How learning about value can start your journey from UX to Product Design
How do you design for a user that doesn’t use your product?
“What if the person who uses the product isn’t buying it?” That question introduced me to Business-to-Business (B2B) UX and started my journey from UX to Product Design.
Understanding this question can be a great introduction to product-market fit and business strategy, which Product Designers need to know.
To explain why, let’s discuss the difference between B2B and B2C design.
B2B vs B2C design
A lot of what you learn in design school is focused on B2C Design.
Your target user, whether new or existing, tends to contribute to your revenue directly. They’ll impulse buy a $10 lunch or a $15 T-shirt without much communication.
Businesses that might sign $250,000 annual contracts don’t work like that. Here’s what often happens:
Someone is browsing the internet for a solution to their problem.
They stumble upon your site and see that you might offer a solution
They try a free trial, play with a demo, and try to get some value out of it
They then escalate to another person (i.e. their boss) by scheduling a demo if they think it’s worth buying.
In other words, the end of this user journey involves bringing in another user, who might not use the product much, to purchase it.
This is often pointed out as the difference between user and buyer personas, and understanding how to design for this new user group is essential to collaborating effectively with businesses.
Why? Because it’s about defining the value of the product.
Value, or how UX fits into a business context
Value is an essential word for understanding buyers and Product Design. While you can never 100% understand what motivates users to buy a product, value is a good predictor often tied directly to UX.
By definition, value is the tangible benefit a user experiences when they successfully achieve goals using your product or feature.
From the user's perspective:
Value = Problem Solved + Positive Experience
Suppose a user downloads a trial product to monitor their hospital network and immediately sees an amazing data visualization with hundreds of devices hooked up (saving them a lot of headaches). In that case, they will perceive it as having value.
But value isn’t just a user-centric measurement. It also has real-life impacts on the business.
From the Business Perspective:
Value = Retention + Engagement + Revenue Growth
For example, if our users see the value in using our product, then they might try to take actions that cause positive business outcomes, like:
Pitch buying this product to their boss
Try to set up a meeting with your sales team
Become an advocate for your product
etc.
This may result in outcomes your business cares about, like getting a paying customer.
If you’re confused about the difference between UX and value, it’s often highlighted in three words: “So they can.”
We want to improve our broken search experience for users (UX) so they can find the product they need easily (Value)
We need to improve the tricky onboarding process for users (UX) so they can start using our product knowing the essentials of how it works (value)
Defining value, in this way, allows us to take the next step: measuring them through specific metrics.
Time to value, or Aha! moments
Believe it or not, you can measure value with specific metrics that businesses care about. That’s because we can identify specific actions or steps in the workflow that we equate with the users ‘getting value.’
For example, imagine we establish ‘setting up your first device’ as an action with perceived value. Users set up their first device and see a visual indicator that it’s been discovered, allowing them to see how useful it can be.
As a result, we want to measure the time it takes to ‘set up your first device,’ often called “Time To Value” or “Time to Core Event.”
It’s also often a Design KPI we might want to track.
Many Product teams will have a list of “Value” or “Aha!” moments, which are specific moments that ask one specific question: “Why would a user return to your product?”
With these moments, the general rule of thumb is the quicker, the better.
If the user sees something valuable within 30 seconds of using your product, they’re much more likely to stick around, schedule a demo, use your product, or engage in other positive user behaviors.
In other words, to target the users who buy the products, we need to understand (and streamline) how long it takes to accomplish specific tasks (or actions) that users find valuable.
Once we do this, we can create better collaboration around business needs.
Pay attention to the people who pay the bills
Our goal, as designers, isn’t just to improve the UI (or the UX).
Instead, we should create designs that have meaningful impact and value. To do that (and keep drawing a salary), we need to consider the people who pay the bills.
Our primary users may be IT Engineers, busy 20-something professionals, or other user groups who use your product daily. But they can’t use your application if their boss doesn’t buy them the software.
Our concern shouldn’t be how to sell to others or market your product. It should be about how quickly users can accomplish tasks they perceive as valuable.
You’ll take your first step from pure UX towards Product Design when you understand that.
March and April’s Data Informed Design cohorts are now live! March is specifically designed for professionals in East Asian timezones.
Kai Wong is a Senior Product Designer and Data and Design newsletter writer. He teaches a course, Data-Informed Design, on how to become a more effective communicator through the power of using Data.