It’s Not About How Cool the Solution Is, It’s About Solving the Problem
If you were the product manager of ATM, what would you deliver?
Most of us have seen and used an ATM to withdraw cash before. How would you design an ATM, the automated teller machine that can be seen everywhere in the world? Maybe you were just like me. The first thought that came to my mind was the cool UI that is nothing like the current boring ATM and a friendly process that make sure the user won’t forget the bank card. Sounds like a smooth experience, right? UI and process, surely are important, however, should that be the major focus of the ATM?
I was deeply attracted by this question when I was reading an article by LIANG Ning, one of the most noted product people in China. Ms. LIANG raised the question in illustrating her point — why the core strength of a system is the certainty it can provide to satisfy the user. The more I think about the ATM example, the more I found it representative. In the end, the thinking and the methodology are the same despite the product. If the hiring process of product management includes case interviews as in management consulting, designing an ATM should be in it.
Am I building to solve the real problem for the user? Do I fully understand what might it take to solve the problem?
Disclosure: I have no expertise in ATM, banking or hardware design. Here I only discuss the thinking to build something that is problem-solving for the users.
The interesting thing about ATM
ATM is a simple “product”. It has no typical customer. They can be male or female, age 18 or 80. When you look at the user profile, who they are or what they like doesn’t have much impact on why they need and how they use the ATM.
ATM is a complicated “product”. What cannot be seen is as important as what can be seen. It’s important that as a product manager, we consider the details such as UI and process. What does the UI look like? Should the user get the bank card first or should the user get the cash first? But it’s also very, if not more important to figure out how to make the ATM better fulfill the needs of the user, which is, the certainty to withdraw cash. I will address this part later more.
Before we talk about the consideration behind the ATM design, let’s first figure out one important question.
As a builder, do you think of the ATM as a product or as a service?
You probably have heard this “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!”. To translate the case into requirements
Job to be done
The user wants holes on the wall
Product solution
Build a driller and sell to the user
Service solution
Provide drilling service. It can be lending the drill to the user or drilling the holes as the user requests.
See the difference? The service solution goes beyond the physical product to fulfill the job to be done. It has more links, such as a person who lends or operates the drill. Thus, it involves more uncertainty. However, the service solution delivers to the user exactly what they want. There is no better or worse between the product and the service. In the end, it’s about satisfying the user’s needs with the best solution available. The availability depends on a lot of things. In fact, there doesn’t have to be a distinguished line between product and service, but I would argue as a product manager, it’s crucial to have the “service mindset”, to understand all it takes for the user to accomplish the goal.
How to design an ATM with a “service mindset”?
Now let’s go back to the beginning of the product design. Why do the banks provide ATM? What are the strategic goals?
Who are the users? What is the job to be done? How do we satisfy the user?
Despite the wide range of the user profile, the job to be done of the ATM is the same. By providing cash as requested after authenticating the identity of the user. For an ATM, to make the user happy means it can always provide the cash as expected. As a user myself, I had unhappy experiences when the ATM ran out of cash or had other glitches that prevent it from giving the cash. An ATM with inconvenient UI and process is bad, but an ATM without cash is the worse. Look at products such as Craigslist or Reddit. They don’t have the most refreshing UI, nevertheless, they succeed. The users know that if they go to Craigslist for classified advertisements or to Reddit for interesting contents, they will most certainly be satisfied.
Assuming to keep the user satisfied is to keep the ATM working and filled with cash. There are some links that need to be considered:
- Cash supply (without cash, ATM is just a useless steel box)
- Receipt printing (paper roll & ink)
- Customer support (when the ATM does not work; when the user forgets password, etc.)
- Maintenance and repair of the hardware
- Security (CCTV, screen protection, etc.)
This list could go on since I am no expert in ATM or banking. The idea here is that, as a product manager, one needs to think beyond the ATM itself and make sure all the factors are taken care of, thus to provide the maximum certainty and fulfill the user. For example, all the factors mentioned above require resources which are part of the operating cost. If the financials of a service/product are not justified, then it’s not the right service/product in the first place. Too many companies died because of that.
Takeaways
How to build something that truly solves the users’ problem?
1. Jump out of the tangible product circle and think end-to-end. Have a “service mindset”. Don’t make the user suffer from the missing link in the end-to-end process. The user shouldn’t need to be a drilling master to have holes on the wall.
2. Understand every link in the end-to-end process. What are the resources and efforts we must put in? If you think to build an ATM is just to build a machine, then you are just seeing the tree, not the forest.
3. Prioritize the must-have links. An ATM with an ugly user interface might survive, but an ATM without cash definitely won’t.
Thank you!
Thank you for reading. Your feedback would be my biggest encouragement! I’d be very happy to see your comments below or connect with you on Linkedin.
Reference:
1, 《梁宁·产品思维30讲》by Liang Ning on iGetget app. You may find an abstract in Chinese here
2, What Customers Want from Your Products by Clayton M. Christensen, Scott Cook and Taddy Hall
