Duolingo’s onboarding showcases excellent product sense by letting users start learning immediately without signing up, addressing their desire to quickly see the product’s value.
If you’re a product manager or aspire to be one, you’ve probably heard the term “product sense.” It’s a buzzword at every PM conference and a staple in workplace conversations. But what exactly is product sense?
What is Product Sense?
Product sense is a critical skill for product managers who aim to create impactful, user-centric products. It involves a deep understanding of user needs, market dynamics, and making informed decisions that align with the company’s vision. Essentially, it’s about thinking like a product manager. This article explores how to develop product sense beyond the typical frameworks you find online, using a case study of Duolingo’s onboarding feature.
Understanding Product Sense
Product sense is the intuitive ability to grasp what makes a product valuable and engaging for users. At its core, product sense involves comprehending what constitutes a high-quality product for your customers through empathy, and possessing well-founded, innovative ideas about successful solutions through creativity. This means proactively identifying significant customer problems that align with company objectives and devising an effective strategy to tackle those issues. Therefore, there are two pillars to product sense: empathy and creativity.
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User empathy is at the heart of product sense. To cultivate it, engage with users regularly through surveys, interviews, and usability testing. This helps you understand their needs and pain points. For instance, when developing a new feature for a fitness app, you might conduct surveys to identify the most common challenges users face in maintaining a workout routine. Creating detailed user personas can also provide valuable insights into different segments of your user base, allowing you to tailor features and experiences to meet specific needs. Additionally, using your own product regularly gives you firsthand experience from the user’s perspective, revealing insights and improvements that might not be apparent otherwise. Imagine a travel app where frequent use uncovers a cumbersome booking process that needs simplification.
Staying Creative by Observing Market Trends
Staying informed about market trends is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge. Regularly review competitor products to understand their strengths and weaknesses. This can provide ideas for differentiation and highlight potential market gaps. For example, if a competitor’s app lacks social sharing features, integrating this could set your product apart. Reading industry reports and attending relevant conferences keep you updated on market trends and emerging technologies. Networking with other product managers and industry experts allows you to share insights and learn from their experiences, broadening your understanding of the market landscape. Consider attending events like ProductTank or industry-specific summits where experts share the latest developments and strategies.
Applying Product Sense: Duolingo Onboarding Case Study
Let’s look at Duolingo from a PM lens now. Duolingo is a free app for language learning which helps users practice vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and listening skills using spaced repetition.
Duolingo’s onboarding process offers a great example of product sense in action. The company minimises friction by allowing users to start learning immediately without requiring sign-up, showing a deep understanding of users’ desire to quickly experience the product’s value.
The use of gamification and spaced repetition in Duolingo’s design reflects a keen awareness of effective learning strategies and user engagement techniques. By deferring sign-up until users are invested in learning, Duolingo aligns with its goal of maximising user retention and engagement.
The inclusion of progress bars and engaging animations demonstrates a data-informed approach to enhancing user experience and reducing drop-off rates during onboarding.
Let’s think about what we could improve here. Duolingo might be losing a segment of its users by not mandating the sign-up process. The app has no information about the users who randomly log in to the app, try a few lessons, get distracted for some reason, and forget that they even used the app in the first place. A mandatory onboarding sign up would have given them the option to reach out to the users and remind them to use the app. Duolingo tries to nudge the user to sign up but does not mandate it until they want to save their progress.
Now, I encourage you to examine every product you use through the perspective of a product manager. Give it a try and see what insights you uncover.
Conclusion
Building product sense is an ongoing process that involves deep user empathy and staying informed about market trends. By following these steps, product managers can develop a strong product sense and create products that resonate deeply with users, driving long-term engagement and success.
Summary Tips for Product Managers
Empathising with users by understanding and addressing their needs is crucial. Staying informed about industry trends and competitor strategies helps maintain a competitive edge. By cultivating these skills and practices, product managers can build strong product sense and deliver exceptional products that meet user needs and drive business success.
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