Results by Design: UX Insights for Business Leaders

Description: In this episode, Craig Nishizaki and Michael Woo explore why iterative design is a crucial business strategy for long-term success.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why a “one-and-done” UX approach puts businesses at a disadvantage
• How continuous optimization improves retention, conversion rates, and revenue
• Cost-effective strategies for implementing ongoing user feedback loops
• The power of small, high-impact changes over expensive full-scale redesigns

Interview Participants:

• Craig Nishizaki, Head of Business @ UpTop
• Michael Woo, Head of Design @ UpTop

Transcript

Intro:
Welcome to Results by Design UX Insights for business leaders, the podcast that dives deep into the world of UX design, strategy, and insights. Tune in, take action, and design your way to success.

Craig Nishizaki:
Hi, I’m Craig.

Michael Woo:
And I’m Michael. And we’re your host for the Results by Design podcast. How are you doing, Craig?

Craig Nishizaki:
I’m doing great, thanks. How are you doing, Mike?

Michael Woo:
I’m doing really good as well, man. It is such a nice day here in Seattle, wouldn’t you say?

Craig Nishizaki:
I agree. I agree.

Michael Woo:
Yeah, especially with all the rain that we’ve been having. Love the sun. Well, okay. Today’s topic is something we see all the time, companies investing in a one and done UX project or a product design effort where they launch something and then wait months or even years before making the next move. So we’re going to talk about why that approach is risky and how continuous improvement and an iterative design lead to better business outcomes.

Craig Nishizaki:
Alright, I love this topic. Well, let’s start with what we often see a company brings in a UX or product team. They invest in research, design development, they launch the product and then they stop. So no iteration, no follow up from your perspective. Michael, why do you think that happens?

Michael Woo:
A few reasons. First, there’s the belief that once you’ve done ux, you’re done. It’s a one-time exercise or something. Second, internal teams might not have the structure or resources to support ongoing UX and optimization. And then third, leadership often assumes that the big investment upfront is enough to sustain success over time.

Craig Nishizaki:
Yeah, I think those are spot on. And what ends up happening over time is user expectations shift. The market trends evolve and competitors adapt faster. Meanwhile, your product starts to feel outdated or doesn’t perform as well as it could. And the reality is there’s daily care and feeding required to keep your product fresh.

Michael Woo:
Exactly. By the time companies decide to invest in UX again, they’re playing catch up instead of staying ahead.

Craig Nishizaki:
Yeah, that’s a great point. Well, let’s talk about why iterative design isn’t just a UX design or a UX best practice, it’s really a business strategy.

Michael Woo:
Absolutely. Continuous improvement is a business’s competitive advantage, and when you build iteration into your product’s lifecycle, what you’re doing is you’re identifying usability issues before they even become major problems. And this reduces costly redesigns down the line and you adapt quickly to customer needs, market shifts, and new tech. All the while you’re improving conversion rates and engagement over time. So to be frank, if your customers are providing valuable input about your product or your service and you’re not acting on that feedback, you probably shouldn’t even be in business or you may not even last long enough to be in business anyway.

Craig Nishizaki:
Yeah, I agree. I agree. That’s a little tough love right there, Mike, but it’s true. Companies that invest in iterative product design see higher returns on retention rates, lower churn, increased revenue. Companies like Amazon, Google, Airbnb, they don’t just launch a product and walk away. They’re constantly tweaking, testing and improving.

Michael Woo:
Exactly. And you don’t have to be a tech giant to do this. Well, even mid to large enterprises can apply smaller strategic improvements over time rather than waiting years for a full redesign. In fact, by going through this continuous process, you may be able to avoid a full redesign altogether since you’re just continuously molding your product along the way.

Craig Nishizaki:
Yeah, that’s a great point. Well, if you’re a business leader listening right now thinking this all sounds great, but we don’t have the time or budget to always be redesigning things, how do we get them to shift their mindset?

Michael Woo:
The good news is you don’t need constant, full redesigns like I just said, which is super costly. Anyhow, what you just need is an iterative framework, and here’s how companies can integrate continuous improvement into their UX strategy. One, start by implementing regular user feedback loops. This can be as simple as having monthly user testing, analyzing customer support tickets, or just tracking behavioral analytics if you have that set up.

Craig Nishizaki:
Yeah, you’re right. If you’re seeing patterns like customers abandoning certain workflows, that’s an opportunity for iteration.

Michael Woo:
And two, you need to adopt a data-driven mindset. Treat UX decisions like product decisions instead of guessing, use data to determine what’s working, what’s not, and where to focus those improvements.

Craig Nishizaki:
Yeah, AB testing, heat maps, session recordings, continuous optimization of your journey maps should all be ongoing, not just a one-time project.

Michael Woo:
A third point is you need to prioritize small high impact changes, so you don’t need a massive budget. Sometimes really small tweaks like simplifying a checkout process or just refining a form can drive major improvements.

Craig Nishizaki:
Yeah, that’s right. Instead of big risky overhauls, make incremental adjustments and measure their impact by benchmarking the experience first and then implementing the new change in testing again.

Michael Woo:
And the fourth and last thing is build UX into your product strategy. UX shouldn’t be an afterthought. It really needs to be part of your product roadmap. So that iteration is planned and not a reactive thing.

Craig Nishizaki:
Yeah, a hundred percent. The best companies have cross-functional teams working together, product design, engineering, and business, all aligned on improving their user experience. And when you have this type of internal alignment, you can do some very special things together. Well, let’s ground this all in real world example. Mike, could you share a case where an iterative approach made a big difference?

Michael Woo:
Sure. As you know, we spent many years partnering with Mattress Firm as their external UX team working in lockstep with their product team, and there was no shortage of issues on their e-commerce site, which really compliments their brick and mortar stores. What we did was regularly prioritize and then reprioritize opportunities as both business and market conditions changed, really keeping a delivery schedule aligned to their two week development spreads. Over time, we were improving the digital experience incrementally, one feature at a time, one sprint at a time, optimizing the product search and discovery experience to providing clear product information and decision points, and ultimately streamlining the buy flow. We also audited the post-purchase experience as well, identifying the friction points along that journey from purchase to delivery. And the results from that audit were then prioritized based on customer impact and implementation effort, making it ready to be taken in with other priorities that were in flight.

Craig Nishizaki:
That’s a perfect example. They didn’t opt for a large scale redesign, just targeted data-driven improvements that kept the product competitive.

Michael Woo:
Exactly. And this is why UX can’t be a one and done investment.

Craig Nishizaki:
Yeah, so true. Another example from our time with Mattress Firm that I really love was their willingness to experiment after we earned their trust by helping them achieve significant improvements in their purchase flow and product detail pages. They asked, how can we help people feel like they found the right mattress with so many options to choose from online? So we did some scrappy research, our team did to find out how salespeople in the store help customers select a mattress, and then we designed and built an online mattress finder wizard that customers would provide inputs to about how they sleep on their back or on their sides, the size of mattress.

They prefer Twin King twin, the firmness that they prefer, and we use visual cues, iconography to minimize the friction. And then once completed, the results screen showed the recommended mattresses based on their inputs, like filtered results, and if they clicked on any mattress, they would go to that product detail page. We quickly prototyped that mattress finder and a mattress firm AB tested it on the website and found that it increased conversion by over 50%. So this was not a full scale redesign, but a self-service experience that solved their big problem by thinking outside the box.

Michael Woo:
Craig, that’s a great example. I almost forgot about that. These targeted solutions to really specific challenges are great because you can really fits in the scope and the approach we took on the project was very iterative and user-centered, and I remember the team creating a prototype and testing it with customers, learning and iterating throughout the process. And mattress firm was exceptionally good at testing post-launch. They had some really great AB testing tools and a general program in place.

Craig Nishizaki:
Yeah, I think that’s a great example of having a culture of innovation and a focus on the customer and willingness to experiment, and that all came together for Mattress Firm to create a great result. Let’s wrap it up with some key takeaways based on what we’ve been talking about. First, think of UX as an ongoing process, not a one-time event. Your digital product, your website, they need to be thought of more as a product than a project when you’re working on them. Second, you don’t have to break the bank. Small strategic tweaks can deliver big results. I often think putting constraints against your experiment help with this. So if you set a budget and you set a goal and then challenge your team to work toward that goal within that budget, I think you’d be surprised with what you could accomplish by building iteration into your roadmap. Treat UX as a continuous part of your business strategy. Mike, what do you think?

Michael Woo:
A hundred percent agree to all those points.

Craig Nishizaki:
Well, that’s it for today’s episode. If you enjoyed the conversation, please like and click subscribe and join us next time as we explore more innovative approaches to enhance your products and services, optimize customer interactions, and ultimately drive success for your organization. Tune in, take action and design your way to success. We’ll see you next time.

Outro:
Thanks for tuning in to Results by Design. If you liked this episode, be sure to share and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We are also playing on all your favorite audio streaming podcast platforms, so stay connected and join us for the next one. Results by Design is brought to you by UpTop. Our mission is to equip business leaders like you with the knowledge and tools needed to leverage UX methods and strategies to achieve tangible business outcomes and create lasting value. Whether you’re a seasoned executive or just starting to explore the world of ux, results by Design is your go-to resource for unlocking the potential of user experience to achieve remarkable results. Tune in, take action, and design your way to success.