Behind every smooth digital product lies a strong design process. Take Spotify, for example, a global leader in music streaming with over 626 million users. Spotify’s success can be attributed to its detailed product design approach, which is based on user-centered design, data-driven decisions, and a commitment to continuous improvement.
On the other hand, a weak product design process can significantly harm user experience, functionality, and overall product success. Failed product launches can cost companies millions, or even billions, in direct losses, stock drops, and negative public sentiment.
Product designers play a key role in creating digital products that are both engaging and successful, meeting business needs while focusing on user preferences. They carry out user research, develop ideas, test, and repeat the process to create lively and enjoyable digital experiences tailored to specific customer groups.
As a senior product design company with extensive experience in B2B, B2C, and SaaS solutions, we at AMIT have worked through various product design processes. During this time, we identified six key activities that consistently bring success to our clients and users. In this article, we’ll share our framework for implementing these activities and offer some best practices for excellent product design.
6 Steps to Successful Product Design
There are several product design frameworks, such as the four-stage Double Diamond method (discover, define, develop, and deliver) and five-day design sprints, which use design thinking to reduce risks when launching new products, services, or features to the market. Regardless of the approach you choose, your process should include these six essential activities: defining product goals, research and analysis, ideation and content development, prototyping, testing and gathering feedback, and design handoff. Let’s explore each of these steps.
1. Defining Product Goals
Whether you are launching a new product or redesigning an existing one, defining your product goals lays the foundation for the entire design process. Product goals are measurable, time-bound objectives that clarify the product’s purpose and desired outcomes. Without well-defined goals, efforts may be misaligned, unnecessary features may be added, and resources may be poorly allocated. This can lead to failure in meeting real user needs or achieving business objectives, as seen in the case of Google Glass—a flashy wearable tech that ultimately failed to attract users.
When companies start developing digital products, they usually focus on goals like revenue generation, user satisfaction, and scalability. To gather insights and align on the product vision, product teams conduct stakeholder interviews and hold workshops or kickoff meetings. These activities should answer three key questions:
- What do we want to achieve?
- When do we want to achieve it?
- How will we measure success using quantifiable metrics?
The answers to these questions help create clear and actionable goals. Product teams may also use goal-setting frameworks like SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) to create meaningful objectives.
2. Research and Analysis
Thorough research and analysis help designers make informed decisions, ensuring the final product meets user expectations. Without comprehensive research, the product may fail to address user pain points, align with market needs, or stand out from competitors.
Research methods like user surveys, competitive analysis, and market research can be combined with tools like user personas and empathy maps to organize and visualize findings. User personas represent target users based on research data, guiding the design team towards user-centered goals. Empathy maps capture users' feelings, behaviors, and challenges, helping teams better understand their experience.
Before launching the MVP for CoverAI, a web app for job seekers, we conducted thorough research to ensure it met market needs. We first performed market research and competitor analysis, examining their products, pricing strategies, and positioning to find gaps in the market. Market trends revealed that writing cover letters was a major frustration in job applications, so we focused our MVP on simplifying this process. Thanks to this research, we launched our MVP in under two weeks and gained 15,000 customers in three months without spending on customer acquisition.
3. Ideation and Content Development
The ideation phase is crucial as it encourages creativity and exploration of innovative solutions. Successful ideation inspires imagination and experimentation, forming the basis for developing design concepts that resonate with users and align with business goals.
Common techniques for generating ideas include brainstorming sessions, mind maps, and mood boards. I recommend generating as many ideas as possible to explore a wide range of concepts and possibilities. Ideally, your team should consist of members with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to explore a richer set of potential solutions.
Once a range of ideas is generated, select the most viable concepts by prioritizing them based on constraints and potential impact. One useful prioritization method is the MoSCoW technique, which stands for Must-have, Should-have, Could-have, and Won’t-have. When redesigning the Chaka app’s home screen, we used MoSCoW to prioritize features based on customer behavior and needs, helping us quickly determine the most important features.
4. Prototyping
The prototyping stage allows designers to visualize ideas, test product functionality, and gather feedback early in the design process. Skipping this stage can result in products that do not meet user expectations, leading to usability issues and costly revisions later on. This was the case with the 2014 launch of Apple Maps, where geographic errors and missing information led to public complaints and an apology from CEO Tim Cook.
Early in the design process, I often start with simple paper sketches or low-fidelity wireframes to outline the main structure of a webpage or app navigation. These quick sketches help visualize and modify ideas easily. As projects become more complex, using tools like Figma, Sketch, and InVision helps build and showcase high-fidelity prototypes. These detailed prototypes are useful for demonstrating multi-step processes, such as user registration or password reset flows.
5. Testing and Gathering Feedback
User testing is essential throughout the design process, and testing prototypes is especially effective. It allows teams to validate concepts, identify user experience issues, and gather feedback before the product is fully developed. This iterative process helps avoid costly post-launch changes and ensures the product meets user needs and expectations.
Well-organized user testing, involving stakeholders and target users, gathers valuable insights that lead to meaningful improvements. For example, when redesigning a virtual trade expo platform for CoopLag during the COVID-19 pandemic, our testing process led to a 330% revenue increase three weeks after launch.
6. Design Handoff
Design handoff is the final step in the design process. At this stage, final designs, specifications, and assets are given to the development team for implementation. Clear communication of design intent ensures the development team understands how the product should look, feel, and function, leading to accurate implementation and reducing the need for revisions.
In my experience, the best ways to ensure a smooth handoff are documenting important information and creating a design system. By maintaining thorough and accessible documentation and using design systems as a reference, you ensure consistency across the product and provide developers with clear guidance.
Following these six steps ensures that your product meets user needs and thrives in the marketplace. These core activities have consistently helped us achieve positive outcomes for our clients and remain central to our design process today.
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