We’ve just completed a project for an insurance company looking to develop a fairly radical new product. Whilst I can’t share with you the detail, I can share with you the 6 things we did, which I think made a massive difference to the outcome of the project. So lets cut to the chase:
1. Embrace an iterative approach
Yawn you’ve heard that word ‘iterative’ loads of times before, but believe me it works. We deliberately designed the project to build over time, rather than running lots of interviews or groups in one go (to reassure key stakeholders). We happily sacrificed research robustness for flexibility (allowing for more research and development sprints), to get further quicker.
2. Give constant feedback
This is a key principle of all good user experience (and a primary one in our customer experience model – more on this to come). Rather than taking a black box approach and giving the big reveal in a final presentation, we constantly discussed the insights and discoveries as the project progressed. This allowed for more micro-improvements across the project.
3. Seek genuine client involvement
It’s one thing to sit and watch or listen to interviews; it’s another to re-write propositions and proof point stimulus on the go. Or to constantly question and challenge assumptions. Or being actively involved in the project delivery. This level of involvement massively accelerated the quality of all the outputs.
4. Be open to change
Whilst we had a plan, we were flexible with the delivery. At the start we weren’t 100% sure what the subsequent stages might look like until the first one was completed. This meant we could shape and evolve everything in relation to how the customer was connecting (or not) with the ideas. So if you can, be less fixed on the methodology and let the insights shape the approach.
5. Refine, refine, refine
There is a temptation to put more on to paper than is necessary. This is usually a combination of fear (not wanting to miss out) and laziness (as it requires less effort). But if you don’t, unnecessary information gets in the way. Did we nail it 100% in this project? Probably not. Looking back we probably got distracted by the detail, but by the end we were tight and extremely directional.
6. Keeping the customer central
It’s almost a given, keeping the customer at the center of a customer value proposition project. But it’s easy to get distracted by the product idea and not the value that the customer is seeking. To get round this, make sure you go in with multiple different ways of expressing the value proposition, to ensure you get the nuance just right.
Well that’s it – our 6 top tips for delivering better value proposition research projects. Although, you could take a leaf out of these and apply to all kinds of different projects.
Have we missed any? Anything you would add to this list?