Combining User Research with Testing to Build a Successful Product

Building a Booking Funnel

After joining a company, I was assigned to build a funnel that would obtain customers digitally rather than through traditional offline channels. The challenge with building a booking funnel was that the direct customers were not familiar with digital media; think senior citizens and elderly people. However, these individuals had children or families that could help them use the services.

The product itself enabled senior citizens to find caregivers that matched their needs. During the discovery phase, many of our users mentioned how important a personal connection with their caregiver was to them. Based on that insight and other competitor information, our company knew that we needed to integrate profiles for each caregiver. We wanted the users to be booking people rather than a service.

Working Through The Discovery Process

Testing our Product:

We built and designed a prototype of our idea: incorporating profiles for each of our caregivers. However, when we began testing it, we encountered some friction. Rather than feeling that personal connection with caregivers, our users were apprehensive to book services with them based on their profiles. Users started to question:

• Was the caregiver too young?
• Where was the caregiver from?
• Did they speak the user’s native language?
• Does the caregiver have enough experience?
  

We quickly realized that having profiles on our service might not be conducive to those in need but rather act as a distraction. On the other hand, profiles may have been convincing to some users when they found that personal connection. The duality between distracting and convincing profiles stayed with our team for almost the entire product’s lifecycle.

Decision Making:

Based on the user research, including entire team discussions, we decided to pivot. It was difficult, as I felt personally a bit attached to the product in its previous form, but nevertheless, I was happy we pivoted.

Our product changed models where users reserved services based on their specifications. These were anything from gender, age, and responsibilities. After moving to this model, we gained initial traction and eventually success.

What to Consider During Discovery

• It’s essential to be flexible throughout discovery. Even with large amounts of pressure to start developing a product, without nailing the exact product during discovery, the product may not be successful as it could.
• Keep the key focus on the needs of the customers over everything else. Without that, your product may not be targeted to the correct audience.