My Product Design Workflow
My product design workflow is a structured yet flexible process that ensures I deliver user-centric, high-quality products efficiently. Throughout this process, I emphasize the importance of maintaining open communication and alignment with all stakeholders, ensuring that the design not only meets user needs but also aligns with business objectives. Throughout the design workflow, I strive to foster an environment that encourages creativity and innovation while also remaining focused on user needs & driving business outcomes.
01.
User Research
I firmly believe that without a solid understanding of our users, then the products and features we build are just shots in the dark. I want my work to mean something to the person that I'm creating it for so I spend a lot of time getting to know them, uncovering patterns, pain points, and goals.
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I then use this data, both qualitative and quantiative, as the foundation for developing features that align with Business Goals and User Needs. Afterall, if we take care of the User, the business will take care of itself.
02.
Business Goals & Stakeholder Alignment
This is the part of Product Management that I find to be the most complex as stakeholders are often responsible for competing business goals. In addition, sometimes the goals of the business are not well defined or murky so it can be difficult to align on the best path forward.
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My philosophy here is "Always come back to the User" and when I'm discussing with internal stakeholders, that's how I center the conversations. I also believe in the philosophy of picking the best path we can based on the facts that we have and then iterate quickly. Those two principles have helped me immensely when it comes to bringing all parties into alignment.
03.
Ideation & Prototyping
This is where Product Management gets to be the most fun, in my opinion! I love thinking through the different ways to approach the problem, what the user's experience would be, and what it could visually look like. All of this gets documented into a requirements document for the development team, including needed context around business objectives and user experiences.
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I'm a big believer in failing fast during this process. If the solution isn't working, don't force it - try another solution. I often encourage developers to focus on the most common use cases, don't worry about edge cases just yet, and perfection is the enemy of the good!
04.
Final Alignment & Development
Once we come to alignment around the solution, my role becomes much more about supporting the development team with additional context, removal of roadblocks, corralling of stakeholders, and doing everything in my power to create space for them.
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Additionally during this time, I will work on any user documentation that may need to be created and get ready for the feature launch!
05.
Launch & Continuous Improvement
This is when all the hard work comes together! I always get nervous around launch day because I'm so excited to get input from the users! During Launch Day, I strive to make sure that all the stakeholders are notified, technical & user documentation is ready, and ensure that the marketing teams & sales teams have what they need to successfully popularize the new feature.
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From here, I start my user research again - digging into the effectiveness of the new feature, the user's experience with it, and the expected interactions. As I notice trends or issues, I take deep techinical notes for the development team so that we can continuously improve the product!