Arjen Duits

Process

 
 
 

Process

A Guide To Product Design Innovation

 

By Arjen Duits • 2024

 
 

At the heart of digital product design process lies design thinking, a human-centered approach that seeks to understand users' needs, define problems, and generate innovative solutions. The process comprises four key sections aimed at lowering risk for the business by addressing viability, usability, and feasibility. There are two levels. The first level is about the big picture. This is where you take a broader approach in research that vision and strategy is based on, together with leadership and team - which ideally consists of lead manager, designer and engineer. At the second level you take the objectives or challenges that come out of strategy and discover and deliver solutions to those challenges.


The four main steps to create a great product experience:

  1. Immersion

  2. Strategy

  3. Discovery

  4. Delivery

 
 
 

Stage 1: Immersion

 
 
 
 

In this initial phase, you deeply immerse yourself in understanding the problem space through research and user engagement. By gaining insights into user needs, pain points, and market dynamics, you define a clear problem statement that guides your product vision.

  • Research and Immersion
    Before defining your product vision, immerse yourselves in understanding the problem space deeply. Through user interviews, ethnographic studies, and market analysis, you gain insights into user needs, pain points, and market dynamics.

 
 
 

Stage 2: Strategy

 
 
 
 

With a well-defined problem statement, you establish a shared vision for the product, develop a strategic roadmap to achieve it and define clear objectives. This section ensures alignment and mitigates risks associated with viability, ensuring your product meets market demand. Together with leadership, the team’s manager and lead engineer you workshop:

  • Product Vision
    With a deep understanding of the problem space, you define a compelling product vision that articulates the solution and the value you seek to deliver to your users. A product vision is usually 3-10 years out.

  • Strategy
    Strategy is about how to get to that vision. A great product strategy consists of a sharp problem diagnosis and focuses on a combination of areas that all work to the strengths of the business and that work in sync to best solve the problem. Each of those areas of focus have their risks and challenges. It’s these challenges that are turned into objectives and given to discovery and delivery teams.

  • Objectives & Roadmap
    Crafting a roadmap aligns your efforts towards common objectives and milestones, ensuring that every decision contributes to achieving the vision. Clear, measurable objectives guide your progress and enable you to evaluate the effectiveness of your initiatives, ensuring alignment with your overarching aim.

  • Team Topology
    A cross-functional team, comprising designers, managers, and engineers, operates as a unified force, fostering seamless collaboration and accelerating product discovery and delivery.

 
 
 

Stage 3: Discovery

 
 
 
 

The discovery phase focuses on validating assumptions, defining insights and opportunities, and iteratively refining solutions to the challenges you face through prototyping and testing. By immersing yourself in the problem space and incorporating user feedback, you reduce the business risk of building a product that lacks usability or fails to address real user needs.

  • Defining Insights and Opportunities
    Distilling insights from your research, you identify untapped opportunities.

  • Prototyping and Testing
    Rapid prototyping and user testing allow you to validate assumptions, uncover pain points, and refine your solutions iteratively, ensuring they meet user needs and expectations.

 
 
 

Stage 4: Delivery

 
 
 
 

In this final section, you translate insights from the discovery phase into actionable design briefs, deliver high-fidelity designs that embody your vision, and establish a comprehensive design system. By maintaining consistency and coherence across all touch points, you ensure the feasibility of your product and reduce implementation challenges.

  • High Fidelity Design
    Leveraging advanced design tools and techniques, you develop polished, high-fidelity designs that embody your brand identity and vision, iterating based on stakeholder collaboration.

  • Design System
    A comprehensive design system encapsulates your brand identity, visual language, and interaction patterns, and motion - ensuring consistency and scalability across all touch points and expediting future iterations.

 

To wrap it up, your digital product design journey is all about collaboration, creativity, and putting users first. From diving deep into problems to refining a vision and rallying the team, every step is infused with energy and optimism. You’re not just working together; you’re forging connections with company leaders, managers, and engineers, making sure everyone's on the same page and moving forward with purpose.

This approach isn't just about minimizing risks; it's about maximizing opportunities. By staying open to learning and growth, you’re not just creating products; you’re shaping experiences that make a difference in people's lives.