In product development, we focus a lot on solving customer problems. In my experience, the most successful products are helping customers achieve their aspirations, not merely solving their problems. I will talk through examples of customer aspirations and how to identify them, including how my team at Chatbooks created an incredibly successful subscription product that allowed customers to feel like better parents just by subscribing.

Product teams often view a customer’s interaction with their offering as limited within a set of product features. But to a customer, it really extends to the end-to-end experience with your entire brand — from acquisition ads, targeted emails and sponsored content, to the website, the software or physical product experience, and continued via support interactions. Consider how much better the customer journey is with a consistent experience across every interaction. But how do you make it consistent when all you can control is the UX in your product area? This presentation will provide a framework on how to build and maintain strong relationships with your counterparts across the organization, as well as real examples from my experience at Chatbooks and Ancestry.