Stef Bontinckx
Product Manager

To stay competitive in today’s fast-paced digital environment, it’s crucial to be data-informed and understand what works and what doesn’t work for your product.

User research plays a vital role in providing valuable insights into the needs and preferences of the target audience. Key metrics and indicators can also provide valuable insights into the performance of a business, and it’s important to act quickly when these metrics start to decline or are not at target levels.

This is where the North Star Metric (NSM) framework comes into play. The NSM is a single metric that captures the core value that a business delivers to its customers. It serves as a guiding star for decision-making and helps to align the entire product team towards a common goal.

By focusing on the NSM, businesses can more effectively tailor their strategic roadmap and iterate towards success. The NSM framework ensures that all decisions made by the business are data-informed and based on user research, with the goal of optimizing the NSM over the long term.

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Niels Dewelde
Product Designer

To prevent your digital product from becoming obsolete, it is crucial to engage with your users at every phase of product development. While business objectives and strategic opportunities are important, the ultimate goal is to create a product that is wanted and useful to your audience. Unfortunately, user research is often viewed as a one-time validation method, but it should be integrated throughout the entire product development process, including during prototyping and iteration. Even after your product has launched, it is essential to stay current with the ever-changing product environment.

To keep your product relevant, it is recommended that you gather feedback and analyse data to gain insights into how your product is performing. Avoid filling your roadmap with features that you think are important, instead listen to your users and identify opportunities to improve your core product. By taking a user-driven approach, your product will be designed based on what users actually want and need, rather than simply what you think they want. This approach will ensure that your product remains desirable and user-friendly over time.

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Bo Smet
Strategist

Successful products provide a usable and innovative solution to a real user problem that is built on a sustainable business model. Do research to understand what your customers need, shape your product to meet those needs and use product analytics to assess what works and what doesn’t.