Designing for Behavior Change

Chapter 14. Learning and Refining the Product

Determine What Changes to Implement

At the end of each cycle of product release and measurement, the team will have gathered a lot of data about what users are doing in the product and potential improvements to it. Obstacles to behavior change, the subject of the last chapter, are only one source of those product improvements. Business considerations and engineering considerations must also be reviewed. It’s time to collect the potential changes from these diverse sources and see what can be applied to the next iteration of the product. I think of it as a three-step process:

1. Gather lessons learned and potential improvements to the product.

2. Prioritize the potential improvements based on business considerations and behavioral impact.

3. Integrate potential improvements into the appropriate part of product development process.

Gather

First, look at what you learned in the last two chapters about the current impact of the product and obstacles to behavior change. What did users struggle with? Where was there a significant drop-off among users? Are users returning to the application, or only trying it once or twice? Why does that appear to be happening?

• Start by picking the low-hanging fruit. List the clear problems with a crisp follow-up action; for example, no one knows how to use page Y.

• Then, write down the lessons that are more amorphous; for example, users don’t trust the product to help them to change behavior. Maybe the team has started thinking ...