Global product design
#99 - Mar.2024
How do you design a product to serve 20+ countries?
Rolling out products to multiple countries is not easy. I’ve had the opportunity to work with product teams tackling these challenges. Honestly, is not always trivial - you feel on a rollercoaster of successes & frustrations.
Designing at scale is not only about translation. Is much (MUCH) more than that.
Is about the the cultural nuances, commonalities across regions, local-specific needs, tradeoffs on regional prioritization, and keeping your discovery efforts across multiple types of customers.
You need to design locally while thinking globally.
But where do you start?
Through my experience, I’ve noticed some common trends that - when you have the discipline to adopt them - will increase your chances of success:
- Start with solid design principles or tenets that support your decision-making
- Pay closer attention to the early architectural decisions for scale & flexibility
- Build a strong case regionally, and expand from there
- Master prioritization at scale through clear decision criteria considering local & common needs.
- Keep clarity on feature coverage & availability and reduce parity gaps
- Use consistent mechanisms to connect frequently with regional customers
- Embrace cross-cultural design ensuring local needs are covered
- Build a strong process to validate when a feature should become core across regions
I would probably add to the list: stay curious - look for the connecting points and behavioral trends across customers.
Experiment more.
Global design should not neglect the essence of any product: keeping customers at the center of your design.
