After a great deal of teamwork and long working hours, your product is launched. But is it effective? Are the things you thought to be true in theory also true in practice? Was your strategy the right one? In an ideal world, your strategy was tested, but many companies are still not working data-informed. I often hear from teams that they’re hardly able to analyze this, not for lack of trying, but a lack of time, knowledge, and skill. And yet, evaluating your activities is extremely important. Has that feature you spent hours building led to anything? Has the conversion rate increased? Have your buttons and CTAs led to more leads or sales? In this blog post, I will delve into data analysis, what content serves a purpose, and what the number of visitors to your website tells you.
ANALYZE DATA AND KEEP TESTING
Take a moment to look at what you’re doing and what it generates: for some people, this is highly enjoyable, while for others, it’s merely an obligation. However, analyzing data always leads to new, relevant insights.
Fortunately, there are many tools like Hotjar and Google Analytics to help you with this. How many people visit your website? Through which channels? What worked? These insights help you get a handle on possible follow-up actions.
Set-up new user tests immediately after the changes. If your time is limited, using non-guided user tests will at least keep you on top of of your users wants and needs. If you want to evolve your product it is important not only to understand your users in depth but also to keep developing your own ideas.
DON'T BE AFRAID TO ADMIT MISTAKES
Everyone gets it wrong sometimes. It could be that a feature did not trigger the response you expected from user tests. Perhaps your interpretation was wrong, or you did not look at all the data points. Maybe you were biased in some way. There can be a whole array of possible reasons. The important thing is to understand what happened, why you were wrong, and understand how to proceed. What are the solutions?
You are responsible for the team, you lead them. Their trust is an important part of your success. Make sure you maintain their trust by acknowlegding your mistake both to the team and in broader meetings. Let people see that the team has your full support. Present your solution but also explain why this mistake happened and how you will prevent this mistake from being repeated.
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STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT
Now that you have evaluated your strategy, seeing what went well and what needs improvement, it is time to update all the stakeholders. Take them through the full scope of what you learned. Make sure that everyone is on the same page. Create a clear document detailing all the insights you have gained. Be sure to include a summary on top, so stakeholders can decide whether or not they need to delve deeper.
There are very helpful tools to keep stakeholders updated during your process. A personal preference is Miro. I use Miro to create mind maps, in order that all stakeholders can have insight into my research process whenever they need it.
USE YOUR NEW INSIGHTS
You have gained some new insights throughout your evaluation process. Use these insights. Make sure you report on them and that they are incorporated into your new strategy. Make sure that mistakes made have become lessons learned, and that you have adapted your strategy so that mistakes can’t be replicated. Learn, adapt, develop, and optimize. This way you will always be on top of user needs and wants.
