Romin: a technical product that was solid, but just wasn't selling.

The team was leading with details, like weight and output numbers, instead of the problems the product actually solved. The engineering team was building great features, but those features didn't always match what the marketing team was trying to sell. This meant the customer had to do all the work to figure out why the product mattered to them. We needed to move away from just building what we could, and start building what people actually needed.

I stepped in to align the product with how people actually think and buy. I looked at where people were dropping off and realized that throwing a bunch of technical details at them, right when they were trying to make a decision, was just confusing them and making them leave the page. I moved the product pages away from a list of parts and toward real outcomes, and I fixed the hierarchy and copy, so the reason to care was the first thing a person saw.

I also helped the team stop trying to sell to everyone with the same general message. We broke the market down into different groups, and figured out the specific problems each group was trying to solve, which made our outreach much more effective. I fed those insights back to the engineering team, which helped them focus on the features that people were actually asking for, instead of just adding more parts for the sake of it.

People finally understood the product the moment they saw it. We stopped making customers look for the answers on their own, which made buying feel more natural. The engineering team got a clear picture of what to work on next, and the business finally had a plan where how the product worked actually matched what people saw on the site.

The product was solid, but the way we talked about it was the problem. As the lead for the strategy and the way we presented the product, I had to look at everything with a fresh perspective. We were writing based on what we thought mattered, but it wasn't connecting with people. I had to find the gap between what the engineering team built and what a person actually needed to hear before they felt comfortable buying it.

I stepped in to make sure our plan for the online store was based on how people actually live, not just guesses made in a meeting.

Learning From Real People: I skipped the formal groups and went straight to where people actually talk, like forums and comment sections for desk setups. I spent hours reading how people described their workspaces. I stopped using made-up profiles and started using the exact words real people used.

Studying The Competition: I looked at the middle-of-the-road reviews for other products. Those are the most honest because people explain exactly what they liked and what bothered them. I learned that other lights didn't fit modern desks, the light was too harsh, and nobody understood the technical numbers for color.

Identifying The Struggle: I found two main groups. The first were people working late in dark rooms who were tired of their eyes hurting. They didn't want a "light bar," they wanted to stop needing eye drops. The second group were people who hated glare on their screens and wanted the lighting to match the mood of the day, like a sunset.

Simplifying The Message: I went through the entire store and changed every technical detail into a real benefit. Instead of listing numbers for color quality or the amount of tiny bulbs, I talked about seeing colors clearly and having light that was easy on the eyes. I stopped making the customer do the work of figuring out why a feature mattered.

Testing What Clicked: I created over 50 different versions of ads based on the specific pains I found earlier. I watched the numbers every day, quickly stopping the ones that didn't work and putting the money behind the ones people actually liked.

Improving The Product: I stopped treating complaints as a headache and started seeing them as a way to make the product better. I took specific feedback, like a clamp scratching a desk, straight to the engineering team. This gave them a clear goal to fix, which led to better designs and better materials.

Once we stopped leading with technical details and started listening to what people were actually saying, everything started working together.

Sales went up by 15% because the store used simple language that answered people's concerns. People felt more confident buying because they didn't have to second-guess the choice. Our ads also performed 25% better since they were built on real frustrations.

Most importantly, because the engineering team fixed the issues people complained about, fewer people sent the product back. When the product is built to solve the exact problems people have, you don't have to work as hard to sell it.