Creating a product without seeking and relying on the true needs of your users can often be what holds a company back from achieving the level of speed and success that it has the potential for. Instead, earning a proper understanding of how to capture your users’ foundational needs, underlying motivations, and the data to reveal predictable behavior can guide your product toward the critical elements it needs to master your users’ desires, grow usage and daily engagement, and maintain a loyal user base. This talk will cover the critical and success-defining strategies on how to leverage your users’ voice and turn it into a core element of your product development philosophy. Learn how to build the right product by 1) speaking directly to your users in ways that get to the realities about what will drive them to actually use your product features, and 2) ensuring your company - whether a startup or an established corporation - has the proper methods in place to put your users’ desires efficiently and effectively into your product development.

1. Confidential & Proprietary
Confidential & Proprietary
Unlock Your Product’s Full Potential:
Mastering Your Users’ True Needs to Build the Right Product
Jacquelle Amankonah
YouTube / Google
MCE^3 - April 22, 2016

2. Confidential & Proprietary
Goals
1) Showcase the power of sourcing your
product direction from your users
2) Identify how you can integrate this
workflow into your own process

3. Confidential & Proprietary

4. Confidential & Proprietary

5. Confidential & Proprietary
Who
What
Where
When
Why
How

6. Confidential & Proprietary COMMUNITY

7. Confidential & Proprietary

8. Confidential & Proprietary
“Why in the world is X feature broken??
This is the most frustrating thing about
this website, because I can’t even reach
out to my fans to have them see this
video. Please fix it!!!”
Creator Voice Report

9. Confidential & Proprietary

10. Confidential & Proprietary

11. Confidential & Proprietary
WHO
Take a general approach to earn a foundational
understanding, as opposed to usability tests.
Segment users into personas.
Find those with the willingness to provide useful feedback.

12. Confidential & Proprietary
WHAT
Ask about the overarching product.
Users do not understand your organizational hierarchy.
Avoid like/dislike, and focus on
actionability and mobility.
Ask why, then why again, then why one more time. Get to
their underlying motivation.

13. Confidential & Proprietary
DEEP DIVE: Why, Why, Why
“Can you please build/fix X feature?”
Why?
“I want to be able to talk more often with my fans.”
Why?
“I want them to know know I hear them and I’m here for them.”
Why?
“I want to foster a sense of connection in my community.”

14. Confidential & Proprietary
WHERE
Get up. Go out to the users.
Find your product in action.
Achieve a global perspective to uncover unique needs.

15. Confidential & Proprietary
WHEN
Time when you have flexibility in your product.
Either never the right time, or always the right time, for a
large pivot. Create cycles. Set expectations.
Let the features marinate into users’ day-to-day.

16. Confidential & Proprietary
WHY
There is no other source.
Save time. Build perception. Gain clarity.
Reveal the truth.

17. Confidential & Proprietary
HOW
Conclude motivations, questions, needs, and pivots.
Build a specific path for the user voice.
Don’t build a cliff, build a mountain.
Get buy-in on the process. Secure its value and impact.

18. Confidential & Proprietary
Define your product’s
foundational pillars
to stay true to and build against.

19. Confidential & Proprietary
THE REAL WIN