Category Design thinking
Product strategy that’s customer-centric
One of the principles of design thinking is that you need to get employees from different departments, who serve various functions, sitting in a room together and working on solving problems. The natural instinct of employees is to look at a problem from the point of view of their job. So a graphic designer looks […]
The Product Line Manager role at New Balance
Claire Wood from New Balance explains in 3 minutes what is her role as a Product Line Manager. Patrick Sirois psirois@triode.ca http://www.triode.ca At Triode, we specialize in developing new products and services for complex industries like medical devices and transportation. We work with you closely to help define product strategy, with an emphasis on reducing the risks […]
Using analogous situations to inspire the design thinking process
One of the principles of design thinking is that innovators need to get into their customers’ heads to understand their wants and needs, pain points and customer experience. One way to do that is to compare your customers’ journey with an analogous situation you have experienced yourself. If your customer experience involves waiting in line […]
What to do after a Voice of Customer?
Over the last few weeks we have talked a lot about market analysis and Voice of Customers (VoC) in this blog. But if you want to get a good return on investment from your VoC, you must take action. How do you go about doing this? This post provides some tips about the next few […]
Market Research: How to ask your customers questions
A big part of market research is asking customers direct questions. Surveys and questionnaires are an excellent tool for finding out what your customers want and need and getting their feedback on your product. Unfortunately, most companies ask their customers the wrong type of question, so they miss out on lots of critical information. In […]
Design thinking is not a replacement for product strategy
Design thinking opens up new avenues for innovation that your company had not thought of before. Instead of overthinking, over-analyzing and focusing on minimizing risks, design thinking allows you to stop deliberating and start acting. On the other hand, design thinking can sometimes lead to under-thinking. Just because something is possible, does not make it […]
How to conduct usability testing for medical devices
When testing medical devices (or any new products) for usability, it’s important to test both the device and the manual/instructions that go along with it. Usability testing is meant to pinpoint sources of confusion, information that is missing or out of order, instructions that are open to interpretation and information that prompts unexpected behavior. Usability […]
Find flaws in your design through user shadowing
How do your customers interact with your product? What problems do they encounter in its use? The best way to find the answers to these questions is by “shadowing” them as they use it. This means following them around, filming, photographing or taking notes on how they use the product. While it’s true that you […]
How design thinking saved Airbnb from failure
When Airbnb was just a small startup, its founders participated in Y Combinator’s program for startups to improve their position and refine their pitch to investors. They sat with design thinker Paul Graham and tried to figure out why bookings were so low for the properties available for rent on the site. Joe Gebbia, co-founder […]
How to get into customers’ heads
The most important factor in the success of a new product or service is how the customers feel about it. Development teams need to have a clear view of what is important to customers in their industry and in general so they can create a product which meshes with these expectations. Customer interviews and shadowing […]
Product Strategy 101 