Keeping Humans at the Center of the Product Development Process
Product Development

Keeping Humans at the Center of the Product Development Process

The UX field attracts a lot of very intelligent, creative people. You need to have an understanding of design, agile methodologies, persona development, user research methods, and many other skills in

The UX field attracts a lot of very intelligent, creative people. You need to have an understanding of design, agile methodologies, persona development, user research methods, and many other skills in order to do well as a UX professional. On the product development side of things specifically, you need to have a strong grasp of front-end and back-end development. Precision, analysis, organization, and patience are a given in a great product development team.


But there’s more to the product development process–and UX at large–than being technically flawless. At the core of everything we do as researchers, designers, and developers is (or should be) a desire to make life better for people. There’s an inherent empathy there that cares enough to fix present problems and improve outcomes.

It can be challenging to keep the human element at the front and center throughout the entire product development process, but it’s important: in fact, it’s the cornerstone of creating products that truly resonate with users and lead to long-term success. 

Staying present to the human need at every step of the product development process 

In stakeholder interviews:

The first step in humanizing the product development process starts with stakeholder interviews. This initial stage sets the foundation for understanding not just what stakeholders want, but also why they want it. When conducting these interviews, UX teams need to go beyond the surface-level requirements and explore the deeper motivations and challenges that stakeholders are facing. Asking open-ended questions and encouraging honest dialogue is a powerful way to uncover insights that might not be immediately apparent.

For example, a stakeholder might come into a meeting requesting a feature for appointment reminders in a healthcare app. But a deeper discussion into the why behind that request might reveal a broader need for improvements in communication and accessibility across the entire patient platform. Taking the time and making the effort to stay curious can lead to the development of a more comprehensive solution that addresses the deeper needs of the greatest number of users. 

During design and prototyping: 

Once stakeholder insights are gathered, the focus shifts to design and prototyping. Designers should create personas and user journey maps based on genuine user needs as reflected in gathered data. 

Prototyping should involve iterative testing with actual users, not stand-ins. Actual users provide authentic feedback that reflects real-world use cases, behaviors, and challenges. Stand-ins, such as internal team members or simulated user personas, might not fully grasp the nuances of the user experience or could bring biases that impact their ability to accurately represent the target audience.

If you test a mobile banking app with internal employees who are familiar with banking terminology and processes, you’re probably going to get a much different response than if you were to test it with a more representative sample of users, including those with limited digital literacy. As tempting as it is to save the time and money that’s required for testing with actual users by keeping things internal, it fails to keep the process truly human-centered. Involving real users in the prototyping process keeps the feedback grounded in actual needs and identifies issues that might not be obvious to those who are too close to the project.

During testing:

After design and prototyping comes the testing phase. Keeping the human element front and center during testing involves continued engagement with actual users and creating scenarios that mimic real-life use as closely as possible. This means testing in diverse environments and conditions that users might encounter. An outdoor fitness app should be tested in various weather conditions, on different terrains, with users across the fitness spectrum. Gathering feedback through surveys, interviews, and observation during these real-world tests ensures that the product is being evaluated in a context that reflects true user experiences. This approach helps in identifying any remaining usability issues and ensures that the product is robust, reliable, and genuinely user-friendly.

What humanizing the product development process doesn't mean

Humanizing the product development process does not mean compromising on technical excellence or ignoring business objectives. It's a balance between empathy and practicality. For example, being too focused on individual user feedback might lead to scope creep, where the product becomes overly complex and difficult to maintain. Another common mistake is neglecting the broader context in which the product operates, such as market trends and competitive analysis.

Yes, keep the human experience in mind at all times, but be ruthlessly pragmatic about supporting the product’s long-term viability and success, too. Fortunately these two concerns aren’t incongruent with each other—they just require a level of strategy and restraint in order to coexist harmoniously.

How to encourage a more human-centered approach in your own teams

Whether you’re a team leader or not, you have the power to shift the way things unfold during the product development process. Start by asking yourself about the why beneath your own decision to go into the UX field. Extend curiosity towards the experiences, beliefs, and goals that have put you where you are today.

Most of us will find that a desire to help others was one of the core motivations that led us to UX in the first place. One of the greatest skills we can gain as researchers and developers is learning how to articulate that motivation to the people we work with, and how to invite them to share their motivations (and concerns, and hopes) as well. This can be as simple as loosening up a bit when working with clients and getting to know them as people. Get to know the background story of the people you work with, find out what led them to their current role. Invite them to share the deeper, broader context.

Empathy is caring enough to fix the problem that your users have. It’s also caring enough to know why you, your team members, and your clients want to fix a specific problem in the first place. The best way to humanize product development is to start at the level of the people, not the concepts. Everything follows from there.