions.

How's product experience different from customer experience.

While product experience is a part of customer experience, there are some factors such as price, place, promotion and physical environment that constitute customer experience, but are deemed out of the scope of product experience.

Below is a table that summarizes the difference between PX and CX

Product experience, though being a subset of customer experience focuses on factors specific to a product or service such as product design, features, packaging and marketing. This focus on the interaction of the customer with the product helps us to narrow the scope and go deeper into building experiences that pertain to the product and its factors alone.

Elements of Product Experience

Product Functionality:

Product functionality refers to how well the product performs its functions the user intends. Effective and efficient product functionality focuses on answering four important questions. Does the product help the user to achieve their goals? Are they able to do this with the least amount of effort? Are the goals achievable with the least amount of interactions? Is the amount of time taken to achieve the task reasonable and minimal?

Performance:

Performance refers to the speed and responsiveness of the product. Users expect quick load times and faster response times from each interaction. They enjoy snappy product performances and detest experiences with latency and delays.

Accessibility:

Accessibility ensures the products are easily usable by users with diverse abilities. Accessibility is not an afterthought in product design and needs to be built into the product functionality from the start.

Reliability:

The product should consistently deliver the expected result regardless of the conditions, time or place the user uses it in. For instance a user expects a cab booking app to function the same way in smaller towns, the way it does in cities. Discrepancies in service or functionality could frustrate the user resulting in them choosing another service over the present one.

Usability:

Is the product intuitive? Usability focuses on how easy it is for users to accomplish tasks and navigate through the product. An intuitive design with clear instructions and straightforward interactions contributes to a positive user experience.

Consistency:

Uniformity in design and branding leads to a cohesive experience across the product. Consistency in design and functionality not only makes it easier to navigate the product, but also reinforces the brand identity increasing customer loyalty with every interaction.

User Interface:

The UI involves the visual design, layout, and presentation of elements across the screens within a product. Aspects such as aesthetics, color schemes, typography, and overall look and feel, enhance user engagement and satisfaction.

Support and Documentation:

A clear and concise documentation provides the information the user needs to use the product effectively. Responsive support in regards to usage, through online resources— documentation, video tutorials, interactive help mechanisms — contribute to the overall product experience by addressing user queries and concerns.

Who is responsible for building Product Experiences.

The responsibility of building a great product experience is shouldered by the entire team participating in planning, designing, developing and supporting the product. It's not the responsibility of a single team or department, and collaboration is key to building effective experiences.

Product Managers are responsible for the overall vision and strategy for the product. They work closely with business stakeholders and customers to define the product requirements, and develop the plan to build products and features. The architects, designers and developers collaborate with stakeholders and user groups to build user stories.

The designers are responsible for creating user journeys and user friendly and visually appealing interfaces. The developers are responsible for building and maintaining the product functionality. Together they ensure the product meets the requirements set forth by the managers and the stakeholders.

Marketers and customer support representatives ensure they constantly provide the design and development team with the necessary feedback to improve the product experience.

Conclusion

It's essential to make product experience a priority for the entire company. Educate and empower employees to take decisions to improve product experience in every aspect regardless of the scope of their responsibilities and duties. This imbibes in them a sense of responsibility towards the customer, fostering a customer centered culture in the organization.

Collect and analyze feedback from marketers and customer support executives to identify ways to constantly improve your products. And test and iterate features thoroughly to build exceptional product experiences.

At Agile Soft Systems, we recognize the importance of product experience in driving customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy. Our commitment is not only towards development of software, but extends to planning, designing, managing, testing, and measuring product experiences effectively.

Together, let's make product experience a shared responsibility and a source of pride for your business. Let's build remarkable products that leave a lasting positive impact on our users.