If You Build It, Will They Come Back? 4 Ways to Keep Users Happy

In the grand theater of product development, where emotions often run as high as the stakes, the elusive concept of ‘quality’ often takes center stage. We’ve all been there – locked in passionate debates about whether our product is truly ready for prime time. Some champion fewer customer complaints, others tout bug-free code, while a few dream of dazzling animations and delightful user experiences.

Amidst this cacophony, let’s reimagine quality as the creation of a functional, reliable experience akin to a well-oiled utility in the physical world. Think of it this way – when you flip a switch, do the lights turn on?

Just like with a utility, I propose that product quality rests upon four pillars, each mostly measurable, and each crucial to delivering an experience that users will love.

Pillar 1: Performance – Speed Thrills

Remember that apartment where the lights took an eternity to flicker on? Even a 5-second delay can trigger impatience. Speed is unexpectedly magical – fast experiences feel tailored and responsive, while slow ones induce disproportionate frustration. And there’s more to it than just user experience. I’ve witnessed customers signing up more, reading more articles, and sending more messages when their experience is lightning fast. In the world of product quality, speed truly thrills.

Pillar 2: Bugs – The Unwelcome Surprises

Imagine your lights randomly going out – during a deep conversation with a friend, or right in the middle of dinner. How frustrating would that be? Tracking bugs and implementing robust testing helps us identify and minimize these unwelcome surprises for our users. It’s about ensuring that when they’re trying to accomplish something, we’re not the ones letting them down.

Pillar 3: Completeness – Leaving No Gaps

Ever walked into a new office only to find the lamps missing? It’s manageable, sure, but far from ideal. Supporting every aspect of what the customer is trying to achieve is a key part of delivering a quality experience. This involves identifying critical end-to-end user flows and ensuring they’re complete, as well as actively listening to customer feedback and research to identify any gaps in our offering.

Pillar 4: UX Consistency – The Comfort of Familiarity

Imagine if every room had a different way to turn on the lights. A switch by the door here, a button on the floor there, a pull cord attached to the ceiling fan somewhere else. It’s doable, but it’s also needlessly complicated, especially for newcomers. Consistency makes it easier for every user to succeed. This might involve investing in design systems and reusable components or simply establishing clear design principles to guide our product development.

While focusing on quality alone doesn’t guarantee success, it does lay a solid foundation for building a product that users will love. By tracking progress on these four components independently, we empower our teams to make meaningful improvements to the user experience, one step at a time.

Every time I’ve prioritized these four pillars, the product has intuitively gotten better. And it’s given the entire team a shared understanding of how we can work together to improve quality in a way that’s deeply felt by our customers.

In the end, it’s not about chasing a single “grand quality metric”, but about making consistent progress on each of these fronts. After all, in the quest for product excellence, every improvement counts.