Building products that grow on people
Focus on developing a product patina instead of redesigning products.
I live in a country with two worlds. Everything is new and shiny in one world — new restaurants, malls, cafes, condominiums, shops. The moment something starts to age, its redone into its brand new self. But that’s not how things work in the other world — If you visit the old neighbourhood of Singapore, you’ll see lanes of colorful, old shophouses with classic Peranakan architecture. You will find an old cafe down the line with an equally old wooden table showing a green and blue patina. A young couple that secretly scribbled their names under that table 10 years back will still find it there. Can’t say the same about a third-wave coffee place in the new world. It can’t beat the charm of the old cafe. Not because it’s new. It’s because it will never grow old with you. In 6 months, they will redo the interiors. In one year, they will shut the place down for another brand new shop. The new world doesn’t let anything grow on you. I wonder if we are making the same mistake in the digital world.
We are missing out the opportunity of letting products grow on people because we keep redesigning them.
How can we build products that stay relevant and still grow a patina that develops over time? What will be the different layers of that patina?
Layer 1 — Power pull 👋
An iconic scene from an old Bollywood flick plays like this — A train is leaving from a London railway station and a girl is running hard to catch it. It’s her last chance to join her friends for a girls trip to Europe. A stranger on the train spreads out his hand offering to pull her in. As the train is speeding up, she has a choice to make. Grab that hand or miss the train. If she overthinks, she will definitely miss the train.
She grabs his hand and in a dramatic slow motion, the handsome young man pulls her onboard. This pull was the premise that started an exciting journey for the two and changed their lives.
Getting onboard a new product journey is full of apprehensions. “I want to get healthier but I don’t know where to begin”. “I want to get richer but I don’t know where to start.” We are unsure and afraid at some level. We overthink. We tend to postpone it so much that we miss the train.
What we need is a power pull that can beat the forces holding us back.
Runkeeper, a running app offers a power pull with a Start button that starts the run right away. The app doesn’t make it mandatory to first enter distance, pace, time etc. It’s crucial to jump in first and worry about the stats later.
It matters who is the product trying to pull. They must be the high-expectation customers, people who are looking for a solution to the problem that your product is solving. Imagine the train guy trying to pull someone randomly from the station. Even if you manage to rope in random people to use your product, they won’t stick around for long. That’s what happens with products that have a lot of early adopters but fail to scale.
Layer 2 — Connection ❤️
A power pull ropes in the right people. What follows next is building a connection between the product and the customer. Making this connection takes time and intent. Spotify’s earlier recommendations to me were mostly local music. The app soon discovered that it was of no interest to me and stopped.
Just like in a relationship, the initial times are for learning each other. It’s okay to make mistakes. The threshold for forgiveness is more. It’s the time to work on making a connection.
The music that Spotify recommends to me now is entirely what my heart desires at any point of time! I see the Deep Focus playlist on top when I start my work day. I see the Evening Chill playlist in the evenings. The Made For You playlist has the soulful music I need. They know it so well what to offer. At this point in our relationship, it’s also important to know what not to do.
Knowing the customer is supposedly a priority in the banking industry. Yet, only few do it well. While applying for a new card/loan/insurance, when a bank demands its customer of 5 years to fill in her personal details, it feels redundant and cold. Customers see this as a failure to make the much needed connection.
Layer 3 — History ⏳
A long-term connection forms a thick layer of history between the product and its customer. It’s probably the most vital layer of a product patina that retains customers.
At a time when almost everyone uses Spotify, a very dear friend of mine is still hooked on to Apple music. I was curious what’s making her stick. She revealed it was her playlists she made over the years. Her history with the product is keeping her from switching to an equally good (if not better) option available in the market for free!
People value the time vested in a product. When facebook or google photos show you a blast from the past, it’s your history with the app. It’s their way of telling you, “Look how far we’ve come together!”
If a 5-year old photo can send us down the memory lane, imagine what traditional banks are capable of. They are sitting on a massive goldmine of personal information. With decades of user data and the latest data analytics and AI technologies, the potential is immense. Yet, somehow there is a disconnect between the history customers have with their bank vs their experience with the bank’s latest mobile-banking app. A new and shiny redesign each year isn’t helping. Every ‘fresh’ look and feel is a new product to troubleshoot. Technology has sadly taken the legacy banks a step backwards when it comes to having a history with customers. Didn’t our grandparents feel more connected to their banks than what we do?
Digital transformation is a means to add to the history, not scrape off the layer for a fresh coat of paint each year.
Layer 4 — Future 🛸
People value a product when it helps them make progress in an area of their life. They stick with a product when they see that the progress is closing the gap between their current self and the ideal future self.
Dreams is the most loved savings app by millennials. A beautifully designed app with clever savings hacks, it helps people save and invest money. It closes the gap between their current financial state and their financial goal.
How can a bank develop the future layer? Banks are capable of designing progress of customers beyond regular banking. They can help them make financial progress all the way from debt freedom to financial security to financial freedom. It is an ambitious goal and there are no shortcuts. All the previous layers need to be in place before the future layer sets in.
Once the patina is set, it will outrun all the new and shiny products.
Products with a patina are strong to the core. They are built with layers of power pull, connection, history, and future. They can gracefully carry the heavy weight of high expectations from their customers.
