Executive summary
Stakeholders wanted to improve product A. We thought feature B would do that. It didn’t. My research showed why and led to a $50 million opportunity.
Details are under NDA.
Introduction
Feature B was innovative, but it didn’t meet our users’ needs. The main reason was we didn’t understand our users. I led the first deep-dive interview study to resolve this.
An emergent pattern
The data I collected suggested two kinds of users: Trust Solutions and Consulting Solutions. They had very different needs.
They said:
“Product A is the best.” - Consulting Solutions
“Product A is the worst.” - Trust Solutions
Asking “what if?”
Incidentally, we knew people in Trust. We sold to people in Trust. We were a “Trust product.”
I asked, “what if we’re a product for Consulting Solutions?” Interview data suggested they were more receptive and had bigger deals (an important success metric, for us).
I recommended targeting Consulting Solutions. A month later, we had a $50 million opportunity.
The bag
Product A was used in a $50 million dollar opportunity.
User-quotes were cited in budget requests for 2 approved-projects:
A new onboarding experience to reduce friction
A new sharing experience for greater inclusivity
Next
Read more in my Google Doc, “The more complete picture.”
Watch my video on YouTube, “Advice I would give myself.”
DM me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/philmendez/.