Generating customer insight for digital product development: a start-up case study

Abstract

Customer insight is essential for building successful products that address customer needs and generate value for its users. Gathering customer insight is a part of every product and service development model but it is the integration into the development process that will determine the product's success. To generate customer value, product developers should utilize customer insight to design and improve not only products or services themselves but the whole customer experience: That requires a holistic view of their customer's ecosystem and the goals of different stakeholders involved in the value delivery. Companies, regardless of their size and maturity, often fail in either: gathering customer feedback, generating the right insight and/or integrating it into the company development process. Product development methodologies include at least elements of customer discovery and validation phases and highlight the necessity of customer insight for creating products. The importance and actual implementation of those processes in the business environment varies depending on the company, industry, and product. For start-ups who are building their first product for a new market, it is important to follow an iterative product development approach where the product evolves together with the customer. In the early stages company is serving the early adopters and each product iteration must deliver value to this group of enthusiasts who are already aware of the problem and eager to find a solution. It is only after those early adopters use the product, that the company starts to design and develop for the mainstream market where the needs and expectations may vary. In an environment of uncertainty and seemingly endless possibilities, a structured way of generating and integrating customer insight into the development process is important to stay on track with the maximum value delivery. Gathering insight is a first step but to bring value for product developers it must be documented and integrated into the development process. Product managers should maintain a constant loop of continuously generating and validating new hypotheses about users and the product and based on that drive product roadmap and feature prioritization. At each step, product features should be documented against users’ needs and relevant validation data. In this case study, the structured approach to gathering customer data and producing customer insight has been brought to support the start-up in the product development process, preparing for its first commercial product launch. The start-up is building a mobile application that enables employees to train and strengthen their mental skills to enhance their well-being. The solution is offered as part of the employer’s benefits package to make sure employees maintain good work-life balance and satisfaction. The objective of the thesis is to generate customer insight to validate the product concept and provide recommendations for product development based on customer data. The research was based on end-user interviews with the first product pilot participants as well as other potential users of the application. As part of interviews, both existing products as well as future development ideas have been tested with users to generate insight. Customer (employer) perspective was included based on the interviews with HR representatives. Information has been gathered about users, their attitudes towards mental skills development, the work environment, their interaction with the app, and the perceived value of using the product. Generic Product Development Model and Customer Development Model were adapted to integrate research into the digital product development process. Generated insights were used to identify product and user experience gaps and based on those improvement areas were defined and prioritized. The case study provides recommendations for the product development items answering user needs revealed in the research and described on the user journey. The study also provides insight into workplace context that can be utilized for further value proposition refinement and service development. Finally, the study serves as an example of a structured approach to generating customer insight for digital product development and includes further guidance for utilizing the voice of the customer in the company development process.