I used to think designing for the people who use our products was in conflict with focusing on money, numbers, or business metrics. But when I started working for product growth teams, I saw how responding to customer needs could actually drive revenue, and how working fast doesn't have to mean sloppy design work.
Good writing has a lot of qualitative benefits for the people who use our products. Let's find ways to
Improving the quality of how we communicate to people who use our products can lead to less frustration, higher adoption, and more sales.
And this dynamic between user experience and business needs goes both ways.
By prioritizing work based on the high impact, we can learn faster about what resonates with people. And
I use "product writing" as a broad term to include elements of UX writing and content design.
While a UX writer or content designer is often within a UX design team, I see a product writer as fitting more directly into a product team, either independently or as an extension of a content design team.
I've put these principles to the test with enterprise systems, onboarding, customer acquisition webpages,
and more.
I’ve also been the sole UX writer, I’ve helped build a team, and I’ve joined large content teams.
Some UX practitioners (designers, writers, and researchers) are wary of product growth due to the fast pace, focus on numbers, and design tradeoffs. But I find working with data to be rewarding. and useful for showing the value of design thinking.
Even when our main goal is moving business metrics, there are plenty of opportunities to improve the quality of the experience along the way.
In fact, growth experiments can be a great vehicle for showing the value of the user experience, and it can even help build a case for investing in more ambitious design visions by testing bigger concepts on a small scale.
I like to start small and meet a team where they are with their existing experiments. This way I can show impact quickly, learn how the team works, and get a hands-on understanding of the product.
Little by little I build trust and become more proactive. This could mean identifying new opportunities, writing experiment plans, driving my own content tests, or acting as bridge between other teams and departments.
I love working on dedicated growth teams, but product writing with a focus on growth can benefit teams of any size and any focus.
I like to start small and meet a team where they are with their existing experiments. This way I can show impact quickly, learn how the team works, and get a hands-on understanding of the product.
Little by little I build trust and become more proactive. This could mean identifying new opportunities, writing experiment plans, driving my own content tests, or acting as bridge between other teams and departments.
I love working on dedicated growth teams, but product writing with a focus on growth can benefit teams of any size and any focus.
