This week in UX & Product Management — 12 Mar
03 / Amazon’s Friction-Killing Tactics, The Complexity of Change Aversion, Being Customer Centric, Testing Methods for UX Copy
Welcome to Issue 03!
We love building products and we’re sure you all do as well if you’re reading this. So often we get caught up in the process of how to build products. Sometimes, we don’t stop to remember what it’s like for the people who use our product that don’t know everything about it the way we do as its creators.
After reading the articles below we want to encourage teams to take the time to understand the friction their users are experiencing in their products and how to measure it. Remember to run dozens of betas to help refine an experience when there is a need for major updates and gather feedback along the way, because people are change averse. We want to help companies or teams that don’t feel like they’re customer centric by showing you some simple but impactful ways to help create a culture of being customer centric when maybe they’re not. We want to share new ways to test microcopy that’s different than A/B testing and remind people the value of the small content choices we make everyday.
We hope you enjoy the articles as much as we did!
— Ben, Andrew, and Wade
*Please let us know of anything else you think would be valuable to share in the newsletter.
// Spotlight
Amazon’s Friction-Killing Tactics To Make Products More Seamless
“Friction can manifest in a number of ways, ranging from overly complicated sign-up procedures to difficult-to-navigate menus. According to Brahmbhatt, there are three types of friction:
Friction due to unfamiliarity. A customer’s first-time experience with your product automatically contains friction when they don’t know how to use it. This is one of the biggest hurdles to get over when launching a new product.
Friction by design. There are times when you have to intentionally build friction into a product. If your product has a learning curve, you’ll have to design that experience thoughtfully.
Friction due to misalignment with human behavior. Here’s where design can come back to bite you. Poorly placed app controls, failing to anticipate how consumers will use the product and badly designed navigational tools will cause this.”
// Articles
Product ⟶
Are you customer centric?
The Modern Product Team Part I: On Being Customer Centric
“Modern teams are built on traditional PM principles yet find ways to be more efficient and effective as a cross-functional team as they seek to create delighted customers.” Brian shares a couples ways to be more customer centric as a modern product team. First, expose your entire team to NPS (In Real Time), and second, actively engage your customer council online
UX ⟶
Who likes change?
Navigating the complexity of change aversion
“Change aversion is a concept well known to designers and product managers. It’s the negative reaction users have to changes in your product, whether that’s functional changes such as updates to product features, or interface changes such as visual redesigns.”
Research ⟶
Three methods for testing UX copy
UX Copywriting: 3 Copy Testing Methods That Beat A/B Testing
Here are three methods that can help you test UX copy. Tímea explains what they are, when and how to use them. They are, (1) Cloze test; (2) Highlighter testing; (3) Comprehension surveys.
// Upcoming Public Workshops
User Story Mapping
BY JEFF PATTON
New York, NY • APR 01, 2019
Introduction to Design Sprints
BY RICHARD BANFIELD
Boston, MA • MAY 24, 2019
Certified Scrum Product Ownership
BY JEFF PATTON
New York, NY • SEP 05, 2019
// Annoucements
— TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT
Early bird discounts are only available for the next 3 weeks! Get the discount now while they’re still available!
Early bird passes are $500, that’s 30% off if you purchase before April 1st. It gets even better if you form a group of 10+ with friends or colleagues with tickets at $450 each, that’s 35% off on the full price passes
