Building software that people want to use is difficult. There is so much more than just elegant code that goes into it. In this post, I’ll be going over some key factors that can help you build a software product that your users will love. All of this is based on my experience so your mileage may vary.
Build Product for the Users
Your product needs to be built for your users. This means you’re putting them in mind throughout the entire process. From the idea of a product all the way to the release into production.
Each feature should be thought of as “do the users want it?” Or do the business wants it only? It’s a balancing act as answering the question of do the users want it is difficult unless they directly tell you. Usually, features that meet somewhere in the middle between user and business wants would give your product the most positive result.
Understand Who Are Your Users
You know your product will have users, but do you know specifically the demographic? Understanding who most of your users are will let you build a more suitable product for them. For example, a product that is aimed towards beginners doesn’t need to have many advanced options available.
For the advanced users, they would want the advanced options. If advanced options are not available, they might not use the product. However, if you add the advanced options it could drive the beginners away.
Address Pain Points
No software can be perfect and for that reason, there is always something that can be improved. Listen to your customer’s feedback and understand where they’re struggling. Perform user testing if possible to really understand how users are interacting with your software and get comments in real-time. Gather as much telemetry data in your software product. With all the gathered information, identify common themes and work on addressing them.
Monitor and Improve
Make sure to add telemetry into your software product that way you know how your users are interacting with the product in production. From the analytics gathered, it gives you insight into where your users are getting stuck. This is another way to identify pain points when you’re not able to get direct feedback from your users. Once the analytics provides you with a good insight then it is time to come up with a solution to address the problems.
Ask For Feedback and Work on It
Getting feedback from your users is one of the best ways to improve your software product. Remember you’re building the software product for your customers. Knowing exactly what your users want can become a guessing game, but if they tell you directly what they want you can skip guessing. By gathering feedback from your users and then building solutions to address the feedback, it will allow you to bring more value quickly to your customers.
At the end of the day, it’s impossible to have your software product pleases everyone. However, you can please the majority of your users if you understand and listen to them. It is much more effective than taking a guess at what your users might want.
I hope this post was helpful to you. If you found this post helpful, share it with others so they can benefit too.
To get in touch, follow me on Twitter, leave a comment, or send me an email at steven@brightdevelopers.com.