How might we differentiate the product in the market?

The ultimate objective of competitor analysis is to know enough about a competitor to be able to think like that competitor so the firm’s competitive strategy can be formulated to take into account the competitors’ likely actions and responses.”

What features should we prioritize?

We ranked and organized features based on customer value, business goals, the amount of time and cost, and technical viability

Initial testing via user tasks

We created tasks in order to observe and record the actions our target audience take in their context, to achieve specific goals within the app.

I got the opportunity to test one of our early prototypes with a user that corresponds to one of our user personas. She was given three different tasks; one of which was to create a news bundle by adding 2 sources from different categories, read a news from one category, and bookmark to read it later.

One of our scenarios was to reach users on commute, but we were aware of the fact that crowded and noisy environments can make reading difficult. So we wanted to see how quick and easily our test user could perform the “saving an article to read later” task. Tracking the time and steps to reach the objective would also allow us to iterate, and improve the user experience.

Examplary user task#1: Bookmark an article to read later

Subgoals:
1.1. Open the news application on her mobile phone
1.2. Add two sources that she finds interesting
1.3. View the recent news
1.4. Select and view an article from the news source
1.5. Hit the “Bookmark” button
1.6. View a validation message
1.7. Exit the messaging application.

Best way to interview is “not to interview”

We spoke to potential users, searching for clues to deny or confirm our assumptions, and looking for patterns to help us make better decisions

I used some fundamental interviewing rules to guide me through the process of 3 “conversational” interviews in order to test one of our early prototypes

Content categorization

Organized content by parameters like news category, engagement rate,  country, and specific topics. Then measured and tracked what content worked for the product most, analyzing page scrolls, time spent on content, outbound links, and engagement rates, most read news, etc.

Insights

Eliminating guesswork through research

A few of our learnings after conducting competitor analysis, analytics data, and user interviews;

• lack of personalization, a wall of “unselected” news
• difficulty reaching specific content in an easy way
• no time to spend too much time reading news
• usability issues in competitor products

%51

retention rate

2M

monthly users

12M

total reach

240K

monthly news shared

• 1st rule: No priming. When you facilitate user interviews, you must not bias participants in any way. There are probably way more ways that you can influence a user’s perception about your service or product than you think. As the interviewer; you should always select the words & terms you use very carefully, so that the user doesn’t look for those exact terms or wordings without even realizing it. Nngroup has a very concrete test about this; they basically ask people to search for an “iPad keypad” (ehm, priming), and observe that they type “keypad” instead of “keyboard” in the search box although “keyboard” is a way more frequently used term: “Had the website actually used that same term in the name of its products, we may have drawn the wrong conclusion that the product was easy to find.”
• “It’s awesome, right?” Nope. No personal opinion should be shared with the user. People are generally nice, and they can go as far as to hide their true feelings just not to kill your enthusiasm.
• Always set the goal of the interview, and share it with the user in a crystal clear fashion. People are more likely to talk, and let their guard down if they trust the interviewer and the process.
• Make sure that it’s not an IQ test. People tend to talk more when they feel relaxed, and comfy. They shouldn’t feel as they’re answering covert questions to a secret agenda.
• Do not interrupt the users, let them finish their thoughts (Eeasier said than done).
• and many more tips & tricks…

If you’re into the art of communication, and human psychology; it’s so much fun!