In my several years of supporting and actively creating user centric mindsets within companies I was able to gather a few standard steps how to get there. Of course each company is different and often the obstacles are hidden in some zombie like processes or in some troublesome employees. But what does it take to build a user-centric mindset within a company? In this blog post, we'll explore some measures that can help companies put their users first.
Start with the company culture Thats the most important one I figured. Its not the tools, methods or processes you need to establish first. Building a user-centric mindset starts with the company culture. The company's values, beliefs, and practices should align with putting the user's needs first. Leaders should communicate a clear vision of the company's commitment to user-centricity, and everyone in the organization should understand and embrace this vision. It's essential to hire people who share this user-centric mindset and to train employees on the importance of user needs.
Get to know your users To build a user-centric mindset, you need to understand your users' needs and preferences. You can gather this information through surveys, focus groups, or direct user feedback. It's essential to listen to your users and incorporate their feedback into your products and services. User research should be an ongoing process, and you should regularly collect feedback to stay up-to-date with changing user needs. This sounds easy but it often takes months to set up the possibilities to do so regularly. What I experiences was that research teams are set up and the process to get in touch with users takes too long, your product teams don't want to use this offer because it is too slow! You want to have multiple tools in place so you can get a variety of insights at a fast pace so it feels effortless to get the insights. Just imagine the employees who should get touch with your users as users of the process themselves. If it feels bulky - they will be hesitant to use it.
Create a compelling story about your users For example your can create user personas to better understand your users and tailor your products and services to their needs. User personas are fictional characters that represent your target audience. By creating these personas, you can identify the user's goals, behaviors, and pain points. This information can help the teams to design products and services that meet the user's needs and will bring focus in the right direction. Just to note: Personas are just one tool to do so. I experiences multiple other tools which will fulfil the same purpose!
Use data to inform decision-making Data is a powerful tool for building a user-centric mindset. By collecting and analyzing user data, you can gain insights into how your users interact with your products and services. You can use this data to make informed decisions about product development, marketing, and customer service. Data can also help you identify trends and patterns that you might not have noticed otherwise. This is an insight point a lot of companies underestimate. I experienced multiple times poor tracking infrastructure, slow insight conclusion processes (up to a month for one dashboard). It will help your teams to understand what is really happening in the products, it enables them to come up with hypotheses and build real understanding of the product and their users.
Empower your employees The most important point: Empowering your employees is essential for building a user-centric mindset. Your employees are on the front lines of customer interactions, and they need to have the tools and autonomy to address customer needs. Empowering your employees can involve providing them with training, tools, and resources to deliver exceptional customer service. It can also mean giving them the authority to make decisions that benefit the customer.
Bring in user centric methods like design thinking Design Thinking is made for starting with users and from their perspective. It will foster collaboration of your teams and the need for having a good understanding of the user.
Communicate, communicate, communicate The biggest problem I often see is: The company has the tools in place, has made an extensive study to segment the users and to gather the most important needs and pains but still fails to bring this knowledge into the products and into all departments. You need to talk about it! Not only in management rounds, you need to talk about it as often as you can, wherever you can. You need success stories to share so teams get inspired and follow the example. In companies knowledge is rarely used only because it is existing, especially if its not trained and employees never experienced the usage of user-centricity. It is really that easy - tell stories, make it tangible why its useful. You might think at some point "I already told everyone its stupid to tell it again". I believe there is no too much. It is enough when everyone is telling these stories!
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