A Conference Recap: Tech In Asia Product Development Conference

This is gonna be cheesy storytelling as my first-time attendance in the biggest digital product event. Anyway, a short story of my internship at a digital agency company, brought me committed to being a product guy. So, I frequently attend tech talks, FGD, and any tech forum you name it for fulfilling my curiosity in this field.

So, How was my first attendance in TIA product event? There are plenty of topics to be written. Let say, Product Management, Data & Analytics, UX, Product Design, Product Engineering, Product Marketing, Product Leadership, Infrastructure and Technology in Focus. This recap excludes Infrastructure and Technology in Focus.

The first session I seated in was “Building Product with Massive Fragmented Variables & Facets” by Albert Lucius (Chief Product Officer of OVO). OVO as the largest financial tech company nowadays told about their secret ‘recipe’ behind OVO’s newest launched feature, Pay Later. “There is a possibility when the user’s OVO balance not enough in a certain transaction, it could be an urgent situation, so this to provide a payment alternative method,” Albert said. Pay Later built based on past user pain points.

In the case of OVO feature development, there are some questions, How much are the variables that affect the design & development process of the product? How to determine the variables? How to involve the user in design decisions? What about the metrics for measuring the indicators? He revealed the key to developing the impactful product is having a true north metric. North metric as a media to prioritize and build strategic, the technology they decide to be involved for efficiency purpose and understand the product value for the customer.

The next session went to Sakti Nuzan- a session from GO-JEK. As a product research lead, Sakti explained his experience in the topic “User Research for Product-Market Fit: The Science of Human Behavior”. I was impressed by GOJEK that has an effective market segmentation strategy, and it answered how GOJEK treats everyone only within one app. GOJEK made us realize that The Science of Human Behavior is the mustn’t be underestimated thing but could be ignored by customer based companies.

“However, to say that we provide ‘something for everyone’ is not enough” — Sakti Nuzan, GOJEK

Big picture of user segmentation in GOJEK:

1. GO-FOOD: Housemakers, miserable single, office workers
2. GO-SEND: Business People, merchants, entrepreneurs
3. GO-PULSA: Convenience Seekers, partner drivers, smartphone users
4. GO-RIDE: Commuters, housemakers, business people
5. GO-POINTS: Deal hunters, loyalty collectors

Below is the cycle for measuring capabilities in GOJEK.

The Concept of Measuring Iterative Capabilities

This cycle measures the values of GOJEK’s products are offering and the way they solve the actual market’s demand.

Behind gathering feedbacks, Sakti told us 3 obstacles, why don’t all of the research “arrangements” work:

1. The 100-years debate of qualitative vs quantitative data. Qual data is all about opinions and thoughts, meanwhile, quant data is about usable statistics, and there’s always a moment when hypotheses from qual data don’t match with the number/statistic. It called complex.
2. The dethroning of traditional research by data science. I’ve tried to figure out, what if we use the heuristic evaluation method for measuring mobile app’s UX, what is the proper data processing?
3. ‘MVP’ approach that favors quick experiments.

Sakti also told us that innovative and competitive sense increased while we’re combining empathy and evidence together. Without tight measurements, empathy alone cannot move the business needless and without sensibility, the cold numbers alone can mislead and reinforces data paralysis.

Move to the next stage, product development stage. The session hosted by VP of Product Video, Hadikusuma Wahab. This more told us the guidance for building a product roadmap that everyone can understand. Start from delivery value by solving a specific customer problem, determining product vision, strategic goals, theme mindset, and timeframe. Wait.. theme mindset? It sounds unfamiliar to me. Why use themes? First of all, we have to focus on users. It forces the team to consider why we need to develop certain features. What problems are we looking to solve and its root cause? Then themes remind us to explore any possible solutions without early commitment to a solution hat not be the best idea later on. It is easier to prioritize better solutions based on the problem instead of focused on a lot of features that we think have an impact.

Next stage by Head Digital Products from Apigate, a strategic business unit of the Axiata Group, Sabreen Kaur. The big picture of this stage overall is about the strategies that we have to implement as a Product Manager. She revealed The Product Strategy mapping using Ansoff Matrix that stands for market penetration, product development, market development, and diversification.

Shabreen Kaur, Head Digital Products Apigate

The metrics explain the logical relation among product and market strategies and to avoid the risks, based on new products and existing products. I noted that analytics and metrics as fundamental to measuring product performance. Metrics are the numbers you track and the analytics implies analyses and decision making. Analytics user metrics to help you make decisions about how to making improvements.

“ A metric will tell you that something is happening, while an analysis will tell you why something is happening” — Vince Law

TIA PDC 2019 was impressive. I want to state the content was Insightful, depth and so practical. The one that most related session is “Transforming Corporate UX Team & Process with Growth Mindset” by Arnold Saputra. Arnold explained the condition when He arrived at his last company, he found that inappropriate design process such as:

• Designer working based on PM and C Level order
• There’s no UX Research
• Straight to high fidelity
• No standardization in UX
• No behavioral data (He means, just sales)

Oh Lord, these points seem like my condition at that time. I felt him, really. These are the critical points that I truly want to state to all my colleagues. I realized that I am not alone suffering in this case.

I was so happy, finally, He explained the strategies to change the culture. I listened carefully, off course. He mentioned: First of all, Research and Validate. I believe that the researcher is one of the crucial roles in the UX Team. Through research, we make the problem points clear, the most important, we have to document all findings. Then he compared “before-after” of strategic implementation. After the company changes the culture, he happily announced that:

• Designer working based data & research
• There’s a team of UX research
• Validate before designing
• The brand guideline, design system, and tokens
• There is such of behavioral data.

Well, this session remained me to change work culture needs a proper approach, slowly but progressive. Arnold has proved it :)