UX Strategy summary

So a solid approach to UX begins with your business strategy. But why, exactly?

Your business strategy is your company’s DNA; it guides every decision your company makes. For instance, the famous business theorist and practitioner Michael Porter says that, for a business to be viable, it simply needs to have a competitive advantage over the competition. Without this, it’s impossible to guarantee a business will continue to exist. There are basically two ways to achieve this advantage:

The old world of business was one of trial and error; sometimes ideas worked out and sometimes they went belly up. The only way people learned in this context was through painful failure.

But today there are other options. Now business people can remove the risk from their ideas, while reducing the costs incurred in the event of failure.

Imagine you’ve got an idea for an app that helps engaged couples plan their wedding. With your product, they can select everything, from a location to entertainment to hors d’oeuvres. The idea is great, but who are these soon-to-be-married couples?

A great way to answer this essential question is to form provisional personas – tools to help you define your value proposition. More specifically, a provisional persona is a sketch, created by you or your team, of a potential user.

The best athletes review hours and hours of footage of their rivals to better understand the competition’s moves and prepare for a match. Similarly, it’s essential for you to observe your competitors to learn how they solve their problems. After all, understanding how other companies have succeeded or failed will help you build your competitive advantage.

This process is a little bit like peeling an onion; the more layers you peel away, the closer you get to the core of what you want. And as you peel, you may realize that your ideas aren’t completely original.

Everybody has heard the old adage “less is more.” Well, it should come as no surprise that it applies to the development of stellar digital products as well. After all, to truly succeed, a product should focus on the experiences that are absolutely essential for users.

To define these, you can think about which aspects of your product differentiate it from the competition. In other words, where does your competitive advantage lie? For instance, in the case of Twitter, the key experience of the app is the ability to send a 140-character message. But also keep in mind that your product may have multiple advantages.