Design and customer research for intentional branding.

Let’s talk about customer research and how this can lead to more intentional branding for you. Let’s dive in!

Starting Out in Tech

Like many San Franciscans, I spent part of my career working in tech. It was plenty of fun, challenging, and sometimes just as weird as the show Silicon Valley portrays.

I started my career in tech as a Product Designer focused on, well, designing products for customers. I quickly realized that to succeed, you had to really know your customers. I often felt frustrated by the lack of contact I, and my teammates, had with customers. We continued to make the mistake of assuming we were the customer, and therefore, we knew what to design or do next. Yikes.

Design and Customer Research

What did I do? Well, I started to get really into customer interviews, surveys, and usability testing. I researched, I practiced, I sought feedback, and reached out to customers. 

Do you know what happened? I started to make intentional decisions about how to design. I knew what my customer’s challenges were, I knew how they spoke about their environment and opportunities to help them achieve their goals.

The customer’s needs and goals started showing up in my design, and it was amazing! It started to have a ripple effect with everyone around me, they all got on board. 

Intentional Branding

As I started out in photography, I was again trying to brand my own business and reach an ideal client. It only made sense to me to apply the same strategic system.

I reached out to my ideal customer to get to know them. I discovered their challenges with social media, what they needed from photography, how they spoke about their brand. And guess what!?!? It’s helped me change how I structured my blog posts, reformat the language on my website and think strategically about social media. I know it can do the same for you.

Send me an email and let’s figure out how customer research can get you more intentional branding!