{"id":9897,"date":"2023-04-17T07:39:14","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T15:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.emergeinteractive.com\/?p=9897"},"modified":"2023-06-26T16:14:03","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T00:14:03","slug":"continuous-improvement-optimizing-digital-product-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.emergeagency.com\/insights\/detail\/continuous-improvement-optimizing-digital-product-value\/","title":{"rendered":"Continuous Improvement: Optimizing Digital Product Value for Customer Success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bringing a digital product to life isn\u2019t enough. It needs to be nurtured and refined on a consistent and ongoing basis. Continuous improvement is about unlocking the full potential of a digital product for it to be realized. When executed adeptly, your product can evolve incrementally to maximize the value delivered to your customers, and as a result, propel your business forward. For some product teams, optimization is the easy part. For others, it may prove to be the most challenging aspect to fulfill. Ongoing product improvement has its own set of skills, tools, challenges, and opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, I\u2019ll unpack continuous improvement; what it is, and what it is not. I\u2019ll also share some of my firsthand knowledge about these integral principles to achieving success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


What is Continuous Improvement?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Continuous improvement is an iterative methodology aimed at optimizing the product experience to promote ongoing improvement, where minor changes add up to significant breakthroughs. Continuous improvement focuses on empowering cross-functional teams to achieve shared goals and move towards realizing a larger strategic vision. This process is frequently referred to as Kaizen (a Japanese word for \u201cchange for the better\u201d) in manufacturing circles. The concept follows five fundamental principles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Create customer value: <\/strong>Know your customer, their needs, wants, and desires. Make a commitment to meet those requirements.
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  2. Empower teams: <\/strong>Align your teams around a shared purpose and set of goals. Provide everyone with the system and necessary tools to reach those goals.  Encourage everyone to take ownership of their work, and give them the authority and resources to identify and implement improvements in their own work processes.
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  3. Target zero waste: <\/strong>Focus on reducing waste in all areas, from the organizational, team, and individual contributor levels. Standardize processes to ensure consistency and reliability. Automate where possible, remove the mundane and unleash people\u2019s potential.
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  4. Follow the action<\/strong>:  Value is created where things actually happen – start there! Every outcome starts somewhere. Focus on the earliest moments (behavioral and functional)  that are necessary to enable the intended outcome. This requires a proactive stance, rather than a reactive one.
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  5. Be transparent<\/strong>: Focus on visible and tangible improvements. Use real data to drive decision-making and measure impact. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    These principles help create a culture of continuous improvement with the goal to maximize customer success, increase product quality, and deliver enhanced business outcomes through an ongoing iterative process of improvement. It\u2019s a proven method of identifying opportunities, facilitating experimentation, catalyzing product refinement, effectuating incremental innovation, and achieving a fortified market fit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


    Product Discovery vs. Continuous Improvement <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    To help further understand continuous improvement it\u2019s helpful to highlight where there is often confusion. Marty Cagan in his Silicon Valley Product Group article Product Discovery vs. Product Optimization<\/a> sums this up beautifully. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cProduct Discovery, it\u2019s intended for identifying significant new functionality.  This is common both when we\u2019re starting a new product, but also when we\u2019re considering significant changes to an existing product, such as a usability redesign, or enhancing the product to meet the needs of a new class of user.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But often the work we do is not about discovering new products or capabilities, but rather our task is to optimize the user experience and\/or business results of an existing product.  This Product Optimization uses different tools and techniques than Product Discovery, and the scope is generally narrower, but don\u2019t let that fool you as the results can be impressive.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It is important to recognize that product discovery facilitates the process of understanding your audience’s problems and exploring the best way to solve them to address market demand. Product optimization focuses on refining and improving on the value of that product. Continuous improvement encompasses the interactive process foundationally in product optimization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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    Building a Product-Led Growth Organization<\/strong> and the Role of Continuous Improvement<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Continuous improvement is also important to recognize, along with its invaluable role in Product-Led Growth (PLG). Self-service capabilities have empowered individuals within organizations to explore and adopt new tools for their own benefit and that of their teams. This represents the ultimate democratization of software purchasing power, granting end users and teams the authority to govern their technology stacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What sets this paradigm shift apart from previous ones is its impact on both consumer demand and market supply. The movement towards delivering business-to-business (B2B) Software as a Service (SaaS) products with consumer-grade user experiences, often referred to as consumerization, is being propelled by tech-savvy users. This requires the delivery of value to occur at every step in user acquisition, expansion, conversion, and retention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Continuous improvement is at the heart of Product-Led Growth as you iteratively look to improve not just the value of the product, but also how it is reinforced and amplified. This approach helps foster alignment throughout the entire organization, from engineering to sales and marketing, as they recognize the product as the primary catalyst for sustainable and scalable business growth. Continuous improvement in this case takes on heightened importance, becoming a cornerstone of the business and enabling the delivery of value through self-service, which customers now expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


    Three Product Optimization Areas to Focus On That Continuously Drive Results<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    At Emerge, we have found that there are three areas that consistently deliver results as our product teams work to improve our clients\u2019 products and support their business goals. Here are the three types of loops we encounter the most when collaborating on digital products with our clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


    Feedback loops<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

    A customer feedback loop<\/a> (or a voice of the customer program) is a continuous process in which you actively seek feedback from your customers, analyze the feedback, and use the insights gained to improve the experience. The goal of feedback loops is to gain ongoing valuable insights into your customers’ perceptions, needs, preferences, and pain points. This allows you to make data-driven decisions to align priorities and resources, with objectives and key results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Example: <\/strong>Your product isn’t performing to customer expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Challenge:<\/strong> You receive complaints across multiple support channels regarding a product usability issue or blocker to utilizing a core feature that was not detected during production or pre-release quality assurance testing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Feedback loop:<\/strong> Acknowledge the customer’s pain, thank the customer for their feedback, and notify them of what actions are being taken to resolve the issue. Take action and follow up with a solution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Possible solutions might include:<\/strong>
    <\/strong> <\/strong>\u2022 Offer a discount or refund for their trouble.
    \u2022 Creating a customer self-service solution to address specific issues and use cases.
    \u2022 Invite the customer to help solve the issue and enhance the product offering.
    \u2022 Notifying the product team of the issue and creating solutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It\u2019s important to note that there are negative and positive feedback loops. Where negative feedback loops provide insight and opportunities for service recovery, a positive feedback loop is focused on strengthening the customer experience and value you deliver. Each type of loop facilitates the process of gathering feedback (insight), analyzing and prioritizing, and assessing and taking action. Ultimately, you are positioned for the follow-up and follow-through to close the loop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


    Value loops<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

    As a concept of product design to deliver memorable and useful products, a value loop describes the cycle of how and in which ways your product creates, delivers, and amplifies value both psychologically and functionally. The goal of a value loop is to maximize the impact that you deliver to customers, creating a sustainable competitive advantage, and driving long-term growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Example: <\/strong>Your product delivers more value based on the number of people that use it to collaborate together, ultimately increasing work efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Opportunity:<\/strong> You know the value of your product is amplified for every additional team member that participates. It drives habitual behavior and triggers increased retention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Value loop: <\/strong>Team members’ motivation <\/strong>to collaborate, <\/strong>the ability<\/strong> to easily participate and collaborate, the prompt<\/strong> to take action, and the reinforcement<\/strong> of benefits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A few possible value drivers might include:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n