Don't design solely for the user. The best product opportunities lie at the nexus of what users truly need (not what they say they want), the company's established product principles, and its core business objectives.
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Presented with the "LinkedIn for AI" problem, the designer's first step isn't visual design. It's product strategy: clarifying the core objective (e.g., matchmaking, certification), identifying the target user groups (job seekers, employers), and defining what "a good match" even means in this new context.
The need for emotional connection isn't limited to consumer products. All software is used by humans whose expectations are set by the best B2C experiences. Even enterprise products must honor user emotions to succeed, a concept termed 'Business to Human'.
Don't just collect feedback from all users equally. Identify and listen closely to the few "visionary users" who intuitively grasp what's next. Their detailed feedback can serve as a powerful validation and even a blueprint for your long-term product strategy.
Building delightful products isn't guesswork. A four-step process involves: 1) identifying functional and emotional user motivators, 2) turning them into opportunities, 3) ideating solutions and classifying them, and 4) validating them against a checklist for things like inclusivity and business impact.
Users aren't product designers; they can only identify problems and create workarounds with the tools they have. Their feature requests represent these workarounds, not the optimal solution. A researcher's job is to uncover the deeper, underlying problem.
True differentiation comes from "deep delight," where emotional needs are addressed within the core functional solution. This is distinct from "surface delight" like animations or confetti, which are nice but fail to build the strong emotional connections that drive loyalty.
Robbie Stein's product-building framework focuses on three pillars: 1) Go deep on user motivation (Jobs To Be Done). 2) Use data to dissect problems with rigor. 3) Prioritize clear, intuitive design over novel but confusing interfaces. Humility is the foundation for all three.
Delight goes beyond surface-level features. It's about creating products that solve practical problems while also addressing users' emotional states, like reducing stress or creating joy. This is achieved by removing friction, anticipating needs, and exceeding expectations.
To create transformational enterprise solutions, focus on the core problems of the key buyers, not just the feature requests of technical users. For healthcare payers, this meant solving strategic issues like care management and risk management, which led to stickier, higher-value products than simply delivering another tool.
