When the financial services industry started the journey of moving from paper to the digital world, there was a single guiding principle — Remove friction. Remove that extra click, remove that extra field, remove the extra text. This mantra was the core of the early digital transformations.
The product managers who succeeded in the early era then transitioned into creating superior digital experiences. Once they started analysing user journey funnels they realised at every step customers lost their way and business outcomes were often not met.
A Physics Lesson
Remember the physics class from school?
- If we reduce friction, we reduce the loss of energy and we move easier
- But if we remove too much friction, we can't even generate enough traction to move ahead
- So some friction is needed. Sometimes friction is your best friend — in Formula 1, race cars change tyres to increase friction deliberately
The Realization
In this journey of removing friction, we forgot that some deliberate friction is useful. We forgot the objective was to create meaningful, useful and lasting user experiences. Several below-par digital experiences were created.
What Changed
But we all lucked out:
- Designers came along, awareness of design went up across the system
- Sophisticated tools for funnel analysis and A/B testing became prevalent
- OKRs and KRAs became more outcome driven
Today, most digital teams continuously optimise between how to remove friction, how to give adequate support rails to customers, and how to nudge customers towards business outcomes without impacting their experience.