From insight to innovation: How Jabra develops user-centric products

How does a company like Jabra consistently develop and create products that resonate end-users' evolving needs? The answer lies in user-centric design and research-driven innovation.

At the heart of this process, you'll find Jeppe Stig Hansen, an experienced UX designer with more than 15 years of experience in the field.

With Jeppe Stig Hansen’s help, we'll unfold the product development journey at Jabra. More specifically, we'll dive into two newly released products: the Jabra Evolve2 65 Flex headset, developed for hybrid work, and Jabra+ for Admins, an administration system for office devices.

At the core of Jabra's product development is the basic understanding of users' problems. Rather than just asking what they want, it's all about identifying the challenges they face and gauging how significant those challenges are to the end-user.

Product development at Jabra begins with extensive research, combining market data with qualitative insights from user interviews. Both Jabra+ and Jabra Evolve2 65 Flex were born from this process.

"A major part of my research process is doing interviews with our end-users. Here, you have to try and uncover the underlying problem, as they often have a hard time pinpointing their exact problems," Jeppe Stig Hansen explains.

He quickly references the classic Henry Ford quote: "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."

For the Jabra Evolve2 65 Flex headset, Stig Hansen conducted more than 20 interviews to understand user behaviour and needs. During one of the interviews, a user explained their need for balanced noise cancellation:

"One user told us: 'I don't want to hear the garbage truck outside, but I need to hear my dog when he needs to go out.' These are the kinds of nuances that make a real difference," he says.

Jabra's product development process follows the Double Diamond method, a design approach that emphasises both problem definition and solution development.

"The Double Diamond method is crucial to our process," Jeppe Stig Hansen explains. "First, we expand our understanding of the problem through research, then narrow it down to define the specific issues we need to solve. After that, we broaden our thinking again to generate multiple potential solutions before narrowing down to the final product design."

This approach was evident in both the development of Jabra Evolve2 65 Flex and Jabra+. For Jabra+, the team initially explored a wide range of IT management challenges before focusing on the need for simplified device management in hybrid setups. They brainstormed various software solutions before settling on the comprehensive, intuitive system that became Jabra+.

Jabra uses journey mapping to visualise user experiences and highlight areas for improvement:

"We start by mapping out what we assume the product should solve, based on market research," Jeppe Stig Hansen explains. "Then, we go into deeper interviews to refine those assumptions into real user journeys."

Jabra identifies specific user problems and ranks them by their severity and importance:

"It doesn't make any sense for us to try and solve a problem that isn't important for the user," he clarifies. “It's about finding the things where there is both a high amount of importance and dissatisfaction.”

For Jabra+, the team mapped out numerous user journeys, considering various scenarios IT administrators might face when managing devices across hybrid work environments. This comprehensive approach ensured that Jabra+ effectively addressed a wide range of IT management needs.

"It's often the subtle details that change everything," Jeppe Stig Hansen says. "One user said music quality was their top priority, but when I asked them which headset they used between meetings, it was a work headset because 'I need to be ready for the next call'––the other headset took too long to connect’. That changed our focus."

The transition from research insights to actual product design is a critical phase. It's where the rubber meets the road, and abstract concepts start taking tangible form.

For Jabra Evolve2 65 Flex, this meant translating the need for flexibility and clear communication into a compact, versatile headset design. The team had to balance factors like battery life, sound quality, and portability based on the priorities identified in their research.

With Jabra+, the challenge was creating an intuitive interface that could simplify complex device management tasks:

"This phase is all about finding the sweet spot between what users need, what's technically feasible, and what makes sense for our business," Jeppe Stig Hansen explains. "It's a constant balancing act, but that's what makes it exciting."

By the end of this phase, Jabra has a clear blueprint for their product, grounded in user needs and technical possibilities.