Sitar Teli – Why Focusing on UX Makes Business Sense (Turing Fest 2017)

Transcript

1. WHY FOCUSING ON USER EXPERIENCE IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS Turing Fest August 2017
2. • American, lived in London for 12 years • 37 • VC for 12 years • Previously with Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures • Connect Ventures • London-based seed fund • Invest across Europe • £500k-£1m • 36 investments, 25 active • CVI: £21m • CVII: £50m
3. • Highly focused seed strategy: 8-10 investments per year • We like to lead deals and are often the first investor • Three necessary conditions: • Strong founder/market fit • Mission-led founders • Focus on product and user-experience from the beginning
4. “All aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products. The first requirement for an exemplary user experience is to meet the exact needs of the customer, without fuss or bother. Next comes simplicity and elegance that produce products that are a joy to own, a joy to use.” - Nielsen-Norman Group
5. Platforms SaaS Networks Product User Experience Marketplaces
10. VS Significantly better business value
11. Engagement Loyalty Virality/Referrals
12. More Sign-ups, conversions, etc Engagement Virality Brand Revenue Less Churn Cost Customer complaints
15. • LEARN: About user experience. Start with your own daily frustrations, both technology-related and not. • BEFORE: Use the product, try the prototypes, ask to see wireframes of the product. • Great user experience focuses on providing value to the user, not extracting value for the company. • Example: Sign-up or on-boarding flow. • DURING: Start with the product, not the presentation. • TEAM: Look for • founding teams that include: user-experience or interaction designers, product managers, product designers • founders with empathy for their users
16. • Not all companies gain (enough of) an advantage by initially focussing on product and user experience. • Many businesses gain a greater advantage simply by raising more capital, which enable them to grow faster and dominate a market, discouraging investment in competitors • Offline services - delivery, cleaning, transport • eCommerce and other low-margin businesses • A focus on product and UX generally applies to mature technologies, like Internet/mobile companies. Several interesting investment areas such as biohacking, VR and autonomous vehicles are nascent technically