Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Vicky Weng

There is a difference between products that perform poorly and products that perform well that is difficult to wrap one’s minds around.

What is a good product? What is a great product? What is the difference between good and great? Is there a secret recipe for concocting an exceptional product?

We struggle for answers, but as it turns out, there are five dimensions shared by all great products, and by inwardly reflecting on products that you’ve personally adored, (I will be using Netflix to prove my point) you can obtain a deeper understanding of what makes a truly distinguishable product great.

The Five Dimensions

The underlying foundation to good products are made up of 3 components: functionality, reliability, and ease of use. Once all three of these components are met, a product is likely good.

Great products on the other-hand create habits, inspire emotions, and are indispensable. After meeting all 3 aforementioned components that make a product good, that product must also simultaneously deliver on 5 specific dimensions to become great.

“What makes great products truly stand out from alternatives in the marketplace is that they don’t just deliver on any one of these five dimensions, they deliver on all of them.” Jeff Weiner, CEO at Linkedin

Thus, along with functionality, reliability, and ease of use, truly great products:

1. Emerge from a coherent strategy

Let’s quickly take a look at Blockbuster Video. Internationally known throughout the 1990s, Blockbuster Video, was once an iconic VHS/DVD rental industry. However, because of competition from new on demand video streaming companies like Netflix, Blockbuster met its eventual doom.

The reason for Blockbuster’s demise is fairly simple.

Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, recognized a real, deeply-felt need for video streaming, and consequently, thought up a path to fulfill it:

They knew their customer base disliked physically going out and spending more money for each video unit they watched, and they discovered that customers wanted to stay home to browse high quality videos at their own leisure — at affordable prices.

With this realization, Netflix developed a strategy to deliver movie viewing cheaply and flawlessly:

easy internet streaming
convenient customer service
virtual organization

That meant no more waiting in long lines to check out a few days worth of movies and no more late fees!

Blockbuster lost their entire customer base from their failure to adapt to this emerging technology. Their fear of change and lack of long term strategy caused them to lag behind competitors.

Oppositely, (and needless to say) Netflix was met with tremendous success.

2. Respect their users’ time and effort

The most negative aspect of Blockbuster was the amount of time and effort it took to watch movies.

If you didn’t have a local Blockbuster, you would have to walk or drive to your nearest. If you didn’t have an idea as to what movie you wanted, you would have to search aimlessly around the store. When you’ve finished picking your movies, you would have to wait in line for five other individuals to get checked out by the cashier before you.

Time is money!

And Netflix knew this well:

There are no commericals on Netflix
You can watch Netflix on the go, anywhere, any time you want.
Netflix is available on hundreds of devices — not just on your TV.

The interface is just as time-efficient:

“Popular Movies” save users time from having to self-search items
“Recently Watched / Watch later” sections save time from having to re-search these items in the future.

3. Is easy to learn and is consistent in their use

Netflix has an easily understandable mental model, and it functions as just as expected.

The interface is extremely simple and intuitive to use: You just sign in to your account, scroll around the categories, pick a movie, and that’s it.

My mother has difficulty functioning technology, and even she has no trouble understanding how to use Netflix!

4. Is adaptable

Netflix Rating System

Netflix learns what user’s like, adapts to their tastes, and provides responsive, appropriate feedback.

Through a user rating system and history tracking of previously watched movies, Netflix will make educated movie suggestions that are similar to user’s tastes.

This simple, anticipatory feature takes user appreciation of the product to another level.

5. Is responsibly made

Netflix exceeds expectations. Care given to not only the environmental impact, but just as importantly, to employee working conditions and the impact on users.

“We really allow support agents to be themselves,” Brent Wickens, Netflix’s vice president of global customer support, told The Huffington Post in a recent interview. “They’re not restricted in any way. If somebody wants to talk to somebody in character, we encourage this.”

Netflix has a strong customer base because the company is driven by its cultural commitment to “freedom and responsibility.”

For a service that is based entirely online, good customer service is absolutely critical. After-all, failure to perform will have customers quickly switching over to alternative video streaming providers.

I’ve used Netflix as the product to exemplify each dimension listed above, however, there are great many products out there that are just as influential. Netflix emotionally resonates with me and has undoubtedly changed my life for the better. I can’t imagine my world without it!

I’d love to hear from you!

What product do you think is great?

What about this product do you adore?

References

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-makes-truly-great-product-jeff-weiner
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/31/netflix-customer-service_n_4178662.html

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What Makes a Truly Great Product Great was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What Makes a Truly Great Product Great

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