Build Digital Products Users Actually Use
Digital products succeed when they solve a real user pain point, deliver measurable business value, and evolve through continuous learning. The following principles help teams stay focused on outcomes rather than output.
Start with the problem, not the solution
Jumping straight to commissioning an app or portal feels natural, yet the Standish Group’s 2023 CHAOS study shows that about half of all software features are rarely—or never—used. That’s an expensive sign that teams solved the wrong problem before writing a single line of code.
Start by talking to the people who feel the pain:
- Who are the primary users? Are they customers, employees, partners—or a mix?
- What’s blocking their goals today? Capture frustrations, delays, and manual work-arounds in their own words.
- How are those needs handled now? Map the spreadsheets, shadow systems, or legacy tools filling the gap.
Verify what you hear through interviews, shadowing, journey mapping, and analytics. When the user problem fits into one crisp sentence, only then sketch screens or workflows. This evidence-first habit keeps scope tight, trims risk, and gives every release a better chance of delivering features people actually use.
Define success in measurable terms
Metrics turn ambition into accountability. A McKinsey analysis of 42 global manufacturers in 2023 found that companies tracking customer-value metrics outperformed peers by 12.9 percent in profit growth. That upside begins long before any code is written.
First, agree on the single outcome that matters most to both the business and the user: revenue, cost to serve, loyalty, or speed. Next, phrase it as a SMART target and pin it to every story board. For example:
- Cut onboarding time from 30 minutes to under 10.
- Raise self-service resolution from 40 percent to 65 percent.
- Grow repeat purchases by 15 percent within 12 months.
With a crisp, shared goal, teams can trade features without trading impact, and stakeholders see progress in numbers, not opinions. According to Monstarlab, whose digital product development approach blends strategy, design, and engineering, defining specific conversion targets for online bookings and redesigning the journey around those metrics helped Kerzner International increase member booking conversions by more than 60 percent. Examples like this show how outcome-based metrics translate abstract digital ambitions into concrete, measurable results.
Make iteration and learning your default
Elite DevOps teams deploy code 973 times more often and recover 6,570 times faster than low performers, according to Google’s 2021 DORA Accelerate report. That edge comes from shipping in small chunks and treating every release as an experiment.
Successful product groups:
- Ship in small, releasable slices. Each increment adds visible value instead of waiting for a risky big-bang launch.
- Prototype early and cheaply. Clickable demos, beta flags, or feature toggles gather real-user feedback before major spend.
- Tune the roadmap with evidence. Usage analytics and cohort interviews replace guesswork, so effort flows to what resonates.
This cycle keeps product managers, designers, engineers, and stakeholders aligned on facts, not opinions, and boosts the odds that each release lands features users want and will pay for.
Balance technical foundations with visible value
CIOs report that technical debt now equals 20–40 percent of the total technology estate, siphoning funds that could finance new features (McKinsey, 2024). Yet shipping only back-end improvements often leaves stakeholders asking, “What did we get for that sprint?”
Plan every slice of work to showcase both sides of the coin:
- Foundation work that future-proofs the product: clean API contracts, automated security tests, scalable data models.
- A user-facing benefit everyone can see: a faster load time, a new self-service step, or clearer analytics.
Pairing the two keeps momentum visible while chipping away at debt, so you avoid months of hidden plumbing followed by an all-or-nothing launch.
Design for the whole lifecycle
Launch day marks the halfway point, not the end. McKinsey estimates that 60 percent of a typical IT budget goes to operating and maintaining existing products, much of it on legacy systems that slow innovation and raise security risk (McKinsey, 2024). Planning the full journey up front keeps that spend under control.
Think in three horizons:
- Run. Define who owns uptime, incident response, and user support, and instrument the product so you can spot issues before customers do.
- Grow. Bake in A/B testing and analytics hooks from day one, so teams can test enhancements weekly instead of guessing.
- Retire. Set a sunset trigger (usage, cost to serve, or strategic shift) and outline a migration path long before technical debt turns the app into a “zombie” service.
Treating the product as a living system keeps it aligned with customer needs and prevents a portfolio weighed down by costly relics.
Conclusion
By grounding development in real user problems, setting measurable goals, iterating quickly, balancing technical and visible value, and planning for the entire lifecycle, teams improve the odds that every release delivers features people truly use—while keeping the product adaptable for the future.
