As a founder looking to launch a new product – there are certain design tips you must consciously look out for because they are integral to building a successful product in the long run. Product design is not as simple as it may seem. Everything about product designing is strategic and intentional – primarily to solve the pain points of your customers.
Let’s dive into every tip. These tips will surely guide your design process as you build your product.
1. Know and understand your target audience:
There’s a reason why this is the first tip. knowing and understanding your target audience should be the very first step to take before designing or building any product. It may seem cliche to you right now because you have read and heard about it times without number but it cannot be over-emphasized. If you don’t know and understand your target audience there is really no point in trying to build a product. Many of the successful businesses you see today started from learning about their user’s needs/interests before going ahead to build a product. – This will help you make informed decisions on what product to build and how to go about building the product.
2. Vision documentation:
Don’t give in to the pressure of wanting to build an amazing product that you forget to do the fundamental things like documenting your vision. This is very necessary for any startup as it helps every team member to align with the goals and objectives of the product. Your vision document should be easily understandable for all stakeholders and it should include details of elements like inspirations, competitors, and most importantly the user goals of your product.
3. Define your MVP:
In this case, many founders are usually confused as to what feature their MVP should have or what features they should prioritize and deprioritize as they build their MVP. in most cases when you start designing you discover that the MVP might exceed the predefined specifications which then leads you to design for new opportunities which are outside the scope of what you already budgeted for. However, it is best that you have a product route map that will help guide the design and development process. so you can make informed decisions on what features to add or take away from your MVP.
4. Product road map:
I have seen many founders try to move forward without a product road map. it is the easiest way to cause confusion for yourself and your team in terms of building and designing a product. Ideally, every founder should have proper documentation that shows clearly the short-term and long-term implementations for the product. The road map will help you plan your idea over a longer period of time and will impart you a high-level view of what needs to be designed.
5. Constant design changes:
When it seems like the design is complete and all has been pretty much done – However you suddenly discover that some changes need to be made to the colors or fonts. This might frustrate the design process as the designer will need to make out time to start making adjustments here and there. Modifications are good but, you need to ensure that you make them early enough so adequate time can be set aside for the adjustments. – Better still set up a Quality Assurance system that allows for you to do a routine check and analysis of the design so you can spot errors and areas that need adjustments early enough.
6. Collaboration with your designers:
This is one mistake a lot of founders make. they fail at collaborating with their design team. You should never have the mindset of “They should deliver my design at the appointed due date” it is a terrible way to build any product. especially a new product. Instead, you should be responsible to collaborate with the designers, sharing your thoughts and insights with them, and making the necessary design changes if need be. This will help them design the exact product from your vision.
7. Determine the uniqueness of your product and hold on to it:
Finding inspiration from similar products or services user interfaces & experience is nice. However, banking too much on inspiration won’t get you any tangible result. You must determine what unique features your product must have and be steadfast about them. Features that will make your product stand out from all your competitors.
8. Test with your target audience: Always ensure that you test with your target audience;
This is one aspect founders get lazy about. The moment they feel like the design is good enough they just want to go straight to development without understanding that getting just one or two useful pieces of feedback in that period of testing can save them from building a product that will eventually fail in the market. It is of utmost importance that you test before you begin your development process.
If you have an idea and you really want to see your design idea come to life – Check out our design page and get in touch with us today
