The 5Ws (& 1 H!) for Building a Better Product from the Start
Simple questions that will build the foundation for your product’s design process.
I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who .
When I started my freelance career in the summer of 2012, my first client was exactly the kind of project I had hoped for — a startup. After years of working on products that had already been built, I was eager and excited to start designing a product from scratch. But, as it was the very first startup I had worked for, I was quite timid and took the approach I was used to. Years of taking orders without the option of asking questions had me trained. It took a few months to realize that asking questions is a hugely important part of what I can offer my clients.
Questions are a way to test the product and solve problems as early as possible. They ensure the product idea is on stable ground before moving forward with wireframes or prototypes. Defining the core of the product through a series of basic questions can develop a foundation that will be referred back to when moving forward with the product design. These questions define the context in which users will be using your product.
The old 5Ws (& one H!) aren’t just for journalism!
WHO: Who is the target user(s)?
WHAT: What problem will your product solve for the user?
WHEN: When will users be using your product? (ex. before going to restaurants, before their commute, after the birth of their child…)
WHERE: Where will users be using your product? (ex. in the car, on a desktop, on a mobile device, at the bar…)
WHY: Why should users use your product? (ex. because it will save them time/money, because the current solutions aren’t effective enough)
HOW: How will users access your product? (ex. from an existing social network, from their company, by downloading the app to their phone)
Perhaps these seem like completely obvious questions, so obvious in fact that they aren’t worth taking the time to answer. “Well, isn’t it obvious?!” Actually, no. If you are very close to the product idea, these answers will be obvious to you, but perhaps not as obvious to those outside your team. Additionally, doing this exercise with your team is a way to ensure everyone is on the same page. By taking the time and care into defining who your product is for and why users would adopt your product, you can present a clearer idea of your product to new team members and even investors.
These questions will also serve as the beginning to the user experience design process. They will inform the user personas, user flow path, wireframes and designs to follow. When the team is stuck on a product question, the answers to these six questions can help to provide an answer. When a new feature is suggested, you can look back to the answers to see if it is in line with your product’s goals. Do you really need the feature? Does it assist in solving the problem your product aims to solve? If not, then it may not be necessary. Shedding any unnecessary features will help to simplify your product, save you time and money and get you closer to an MVP faster.
