In this episode of SmartSessions, we go behind the curtain with SmartSearch experts Sameena Ibraimo, Business Analyst, and Faye Hackney, Senior UX Designer. They discuss the crucial, continuous process of product discovery, explaining why it goes far beyond just building a new feature. Sameena and Faye reveal how they work together to understand the core "whys" of user behaviour, moving past what clients say to uncover what they actually need.
Tune in to learn about their four-stage approach to product evolution, from initial research to continuous iteration, and discover why this collaborative, user-centric process is essential for building products that truly solve problems and foster client trust.
Oliver Telfor: Hi. Welcome to SmartSessions, a podcast by SmartSearch, where we talk all things AML, RegTech and everything that fits into that world. Today we're gonna be talking about something a bit different about our discovery process and what that sort of looks like in our product base. Join me today, two of our product experts here. So I'm gonna pass it over and then we'll get into the show.
Faye Hackney: Yeah. So, hi, I'm Faye Hackney. I'm senior user experience designer here at SmartSearch. It's my job to make sure our users can get to point A to point B as quickly and easily as possible.
Sameena Ibraimo: Hi, uh, my name's Sameena Ibraimo. I'm a business analyst here at SmartSearch. I guess what I could say about a business analyst is I'm the translator between the business and the development teams, making sure all the requirements are met.
Oliver Telfor: Perfect. So in terms of discovery here at SmartSearch, it obviously goes beyond just products. So what, what does discovery look like here and how do your sort of roles play into that?
Sameena Ibraimo: As the business analyst, my role in discovery is to kind of figure out from the client and user's perspective, what are they doing and how are they doing it to unearth what their pain points are, what their challenges are, just so we can kind of figure out what the requirements are and what the new solutions could, could be like. So it's a bit like, we don't want to go into a restaurant and have the waiter tell you what you're going to eat. Right. You want, they want, you want 'em to ask you what do you want to eat? Yeah. So that's kind of what we're doing. We're trying to figure out what in the house so that we can figure out the whys.
Faye Hackney: Perfect. Yeah. Then my job from a UX perspective is I am taking on more of the observational point of view, so I really need to understand the why of why are users doing what they're doing. So that helps to inform any pain points, any friction or frustrations that they have within that journey. But I'm also very much looking at what users are doing as opposed to what they're saying. 'Cause that always tells a story and it's honest. Right. So looking to see where they're clicking on the page. Yeah. Are they going to the button that they need to instantly or are they having to look around the page in, in different areas to find that button? Um, so very much asking questions as to why you're doing what you're doing. Is there a reason why you're doing that or is that clear to you? Um, so yeah, very much looking at the why and understanding the pain points and getting into the mindset of who our users are and, and what they do on a day-to-day basis and, and their sort of behaviors on our platform.
Oliver Telfor: Perfect. Okay. So that's, I mean, that's a good overview of what, what discovery is and why we need it. But in terms of going from that customer base and why it matters to them more than just from a, from a flow perspective, what, what is done in that discovery phase that sort of tells us, as you said, why they're clicking where they're clicking, or as, as you've rightly pointed out, I don't want, want my way to tell me anything, I want to make that decision myself. How does, how does that discovery phase work?
Sameena Ibraimo: So, I'll give you an example. We've been doing some discoveries at the moment with our clients. So the way we're doing it is a sort of two-pronged approach where we've got both of us on the call, we're having the clients walk us through the journey. So kind of sharing the screen, actually doing the walking through the end-to-end journey. And then we are asking them questions there and kind of deep diving deeper. And then, why did you do that? Um, what's working well here? What's not working well here? Um, you know, what would you like to see better? And then kind of getting them to drill down on what their frustrations are. And so then it kind of gives us an insight into how they're using the product. And you know, what, what the challenges are.
Faye Hackney: I think you've covered everything there, to be fair.
Oliver Telfor: That's fine. I mean, in terms of sort of new products, let's, let's focus on new products at the time being compared to sort of existing. Um, how does that look like? Because obviously we're, we're launching something new ourselves. Obviously we've done our own research and we understand why we need it and what it's gonna look like. We'll do trials with our clients, and perspectives to understand actually, is this useful for you? Is it not? Why is it important for them from a client perspective to work with someone who will do that rather than just go, here's your product. Off you go. Why is it, why is it important for them? And I guess from your perspective, why is it enjoyable from your job role, not to just be told, you know, I want this wall blue go and paint it blue. How, how, how can we sort of evolve that and make it more interactive?
Faye Hackney: Yeah. I think involving clients is, is key. They need to feel like they're being heard and their pain points and frustrations are, are being heard by the business and the actions are gonna be taken off the back of that. So if we're not talking to our users, me in particular from a UX point of view, if I'm not speaking to our users, I'm not doing my job properly because it's not my opinion, it's not my designs. It's making sure that I'm designing something that solves a user's need, a pain point. Um, so continuously talking to our clients and getting their feedback, um, you know, getting them involved in that design process. So even, uh, going back to our clients with prototypes or wireframes to sort of validate these are the findings that we took away from the discovery sessions. We've gone away, we've worked together as a product team. These are the prototypes we're gonna put forward. You know, what is your feedback? Is that solving the right problem? So I think making sure that clients are involved during that discovery phase, but also once that product has been launched, it's still important to get customer feedback, um, to help understand have we solved that problem or do we need to continue to iterate upon that design?
Oliver Telfor: Yeah. And I guess with that, is there any ever any crossover in terms of, actually we've gotten a lot of feedback in this area. We've done this for product A, um, but product B, there's a lot of similarity. Do, do we take the learnings from that rather than it just being all in isolation?
Faye Hackney: Yeah, I think when it comes to our platform, there is a lot of shared components. There's a lot of, uh, similar journeys. So I think if we can get findings that even though we talk about one particular product, if we can use those findings elsewhere, that's only going to make the platform better, more consistent and just generally a better user experience for our clients.
Oliver Telfor: Okay. Uh, fine. And then I guess in terms of that business understanding, how, how does that sort of impact your world? How does that sort of constant talking and communication work from a client perspective impact sort of your role here?
Sameena Ibraimo: So, like I say, like discovery isn't done just at the beginning of project. It's done throughout, even when we've launched because you don't, you know, we want to, we wanna make sure that we're always evolving, we're always looking at opportunities, any gaps that we might have missed during the first cycle. So we're doing a lot of incremental delivery, which is a very agile way of working. So this makes sure that we're staying relevant, we are covering any gaps, and we're making sure that we're achieving, um, strategic business goals. So this is why I think it's quite key that, um, we're involved in every step of the way and that we are involving our clients as I, I guess during the development life cycle, getting their feedback as we are going just so that we're always making sure that we're delivering the right thing, we're delivering what they want.
Oliver Telfor: Okay. So, I mean, we, we've talked about evolution, so yeah. We've launched a product. Yep. Well done. Everyone involved here. Success. Fantastic. It doesn't just stop there. No. So what does that next step of, of the launch look like here at SmartSessions? I guess from a client perspective, how should they feel knowing that they've got a team who isn't dedicated just to push a product out and onto the next one? It's actually right. We've, we've got this product out, we've really thought about this. We're going to tweak as we go along, as we would do, and, and then sort of bring you along on a journey. So what does that, what does that phase look like really?
Sameena Ibraimo: So it's like a, we could say it's a four-stage approach. You've got the first one we're looking at observing. So once the product's launched, we're observing how they're using it, observing their day-to-day work around. So, so we can kind of see, you know, again, have we missed any requirements? Is there any gaps? And then it's looking at analyzing these gaps and seeing where we can make improvements. Um, thirdly, we want to do validate these findings with prototypes like wireframes and pilots to kind of, again, get, get that feeler out there before we then do it, do a release. And then finally again, releasing in incremental, incremental releases just so that we are giving them a little bits at a time. So it could be like quick wins, um, fixing bugs as they come, just so that we're making sure that the product is continuously evolving, continuously meeting the client's needs.
Faye Hackney: Yeah. And from my perspective, I sort of turn more into that monitoring aspect. Yeah. So using data that we have, via Gainsight, we can understand where that customer journey is going. So where do they start in the journey? Where do they finish in the journey? Is anybody dropping off in the middle? So if they are, that means that there's something that we need to explore further to understand why they're dropping off. Um, and also sort of looking at things such as time on task. We can compare what the time on task was before and compare that to after. So again, we can understand if what has been designed and launched, has that solved the problem. Or actually there's other things that we've now found that we need to go away and iterate upon, um, and keep improving. 'Cause products are never finished. There's always things that you can do to improve. So using Gainsight to look at data so that we can make data-driven decisions, that's really key. Um, but also using things like intercept surveys, so to get real customer feedback in real time, um, we can have something sort of display on the screen and ask a question to our clients to get feedback that, again, we can use that to inform decisions in future as well. So yeah, it, it continues. It doesn't just stop after a product's launch. We always want to make sure, is this something that we've missed? Is there anything we can do better for our clients? And make the design and journey the best it can be.
Oliver Telfor: Perfect. I think the, so the last, last one from me, I guess it is that, how does this then back into SmartSearch? So we have a, you know, we have a full customer success team, we have a full marketing team, sales team. With that sort of feedback loop, how are we involving all those teams? And I guess from an internal perspective, making sure that we're not working in isolation and clients can feel sort of confident that whatever product's working on, we have a customer success team that understands how it's gonna work. We have a marketing team that we can get the messages through properly. And from a prospect perspective, if someone is calling you and selling something to you or you're receiving sales material, you know, it's not just identify, prospect or sell, it's actually not, this product will probably work for your business. And we actually, we've got a product team that's worked really hard to improve it. Is it, can you just talk about why it's important to have that synergy of the teams and not just isolations?
Faye Hackney: Yeah, definitely. I think it's important that any team that is involved in talking to a client is well informed of changes that have been made. We want to make it, you know, easy for if clients have got an issue, a problem, that they've, they're in touch with us, that we can answer that question there and then, and that everybody's well informed. So one of the things that the product team does is, um, create user guides and, and sort of documentation to go along with the launch that is, is just been released. So sales team, customer success, they're all well informed so that if they do have any client questions, we can answer them there. And then we want to build that trust with our, our clients. So we always have that, but we also have product champions that as well that we can always reach out to that are involved all along the process of when we launch in something so that they get their voices heard from a client's perspective, 'cause they're very close to our users, but also that they can spread that information to their teams as well, so that they're all well informed.
Oliver Telfor: Thank you both for that. That was a really good overview of discovery and sort of how we work and how products work here at SmartSearch. And if you wanna know more about our products, our services, or how we can help your business, just go to smartsearch.com. You can talk to one of our experts about our full range of products and see if we can help you with your needs. Until next time, thank you very much.