Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Gess Puglielli, Head of Product Design at MPB, a leading platform for buying and selling used camera equipment. Gess' insights into building customer-centric design processes and leveraging data to drive product decisions offer valuable lessons for design and product leaders across industries. Here's what we discussed:
Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Gess Puglielli, Head of Product Design at MPB, a leading platform for buying and selling used camera equipment. Gess' insights into building customer-centric design processes and leveraging data to drive product decisions offer valuable lessons for design and product leaders across industries. Here's what we discussed:
"I joined MPB three and a half years ago as a senior product designer, and I was the only product designer in the product team at that time (there was also a UX designer covering maternity leave). Over the past three years, I've built the entire product design team. We're now expanding to include a product designer based in our Berlin offices, a visual interaction designer, two UX designers, a content designer, and a UX researcher all based in our Brighton headquarters.
My strong case was for having a UX researcher because you can't really tailor experiences around your users, especially with a unique business model like MPB's, if you don't have a dedicated person that actually speaks to our customers. Myself and my team are heavily involved in driving the whole product discovery process alongside the product managers."
"We have a very defined product discovery process, and we always start from the problem. MPB has a roadmap and focus areas for growth, which gives us direction. However, within that direction, we are outcome-driven, not feature-driven.
We apply continuous discovery, meaning our UX researcher, product managers, and designers are constantly talking to our users in different ways. We have a panel of users who love talking to MPB and giving us feedback. We also reach out to potential customers who have never interacted with us or visited the platform but never transacted.
For qualitative research, our user researcher is constantly conducting interviews. We also do quantitative research and usability research through surveys, diary studies, card sorting, and desirability tests using tools like Useberry. This helps us understand if what we're working on actually solves a problem for our users.
Additionally, we use software to observe feedback and analyze customer support interactions. We use Fullstory to understand user behavior on our platform, which our data analysts have integrated with Tableau dashboards for more accurate analysis and reporting."
"Sure, I'll give you a very specific example of what my team did this year that solved a problem for our customers and for MPB.
When customers sell their camera equipment to us, they need to describe the condition of their item. Through sentiment analysis, we realized that there was a lot of misunderstanding among users related to what contributes to the adjusted quotes. Things like difference in the condition rating, accessories that should have been included but weren’t, etc.
We started investigating by talking to users and running deeper analysis. We realized that we could improve the way we explain our condition ratings and what should be included when sending equipment to us at an early stage in the journey. We also weren't clearly communicating about additional items that could influence the final price.
We implemented a simple first iteration where, when selling to us, we clearly state what we expect to be sent and what additional items might increase the price. This change is showing a significant impact on final conversion rates, and we're seeing negative comments decrease."
"Prioritization is led largely by the product managers, but we provide input based on potential impact in reaching the squads desired outcomes. We assess this against the capacity of the squad (our cross-functional teams), impact on business goals, and how severely it affects users.
We also run A/B tests using a platform called Kameleoon. When we have several assumptions we’d like to test, we'll build solutions in an A/B test fashion to gather more data and insights. This often helps us determine which solution is really hitting the spot at that moment and deserves engineering efforts.
We embrace a test-and-learn framework, so sometimes we have to just go with what we think will have the biggest impact based on all our research and testing. It's rare that we get it wrong because we spend so much time talking to users and understanding the issues."
"We work closely with our data team, which sits under our Chief Revenue Officer. They help us connect the dots between customer feedback and business metrics. We use FullStory and Tableau dashboards to track and report on the impact of our changes.
Every new feature or solution starts with a problem and hypothesis statement, which includes the expected impact related to our business goals. Our data analysts help us quantify and track these impacts.
Recently, our Chief Product Officer became the Chief Product and Customer Officer, bringing customer support and seller experience under the same umbrella as product. This allows for even closer collaboration. We're also building a more comprehensive Voice of the Customer report that goes beyond just product insights to give a fuller picture of the customer experience."
"The key is to be transparent and involve people as early as possible in the process. In our squads, the hypothesis statement isn't written just by the designer or product manager - it's a collaboration between the researcher, designer, product manager, and lead engineer.
We involve engineers from the thinking perspective right from the start, not just to assess feasibility. We say, 'This is the problem, how do we solve it together?' This builds a collaborative culture and ensures everyone is on board and understands the 'why' behind what we're doing.
We've also started involving our translators early in the process, as we operate in multiple languages. This ensures that our designs work across different languages and cultures.
The goal is to create shared understanding and goals across all teams involved in delivering the product. When everyone is involved early and understands the customer problem we're trying to solve, it leads to better solutions and a more cohesive team."
Gessica's insights highlight several key principles for building customer-centric design processes:
1. Invest in dedicated user research: Having a dedicated UX researcher can significantly improve your ability to understand and address customer needs.
2. Implement continuous discovery: Constantly engage with users through various methods to keep a pulse on their needs and pain points.
3. Use a mix of qualitative and quantitative data: Combine in-depth user interviews with behavioral data and A/B testing to get a comprehensive view of user needs and solution effectiveness.
4. Start with the problem, not the feature: Always begin by clearly defining the customer problem you're trying to solve.
5. Collaborate across functions: Involve engineers, data analysts, and even translators early in the design process to create better, more holistic solutions.
6. Tie design decisions to business metrics: Work closely with data teams to understand how design changes impact key business metrics.
7. Embrace a test-and-learn culture: Be willing to try solutions based on research, but always measure the impact and be ready to iterate.
By applying these principles, companies can create a more responsive, customer-centric approach to product design and development. As Gessica put it, "We don't do anything at MPB unless we listen to our customers." It's about creating a culture where customer needs drive every decision, leading to better products and business outcomes.