Designing progress of the high-expectation customer
Build products for people who will benefit the most from your product.
Our appetite for progress varies. Sometimes, we are looking for modest progress — I want to learn Italian so I can easily order food in a trattoria. There are times when it’s about becoming better and better till we are the best we can be — I want to be as financially comfortable as possible. I want to run as fast as I can. I want to be a better programmer.
If we design a product for modest expectations, it will work for some. Instead, if we design our product for people who want to make the most progress, it will work for everyone.
Design a product to help the high-expectation customer make most progress.
To know more about the high-expectation customer (HXC), see this article.
Progress is directly proportional to motivation
The high-expectation customers are not always the advanced users of a product. They are always the most motivated ones. It doesn’t matter even if they are just getting started. They are highly motivated to keep getting better till they become the best they can be in that area.
Progress is not exclusive for advanced users of a product. No matter what level the users are at, a product needs to work hard to make them better, eventually the best they can become.
If you are building a running app, the product goal should be to help people become the best runners they can become, whether it’s for improving their pace from a 7:00 min/km to 5:00 min/km (advanced) or simply finish their first 5k (beginner).
A beginner runner can in fact be the HXC if let’s say, she signed up for her first marathon coming up in 6 months. She would initially use the app just to check the distance covered or calories burned. As your product helps her improve her performance, she’d take more benefits out of it, like monitoring her pace, elevation, heart-zone, etc.
As much motivated as the high-expectation customers are, we can’t rely on their motivation level alone. To help them get started, we need to offer them a jump start..
A leap of faith
I am a regular at a trampoline park, thanks to my kids! In addition to trampolines, the park has another jump challenge called Leap of Faith. Climb a fleet of steps to reach a high platform. Walk to the edge of the platform. A giant grab bag is hanging ahead. Take a big leap and catch it.
The safety gear is on and the elastic rope gently brings the child down soon after the jump. Technically, nothing can go wrong but that doesn’t make the challenge any easy. Most kids freeze right at the edge. You can see they want to jump. Friends and parents are cheering below. The instructor is telling them they can do it. Yet they are unable to take the leap. The more they ponder, the worse it becomes. They fail to jump and end up climbing down the steps, unhappy with their experience.
Good jumpers make it a no-brainer act. Just grab the bag ahead.
It’s intimidating to take up a new challenge, a new skill, a new feat that one wants to achieve. The more we think about it, the tougher it looks. Going all the way can feel long and scary, even for the motivated ones.
To encourage them to take a leap of faith in the product, offer a quick jump (no-brainer start) and a grab bag (achievable goal right ahead).
Websites that teach coding like Codecademy have changed the way people learn to code. The Start button gives the user a quick jump for a no-brainer start. Even if you have no idea what a program is, you are already typing what looks like code in a black editor window. The Run button is the achievable grab bag. Before you know it, you ran your first program!
It is so much more likely for a novice to carry on learning this way vs learning through a book.
To keep the momentum going, we need to lead them to a path without any distractions.
The yellow brick road
Digital products and services are constantly seeking our attention and engagement. We spend more time figuring out the best thing to do than spending time doing it. Even after making a choice, there are constant triggers stimulating our fear of missing out.
My banking app repeatedly shows me irrelevant offers. My ride-hailing app pops up a food promotion while I’m trying to book a cab.
Each decision point adds to the cognitive load. As product designers, it is our responsibility to design for less. It is a bigger challenge when the product requires a consistent, longish commitment from the user, like learning an instrument, improving fitness, saving money, etc. How do we still engage less and give more?
We must carve out the most optimal linear path with milestones. At any point, they are aware of where they stand in their action plan and where they are headed.
It’s not about dumbing down the product for them. The HXC is smart but also busy. It’s about removing the cognitive drain and providing them the bang for buck.
Singapore’s Changi airport is the most efficient airport in the world. It has never taken me more than 15 mins to check in! If any queue starts to get any longer than 8–10 people, one of the staff member jumps in and speeds up the process. People love to spend their freed up time in shopping and enjoying the experiences the airport has to offer.
Once you rid the HXC of the cognitive overload, it frees up their time and energy to maximise the benefits of your product/service.
Elevate, a popular brain-training app prompts users for a daily exercise of 10–15 mins. It’s a personalised plan based on your initial preferences and progressing performance levels. Imagine the pain involved if each time you had to check your last performance scores, pick a category (writing, listening, speaking, reading, math), and choose a game out of dozens in each category. The saved energy and time can now go into playing additional games on top of the assigned exercises.
I’m killing it! 👊
The game is on. The HXC gets started on an action plan you designed. Initial progress is a joy ride! If they are learning a new language, mastering 5 news words each day is progress. If they are learning to play the piano, playing 2 new notes each day is progress. For a never-before runner, running 30 mins at a stretch is progress. Things look good.
Personal bests keep rolling in! Imagine feeling like Mario on power-up, cruising through the Mushroom kingdom, invincible.
Then there comes a time when the going gets tough.
I suck.
Challenges become tougher. Nuances creep in. Finer details start to matter. Make a conversation in the new language, play a complex composition, run uphill at a steady pace. They are putting in a lot more effort than before. It starts to hurt.
It hurts most when you make most progress.
Most people drop out at this stage thinking this is the best they could do. To help the HXC keep going at this stage, notify them in advance that the difficulty level is going to increase and it is hard for everyone. Show them how far they have come in their plan. It’s important to communicate that the next level is within their reach.
Elevate notifies you that you need another 50 points to reach the expert level in a skill. Even if you are unable to keep up the running pace you set out for, Runkeeper celebrates your longest run ever!
I’m in the zone!
Once you help them cross the big bump, things look brighter. Challenges are still tough but Mario is back. The HXC keeps making steady progress. They are in this ‘zone’ where everything around seems to connect with what they are learning.
Know the feeling when you learn a new word and start seeing it everywhere? It’s a result of selective attention. When brain learns something new, it starts to pay deeper attention to noticing it in the world around.
Now is the time to expose them to the ‘ultimate’ inspirations. Their brain is wired to make connections that will help feed into their progress. For example, watching Eliud Kipchoge run a race might help runners improve their running form. Sharing the most beautiful locations in the world can inspire them to save for a holiday. Research warns against this kind of exposure before experiencing the effort it takes. Imagine you expose a non-runner to a sight of elite runners cruising uphill. Their expertise makes it look achievable to the non-runner who might think, “It can’t be that hard, I can do it” without realising what it takes.
The expert is born
Others see the HXC making progress and aspire to emulate them. They want to try that new product/service their perceived ‘expert’ recommends. When people are sold to the product before buying it, it’s more likely to be adopted with trust.
“Months after her baby was born, my friend started using this HIIT yoga app. She now looks more fit than ever. She’s not just back in shape, she started Kayaking too! I’m also giving that fitness app a shot!”
In the eyes of the HXC, she is always a work in progress. The journey of I’m killing it, I suck, I’m in the zone doesn’t always stay linear. As long as they keep coming back to the zone, they keep getting better.
It’s not just about high expectations from the product. They have high expectations from themselves. Design their progress. They’ll sell your product.
Thanks for reading! 👏 if you like what you read. I am Prachi, co-founder of Bayzil, a product strategy and design studio based in Singapore. We love to talk and hear about the latest and best in product strategy, design, and content, especially the high-expectation customer! Would love to connect and hear your thoughts.
