strategy
and
innovation
Trust Ideas From People Who Can Build Them
Our strategists remove the guesswork of innovating a new digital product by introducing methods that focus on authentic customer needs, product viability, and market insights. We’ll work with you to create a product that delivers the kind of unique value that drives market share and competitive advantage.
We dive into your business model, market challenges, audiences, and product positioning. Then we’ll refine new concepts through rapid cycles of build-measure-learn in our on-site WillowTree Labs, working with our software engineers to build your product on-time and on-budget.
Latest in Product Strategy + Innovation
Product Strategy + Innovation Services
Strategic product definition
From creating an expansive, industry-changing vision of “the future of (fill in the blank)” to identifying the right features for your mobile product, we blend art and science to deliver an actionable, strategic approach to every stage of the product definition process. Our mobile strategy framework puts the user first, to uncover that distinctive idea that will delight users while meeting your business and market objectives.
Tactics
- Strategy workshop
- Product vision
- User-centered research
- Competitive landscape
- Concept labs
- Feature prioritization
- Roadmap recommendation
Innovation Labs
Most business leaders agree that the success of their company is dependent on successful innovation, only to realize that their ideation process is more of an art than a science. Companies with needs-first approach to innovation see a success rate 17 times greater than companies with an ideas-first approach. Our innovation service helps partners generate and evaluate new ideas through an outcomes-driven approach.
Tactics
- Outcomes Workshop
- Problem Framing Survey
- Perceived Value Survey
- Concept Testing
- Prototype Development
- Prototyping
- Storyboarding
- Idea Generation
- Hype Videos
User-centered research
Asking for user input is important, but it’s just one component of our research. We move beyond questions and answers to formulate an entire journey map, so we understand your users’ needs, desires, and frustrations. That’s how we identify opportunities to serve them.
Tactics
- User interviews
- Journey mapping
- Persona definition
- Field ethnography
- Ride-alongs
- Usability testing
- Surveys
Business & market insights
An entire marketplace awaits your product. We work to understand the past, present, and future of your market by keeping up-to-date on the latest trends and analyst insights. This allows us to create a distinctive product that gives your company an edge over your competitors.
Tactics
- Business goal definition
- Competitive and industry analysis
- Success criteria definition
- Stakeholder interviews
- Subject matter expert interviews
- Market opportunity assessment
- Published study review and analyst insights
- Baseline data analysis
Concept validation
We use the Kano model to understand which features will surprise and delight your users, and which they won’t care for. That way, we know before launch that we’re creating the best solution for your specific personas.
Mobile SEO Strategy
We live in a mobile-first world, and ensuring that your digital properties are aligned with the latest SEO best practices is key to success. A mobile-first experience has been part of our DNA at WillowTree since day one, putting us ahead of the curve when Google’s algorithm recently began scoring websites by their mobile experience. We take a holistic view of your brand’s digital footprint, mapping the mobile experience to data-driven insights obtained from organic search analyses.
Because we layer crucial SEO considerations into every stage of the product lifecycle, WillowTree ensures that your website, native app, and voice experience all link back to how a user might find your brand—starting with a single Google search.
Expertise
- Data-driven insights from keyword research
- Device-specific user journey mapping
- Technical SEO requirements for mobile friendliness
- Mobile-first design consideration
- Mobile-first app store optimization (ASO)
- Mobile app indexing
Feature prioritization
Now that we’ve done user and market research, we have loads of ideas. How do we make the best decision about which ones to use? Our method evaluates how important each feature is to your users and your business, and analyzes its implementation cost.
Tactics
- Ideation
- Friction identification
- Feature definition
- Technical architecture mapping
- Technical dependencies assessment
- Product roadmapping
- Data flow planning
- Loyalty program strategy
Usability Labs
We take User Experience so seriously, we built our own Usability Labs. They let us gather feedback about our products so we can iterate quickly.
Content strategy
From movies to photos to audio to text, content constitutes an essential component of most digital products. And as products grow smaller and more wearable, they must continue to deliver the content users want—at the right time and in the right format.
Tactics
- Existing content audit
- Mobile branding recommendations
- Messaging architecture
- App indexing
- Content strategy statement
- Workflow mapping
- Content report
Data opportunity strategy
Customer data provides powerful benefits, allowing you to target users with relevant offers at the right time. What customer data do you wish you could collect? We can help you obtain useful intelligence about your customers through mobile and other platforms.
Research panel
We’ve developed our own WillowTree panel of mobile users we can recruit for interviews, usability tests, surveys, card sorting, and focus groups. Panel members give key insights to guide products, provide early feedback on our designs, and earn great incentives in the process…we’re always looking for new members to join our panel.
Portfolio
Explore our work.
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