Product Experience

Product experience (PX) is less known - much less known than its more popular cousin, user experience, who hogs up all the limelight.  But product experience is as much, if not more important than user experience. 

Picture this. You’re at a SaaS startup, launching a killer feature you’re certain your users will LOVE. You and your team are spending hours on Slack & Zoom, caffeinated and exhausted – your days and nights merging into each other. 

“It will be all worth it” - you tell yourselves. And on the day of the big launch, you’re all amped up, making LinkedIn announcements, liking, reposting, commenting - the whole nine yards. But just then, you discover something.  

Your customers aren’t even using your new feature. And worse yet, they are churning. How is this possible? 

It’s an all too common problem at startups these days. The good news is that you aren’t alone. The bad news is it isn’t exactly ideal to be in this kind of company. 

Here’s where SaaS startups go wrong - They make the product. They even market it. But then they forget the next (and very important) step, which is HOW the product is experienced and perceived by users. They forget that this product experience is where true customers are made. 

To build a product your users can’t stop using and raving about, you need to design a remarkable product experience. And in this article, you’ll know everything there is to know about PX and how to do it just right. 

Let’s dive in.

A killer product experience is what takes your customers from “Yeah, it’s cool” to “OMG, I can’t live without this!”

PX kicks off the second a user signs up and sticks around for the entire ride—right up until they either become your biggest fan or ghost you forever. Every tap, click, frustration, and hallelujah moment inside your product? Yep, that’s PX in action.

It’s all about fine-tuning every stage—signup, onboarding, activation, retention, and (hopefully not) churn—to keep users engaged and coming back for more.

IGI gets this definition spot on:

“It is the awareness of the psychological effects elicited by the interaction with a product, including the degree to which our senses are stimulated, the meanings and values we attach to the product, and the feelings and emotions that are elicited”.

Product teams focused on PX will assess user’s interaction with a product, focus on functionality, interface, and align product performance with user expectations.

So, what goes into crafting an unforgettable PX? Here’s the magic formula:

• Accessibility & Usability - Because if people can’t use it, they won’t.

• Information architecture - AKA, “Can I find what I need, or am I lost in a maze?”

• Functionality - Does it work the way it should, or does it make users rage-quit?

• Interface design - Looks matter. Period.

• Platform & Tech stack - The foundation that holds everything together.

• Reliability & Performance - No one loves a product that crashes more than their Monday morning motivation.

A rock-solid PX doesn’t just make users happy—it turns them into loyal superfans. Better adoption, higher retention, and a brand people trust? That’s the power of getting PX right.

Product experience is like the secret sauce that makes the entire customer journey within a product unforgettable. Imagine it as the grand finale of every interaction, touchpoint, and engagement a customer has with a product, from the initial onboarding process to their eventual farewell. Understanding product experience is crucial for businesses to deliver exceptional customer experiences, drive growth, and stay competitive in today’s digital landscape.

Every step of the customer’s journey, from the moment they first encounter your product to their continued use and eventual departure, contributes to the overall product experience. This holistic view ensures that businesses can create seamless and enjoyable experiences that not only meet customer needs but also exceed their expectations. By focusing on the entire customer journey, companies can identify opportunities for improvement, enhance user satisfaction, and build lasting relationships with their customers. It's like being the life of the party, ensuring everyone leaves with a smile and a story to tell.

At first glance, PX and UX might seem like basically the same thing. That’s what I thought too. But, surprise—we’d be so wrong.

Let’s break it down

Product experience (PX) lives inside the product—it’s the whole journey, start to finish. User experience (UX)? That’s more about how a user interacts with a specific feature or function. UX zooms in on the details, while PX steps back and looks at the bigger picture.

Imagine this - you’re trying to get people to purchase your SaaS. You notice that people don’t click on the “buy now” button - so you decide to make changes. Your UX writer adds microcopy that addresses objections, while your UX designer makes the CTA color stand out to grab the user’s attention. After a month-long experiment and some AB testing, you check your results and voila! You see your click-through rates go up! This is the power of UX.

Now, PX? That’s way bigger. It’s not just about fixing a button—it’s about the entire journey. It starts the second a user signs up and keeps going as long as they stick around. PX means optimizing every major milestone—activation, adoption, retention, expansion, and (hopefully avoiding) churn. It’s a never-ending, always-evolving process. And the kicker?

Now, PX? That’s way bigger. It’s not just about fixing a button—it’s about the entire journey. It starts the second a user signs up and keeps going as long as they stick around. PX means optimizing every major milestone—activation, adoption, retention, expansion, and (hopefully avoiding) churn. It’s a never-ending, always-evolving process. And the kicker?

You can’t have one without the other.

While UX polishes individual moments inside the product, PX goes beyond—shaping the entire customer perception, loyalty, and retention. It’s not just about the interface; it’s about everything—onboarding emails, customer support, pricing clarity, brand messaging—you name it.

A seamless product experience fosters emotional connections, builds trust, reduces churn and turns casual users into die-hard fans, making it a crucial driver of business success.

Let's break it down! These key elements make a product experience unforgettable:

• User Onboarding: Think of it as rolling out the red carpet for new users, making sure they know the ins and outs of your product's features and functionality. It's their first impression, so make it count!

• User Behavior: This is all about the moves users make within your product. Their actions and interactions are like breadcrumbs leading to insights into their needs and quirks.

• Customer Feedback: The golden nuggets of wisdom from users about your product. It's like having a direct line to what needs fixing and what’s already rocking.

Nailing these elements means crafting a product experience that’s not just cohesive and engaging but also drives user satisfaction and loyalty. It’s like being the host with the most at a party everyone wants to attend.

First impressions are everything, right? And in the world of product experience, effective user onboarding is the name of the game. It sets the stage for whether users will stick around or bounce. A slick onboarding process should:

• Roll out the welcome mat and showcase the product’s coolest features

• Lay down the law with clear instructions and guidance

• Have a support squad ready to tackle any hiccups users might face

• Encourage users to dive in and uncover the product’s hidden treasures

By making onboarding a breeze, you’re not just helping users find immediate value in the product but also boosting adoption rates and setting the stage for long-term love.

Peeking into user behavior is like being a detective in your own product world. It’s crucial for understanding how users engage and spotting areas that could use a little TLC. By diving into user behavior, product teams can:

• Pinpoint pain points and friction spots that need smoothing out

• Cook up solutions tailored to user needs and preferences

• Give the product’s user interface a makeover that wows

• Guide product development and prioritize the must-have features and updates

By harnessing behavioral data, product teams can make data-driven decisions that elevate the overall user experience, leading to happier, more loyal users.

Customer feedback is the secret sauce of product experience, offering priceless insights into user needs, preferences, and those pesky pain points. By gathering and analyzing customer feedback, product teams can:

• Spot improvement opportunities and prioritize product tweaks

• Whip up solutions that cater to user desires

• Amp up the user experience and boost customer satisfaction

• Steer product development and decide which features get the green light

By actively seeking out and dissecting user feedback, businesses can ensure their product evolves in sync with customer needs, resulting in higher user satisfaction and a sharper competitive edge.

By getting a grip on these key elements of product experience, businesses can deliver top-notch customer experiences, fuel growth.

Alright, so how do you actually pull this off and do it the right way? You know what they say right? First impressions matter. Well, it’s the same thing for your product experience. You have to make sure to earn trust and credibility during a new user’s first session within your product.

Start by defining your product experience KPIs. Is it increasing activation, reducing churn, getting more engagement?

Once you’ve zeroed down on it, you wanna make sure that you aren’t leaving any holes in functionality/usability that can hurt the overall product experience. The goal is to make your product as user-friendly as possible.

Here’s 5 ways you can do this right:

1. Onboard users without friction - Make onboarding fun and simple. Make your product intuitive and easy to navigate. Simplify user interactions and use features like interactive walkthroughs.

2. Personalize the user journey - Segment users the right way, and show personalized information at relevant touchpoints based on how users interact with your product.

3. Educate your users - Make sure to inform & educate your users on how to best use your product. Self-serve support can go a long way.

4. Gather user feedback - Collect user feedback & measure customer satisfaction via in-app surveys. This data will help inform your product experience decisions.

5. Data is your friend - Monitor user behaviour, feedback responses, product usage data & use that data to synthesize and paint a picture of your existing product experience, and what areas need improvement.

6. Promote new feature releases - Promote new feature releases through targeted communications to engage specific users who will benefit from them

Here’s the thing - It’s never been harder than now to get happy loyal customers. 90% of users abandon an app due to poor performance.

Yes, you may get users, but given the wealth of options, your users will be quick to switch to your competitors if you fail to deliver a memorable product experience. So making sure your users have an amazing product experience is critical, a must-have.

If you get this right, it positively impacts all the key touchpoints across your entire user journey. A good product experience:

• Boosts user acquisition, adoption & activation

• Reduces churn & increases retention

• Increases customer LTV & expansion revenue

• Helps you stand out from the competition

Want to optimize your PX? Learn how Chameleon helps teams create seamless in-app experiences.