Client (Anonymized)
The Two-Year Mistake
The Situation
An engineering software company had spent two years building a new product version. When they finally showed it to customers, the reaction was confusion. No user testing during development. A backlog full of tickets with no clear way to prioritize.
The Problem
The product team was building in isolation. Customer support and sales received constant user feedback but it was treated as troubleshooting, never reaching the product team. Two years of development had produced something users didn't understand. The company was stuck.
The Approach
User interviews with existing customers, recorded and edited into highlight videos
Two-day workshop starting each day with user interview highlights
Post-it exercises: note, vote, cluster to map current ways of working
Sailboat retrospective to surface pain points and blind spots
Design thinking training for the product team
The Magic Moment
One user came to the interview with a PowerPoint presentation. UI mockups. A user journey map. They said: 'If you built this button and selection flow, it would save us a week of work per month.' They had been thinking about this for years. Nobody had been listening.
If you built this, it would save us a week per month.
The Outcome
The team restarted development of the new version with a user-informed approach. They changed their operative methods entirely based on the two-day experience.
Complete pivot in product direction based on real user needs
Team learned methods they continue to use independently
Feedback loops established between users and product team
Waterfall process replaced with iterative, user-centric development
What Transferred
The methods transferred permanently. The team now runs their own user research and has direct channels to customers. They don't build in isolation anymore.