We lived in Austin for 20 years. I could probably count on my two hands the number of times we took our car to a car wash while we lived there.
But ever since we moved last year, car washes pretty much constitute a line item in our monthly budget.
Why is that? Is our car dirtier than before?
No. We simply live down the street from a gas station that has a glorious car wash. They offer a discount on gas if you opt for a car wash, and you earn a free wash for every 10 you buy.
I tease my husband Brant for being a sucker for these tactics, but he has always wanted to keep the car clean. It just wasn't convenient before.
Behold, my friends... the power of convenience.
Convenience is powerful attribute. It can:
Change user behavior. Apple's Health app has recently introduced features around mental health and vision health. People who use Apple Health already are now inclined to track their mental or vision health.
Knock competitors out of the water. In the UI development space, design tool Figma has recently introduced a new Dev Mode feature. This further threatens more purpose-built dev collaboration products like Zeplin.
Make your product essential. I loved phones with physical keyboards… but I had to give up my BlackBerry due to the undeniable convenience of the iPhone’s mapping and GPS features.
Outweigh perfect execution. People are more likely to buy a taco from the place they walk by everyday than to seek out an amazing place across town.
Drive revenue. Our bank statement's new "car wash" category stands as evidence of that.
The takeaway for product leaders: always look for the adjacent problems your product could solve to make things easier for your user.
Through user interviews, workshopping, user journey mapping, and analyzing alternatives, your team can identify opportunities that improve the user experience. We'd love to guide you through the process.