What do you do if your UX brand is not resonating with customers?

When a UX brand doesn't resonate with customers, the first critical step is to gather feedback. Engaging with your users through structured surveys, interactive usability testing sessions, and informal conversations can reveal invaluable insights. This direct engagement helps uncover what users genuinely think and feel about your product, guiding you to pinpoint specific areas needing improvement. It's about understanding their needs and expectations to tailor your UX strategy more effectively.

- I'll conduct user research to understand their needs and preferences. - I'll analyze the feedback and identify areas where my brand is falling short. - I'll adjust my branding strategy, messaging, and design elements to better align with target audience's expectations.

Traditional brainstorming sessions for product futures are often brief (a few hours or a day) and lead to superficial ideas. Here are two alternative approaches: Parallel design investigations: A separate team explores future possibilities (form factors, expressions, technologies) without deadlines. This fosters creativity and allows for both short- and long-term thinking simultaneously. (*Coined by Robert Brunner, a former Director of Industrial Design at Apple) Extended Time for Future-Focused Exploration: Grant the existing design team significant time (a month or more) to conduct research and build prototypes to explore the product's future. Learnings from this research will guide the product roadmap with a longer-term vision.

If my UX brand is not resonating with customers, I would take the following steps to address the situation: Conduct User Research: I would conduct in-depth user research to understand the reasons why the UX brand is not resonating with customers. This could involve surveys, interviews, usability testing, and analyzing customer feedback to identify pain points and areas for improvement. Clarify Brand Identity: I would review and clarify the brand identity, including the mission, values, messaging, and visual elements of the UX brand. It's essential to ensure that the brand resonates with the target audience and communicates a clear and compelling message.

If your UX brand isn't connecting with customers, it's time for a deep dive. Start by understanding your target audience better through research and feedback. Identify what they value and what resonates with them. Then, refine your brand messaging and visuals to align with their preferences and needs. Focus on creating a consistent and compelling brand experience across all touchpoints. Engage with your audience through storytelling and interactive experiences to build emotional connections. Iterate and adapt based on ongoing feedback to make your brand stay relevant and resonant.

Listen to Bridge the Gap: If your UX brand isn't connecting, prioritize user feedback. Conduct surveys, user tests, or interviews to understand their experience. Identify pain points and areas hindering intuitiveness or navigation. This user-centric approach bridges the gap between your brand's UX and customer expectations.

It's crucial to first gather direct feedback through user research and evaluate existing perceptions through social media and reviews. Conducting a competitive analysis can highlight gaps and opportunities for improvement.

Analyzing user interaction data is crucial when your UX isn't hitting the mark. Utilising analytics tools to dissect user behaviours, engagement patterns, and conversion rates provides a clear picture of where users face issues or disengage. This data is instrumental in identifying not just problem areas but also opportunities to enhance the user journey, ensuring your UX adjustments are data-driven and impactful.

Data-Driven UX Fix: Complement user feedback with data analysis. Use analytics tools to pinpoint user drop-off points, underutilized features, and areas of high engagement. These usage patterns reveal UX weaknesses. Focus your redesign efforts on the areas where data and user feedback intersect for maximum impact.

When revamping your UX strategy, don't just focus on what users want today. Consider the following approaches: Lean Thinking (Customer-Driven): Focus on adapting your product to current market needs and user behavior. This is how you create successful products that meet existing demands. Fat Thinking (Product-Driven): Use vision and long-term thinking to anticipate future needs and potentially disrupt the market. This is how you create entirely new categories, change human behavior and drive innovation. By combining these approaches, you can create a UX strategy that is both adaptable and visionary. Pro tip: Read Venkatesh Rao's "Leak before Failure" and Simon Wardley's "Wardley (Value Chain) Mapping

In my experience, revisiting your UX strategy is necessary if the current approach isn’t working. Reflect on whether your UX objectives still align with your overall business goals. Often, the disconnect between what the brand promises and what users experience can lead to dissatisfaction. Aligning your strategy with user expectations and business objectives can rejuvenate your UX, making it more relevant and engaging for your target audience.

Evolve UX with your Brand: A disconnect between UX and brand perception might signal a strategic gap. Re-evaluate if your UX design aligns with your brand's current values and goals. Ensure the user journey, from start to finish, reflects your brand's identity and vision. This strategic refresh will ensure UX resonates with your evolving brand.

Refine the brand identity, messaging, and visual elements to better align with customer expectations. Implement changes gradually, testing them with the target audience through A/B testing or prototypes.

Prototyping is a pivotal next step once issues are identified. Developing low to high-fidelity prototypes allows you to explore new solutions and iterate designs based on user feedback effectively. This approach enables testing different ideas quickly and efficiently, ensuring that the final design is both user-centric and aligned with what has been proven to work during user testing sessions. It's about refining and perfecting the UX before a full-scale launch.

Test & Refine for Success: Use low-fidelity prototypes to quickly test potential solutions based on user feedback and data. This iterative approach lets you explore design tweaks, new workflows, or features efficiently. Refine based on user testing before committing to high-fidelity designs, ensuring your UX resonates with your customers.

Continuous monitoring and adaptation based on feedback and metrics are essential, alongside seeking expert advice if necessary. By iteratively refining the brand experience based on customer insights, the UX brand can gradually build stronger resonance and connection with its audience.

User Testing: Bridge the Gap: Close the loop with user testing. Evaluate how real users interact with your prototypes based on feedback and data. Refine based on their experience. Remember, UX is iterative. Embrace going back to the drawing board until you bridge the gap between your UX and customer expectations, creating a truly resonant experience.

Customers should be engaged, but not just that, they should be engaged as humanely as possible Connect with customers directly through social media, forums, and other channels to foster relationships. Utilize modern survey methods to gain a deeper understanding of their concerns. I can relate to some of the prominent brands such as Ikea, Nike and Lego who engage consumers on social media with a humane and empathic attitude.