Dr. Javier Bargas-Avila, UX Director at Google, reveals his top tip for product teams looking to become truly user-centric
Being user-focused has become non-negotiable for businesses looking to succeed in today’s crowded and highly competitive marketplace. Users now have access to more products and services than ever before and businesses are facing the harsh reality that if they want to stand out, they need to create personalized experiences that cater to the unique needs of their customers and are easy and delightful to use.
While many product teams will claim to be user-focused, they often fall into the trap of prioritizing what they think their users need rather than truly understanding what their users want. How can we reframe this mindset? What steps can we take to shift from being “gut-feeling-based” to being fully user-centric?
Companies can only go so far by staying complacent when it comes to actively listening to their users. If product teams continue to build offerings based on untested assumptions, they run the risk of wasting a lot of time, money, and the loyalty of their customers.
While there are several approaches to strengthening connections with users, one that I’ve found particularly effective is measuring Critical User Journeys (CUJs). At its very core, a CUJ is the combination of a goal and the journey of tasks users take to achieve that goal. When measured together, product teams can obtain a comprehensive and holistic view of their users' experience. But, before embarking on the journey to measuring CUJs, it is important to first establish the overarching framework by understanding a user's main goals and tasks with said product.
What is a goal?
To understand CUJ’s, it all begins by pinpointing users' main goals. Starting with the “why” rather than the “how” behind a customers’ use of a product can help teams to understand the deeper motivations of their users. This approach also allows teams to connect with the more human side of the experience—what users truly need, rather than what we think they need.
What is a task?
Once the goals are clearly understood and defined, product teams can then shift their focus to identifying the actions users must take to achieve those goals. These actions, or tasks, are the specific steps that guide users toward successfully completing the goal.
Once the CUJ framework is established, it is important to begin measuring the overall journey to assess its effectiveness and gain a deeper understanding of users. By establishing consistent and long-term measurement of goal happiness and task healthiness, teams can begin to identify where more support or change is required in a user's overall journey with the product. When customer feedback and data is collected and prioritized consistently, it becomes far easier for product teams to make a real impact across their entire organization.
Here are a few examples on how CUJs can be used during product development to help teams maintain a clear focus on users:
Include CUJs in Product Requirements Documents (PRDs):
When creating a PRD, it's essential to map out the CUJs that your product aims to support. By explicitly listing CUJs in the PRD, you ensure that the entire team understands how the new features will impact the journeys. This clarity helps align design, engineering, and product management on the primary goals of development.
Prioritization:
Use CUJs to define what features and efforts to work on CUJs are a powerful tool for prioritizing development work. When faced with competing feature requests or limited resources, teams can use CUJs to determine which features are most important. Features that directly contribute to improving journeys that have subpar health metrics might need to be prioritized to improve product quality.
Measure CUJ health in experiments to understand launch readiness:
Before launching a new version of a product or feature ensure to measure and compare CUJ health metrics of both the old and the new version. This evaluation helps to identify gaps or areas for improvement before the full launch and ensures you are releasing products that lead to positive experiences.
Use CUJs to Structure Major User Feedback Sources:
CUJs provide a useful framework for organizing user feedback from various sources, such as user studies, surveys, and feedback channels. Teams can then focus on user feedback that relate to CUJs with lower health metrics to quickly identify issues or opportunities for enhancement.
To ensure optimal impact of the CUJ framework, it is crucial for efforts to become a shared responsibility as it cannot rest on the shoulders of a single function within an organization. Successful implementation requires executive buy-in and collaboration across all teams. Everyone must be prepared to embrace change, anticipate iteration, and work together to create true user-centricity.
At the end of the day, product teams cannot afford to remain disconnected from their users’ needs. A “user-adjacent” strategy is not sustainable—users are the heart and soul of any business, and we must prioritize them accordingly.
