When you’re in charge of business growth, you can’t afford to sit there and hope that your users will come to you. Instead, you must go out and find them—and do so in a way that reflects each user’s unique needs and wants. Fortunately, there are some simple ways to achieve this goal:
Design for the user
Design for the user. Plan for the user’s experience. Strategy for their goals. Design for their context. Design for their device and culture, preferences, and expectations.
These are all essential pieces of a great product or service that drives growth by creating a remarkable experience—and they’re all part of what we call “user-centred design.” User-centred design tells us to start with users when building our products or services rather than starting with technology or business requirements (or even our ideas). It means understanding who your customers are and what they need from you to make them happy so that you can create something that meets those needs as best as possible—and then deliver those products/services at scale across different platforms like websites/applications, social media channels & conversations around those topics over time.
Talk to your customers.
To drive user-centred business growth, you need to talk to your customers. You may be thinking, “I already do this!” But I’m talking about something different than asking them what they think of your product or service. I’m talking about getting down into the trenches with them and listening closely—not just to their words but also to their actions and emotions. This can be done through interviews, surveys or one-on-one meetings that allow employees to observe customers in their natural habitat—a grocery store aisle or a hair salon chair.
If you’re a small business owner who has trouble juggling all this by yourself (and let’s face it: most of us are), hiring outside help is probably in order. Organisations like User Research Studio specialise in conducting user interviews as part of an ongoing research program that will inform internal teams on any number of topics, including usability issues, feature requests and changes that need to be made based on real-world usage data rather than assumptions made by people on the inside looking out at what they think users want (or not).
Embrace change
In today’s ever-changing business environment, you can no longer keep up by doing the same things repeatedly. Your competitors are probably already doing something different to get an edge on you—and they may have become so good at it that they’re taking away your customers. The only way to avoid being left behind is to embrace change and keep up with the latest trends in user-centred design (UCD).
The first step toward embracing change is understanding why it matters so much in business today:
Users aren’t one-size-fits-all, so neither should their experiences.
The fact is, user feedback isn’t the same as customer feedback. While both can be used to drive your business growth, they’re very different in their intent and who they come from.
Customer feedback comes from the people paying you for your product or service. They provide information about what they like, what they hate, what they want more of, less of and so on. Client feedback comes from the other end: your clients are referred to you by other clients (or directly), whereas customers found you through ads or word-of-mouth recommendations. So while it might seem like these sources overlap quite a bit at first glance—people giving opinions on products/services offered by businesses—they provide very different types of insight into how well your company meets its goals.
User Feedback: The User Perspective
Bottom Line
User-centred design is the key to building a business that will last for years. It can be challenging to keep up with the pace of innovation in the tech industry, but by focusing on your users and understanding their needs, you’ll be able to create an experience that meets them where they are right now—and keeps them coming back for more.
Who am I?
I am Dotun Adeoye, a Business Growth Strategist & Author of the 5 Pillars of Business Growth.
I’ve built up my experience via serial entrepreneurship, consulting leadership roles in business growth, business development and product innovation in large companies worldwide in the last 29 years.
Today, I consult with large businesses on how to sustainably grow their businesses, sustain infinite growth, ensure business continuity and achieve a legacy.
Hire Dotun Adeoye to Speak Virtually or In – Person at your company’s event to cover this or other topics. You can also get in touch via +44 203 097 1718