012: Demand Thinking - Good User Experience is Emotional and Social with Joel Smith, Joshua Mitchell, and Sundaresh Ramanathan

Outcome Studio Podcast - Marketing & B2B Technology Talk

Demand thinking in user experience is beyond a function. It's emotional and social.

Show highlights:

• 02:40 - Sundaresh shares a story about app development designed in "engineering brain" versus "user centric brain"
• 05:30 - Joshua Mitchell talking about his background in User Experience versus just making "a prettier internet" (in the words of Joel Smith)
• 07:30 - Joel Smith origin story, got his start by creating a small web hosting company, and moved to marketing side
• 11:00 - The state of apps and websites in late 1990s and 2000s. "Pretty internet" talking about Flash, adding images and graphics early on. Just adding elements because we could, not because it added value. The question of we have new tool, just applying it because it's cool (examples: blockchain, 3D printing, or virtual reality).
• 15:00 - Bad UX example, talking about introducing Lime and Bird scooters because they are cool but need legislation and rules, so how do we balance.
• 17:30 - Minimum viable product, bargain with user that the product may not be perfect, but also create vulnerability for companies
• 20:00 - Why was starting Design on Tap hard? Josh and Joel describe the evolution from waterfall to agile. Defining waterfall versus agile.
• 27:00 - Marketers, if you don't know what you want, don't pretend you do. But rather work with a partner that will help you discover what you need.
• 33:30 - Are marketers in tough spots in relinquishing control to agency? Marketers and agencies should work with the client to understand the problem, versus just fixing the problem.
• 35:30 - How can we be using data in product development and understanding a buyer's journey. Two considerations: market demand data, and usage data and how the product is experienced. Book by Alan Klement "When Coffee and Kale Compete" http://www.whencoffeeandkalecompete.com/
• 38:00 - Seeds of a movement called Demand Thinking - progress is the process of making change in a positive direction, and we hire and fire products to do that job. Clayton Christensen "The Innovators Dilemma" (https://www.wired.com/insights/2014/12/understanding-the-innovators-dilemma/). Design on Tap uses Heap Analytics, looks retroactively at the "digital exhaust" on existing state of product. Ryan Singer, Head of Product Strategy at Basecamp (https://www.feltpresence.com/)
• 43:00 - Buyer Insights, new service and research framework at Design on Tap to let design help companies create deeper meaning for customers along buyer journey. Why? Providing customers what they want before they even know they need it.
• 49:00 - 2 products, seeking to solve the exact same need with two very different solutions. Functional, emotional, and social components to the product manifestations. Modern customers are thinking, "I'll know a good product when I see it."
• 54:00 - Success story with Indy Chamber of Commerce, example of how to define outcomes but not sure how to get there, but a process to figure it out. Transforming website from something to just keep up-to-date to something that adds value. Shaping customer goals with the agency: SMART goals, learn or earn goals, and customer behavior focused current behavior and influence different. Came up with the goals AFTER the contract was signed
• 1:02:00- Closing remarks