My Process for Identifying UX Issues & Gaps and creating successful products:

1.    Research

  • Conduct market research to identify user needs, preferences, and trends, to see where there could be gaps in the product.

  • Gather feedback from existing users to understand their pain points and needs.

  • Analyze competitors to spot feature gaps and opportunities.

2.    Usability Testing

  • Perform usability testing to identify specific issues with the product's user interface.

  • Collect quantitative and qualitative data on user interactions.

3.    UX Audit

  • Evaluate the product's UX design, looking for inconsistencies or areas of improvement.

  • Identify potential areas where users might struggle or lose interest.

4.    Analytics

  • Examine sales and usage data to pinpoint where users drop off or encounter problems and determine where most support calls are coming from.

  • Identify the key metrics that need improvement, such as conversion rates or user engagement to calculate a product adoption score.

5.    User Personas & Customer Journeys

  • Review and refine user personas to better target the audience.

  • Map out customer journeys to understand how users interact with the product.

6.    User Stories & Requirements:

  • Work closely with product management to develop requirements and user stories based on research findings and data analysis.

  • Prioritize these requirements based on potential impact and feasibility.

7.    Design Concepts

  • Create wireframes, prototypes, or design changes to address identified issues.

8.    Collaborate

  • Work closely with cross-functional teams, including key stakeholders, to align on priorities and strategies.

  • Guide development through the refinement process.

9.    User Testing & Feedback

  • Continuously involve users in the design process through testing and feedback.

  • Make iterative improvements based on user insights.

  • Conduct A/B testing to validate the effectiveness of design changes.

  • Depending on the product, a beta program might make sense.

10. Communication & Guides

  • Ensure that the design changes are communicated effectively across all departments.

  • If there is product training available or a help section for the product, ensure that the training and CX departments are aware of the changes so they can update their tools and documentation.

  • Provide design guidelines and update style guides and components to maintain consistency.

11. Launch & Promotion

  • Strategically plan the re-launch of the product, emphasizing the improvements.

  • Create in-app feature announcement and interactive guides.

  • Collaborate with marketing to create campaigns to communicate the upcoming changes and generate buzz to attract and retain users.

12. Validation

  • Set up analytics and feedback loop (Feedback is key!) to track the impact of design changes.

  • Continuously analyze data to validate design decisions.

  • Prompt a user survey at one week and 30 days post-launch.

  • Conduct post-launch user interviews after 30 days.

13. Continued Success

  • Continually assess the product's performance and user satisfaction.

  • Utilize some sort of easily accessible way for users to provide feedback, like an in-app feedback tab.

  • Continue to gather and document user feedback.

  • Continue to iterate and make improvements as needed to maintain and increase the product’s success.