Jonathan Korman’s Where Do Product Managers Fit? presents a case for product development with interaction designers, marketing and engineering working in concert for product success.

His approach is summarized in his diagram:

Importantly, he advocates that the product be significantly defined by interaction or user experience designers, an approach that’s very attractive to me.

But it seems to me that his model misses a key element of user experience—namely, users’ experience with the product through all phases of its use.

In particular, this includes any point at which the customer may touch anything related to the product—including customer service, community presence, and in certain cases, operations or professional services.

User guides, phone support, forums and blogs are critical touchpoints that can powerfully catalyze customer evangelists and they should be included in all product development strategies.

Additionally, operations or professional services must have an equal seat at the product development table products to determine features and feasibility of service-oriented “products.”

Together, thinking about product development this way is a call to rethink the long-neglected “admin interface.” Whether it’s customer support or operations personnel, just about any product has internal features that directly impact customers’ experience with a product.

It also begs the question of “managing” communities (forums, blogs) that may or may not blossom up around a product and heavily influence a user’s experience with the product and a company’s brand.

What impact do these additional factors have on the product development process?

• First, customer service must be involved to identify costs and feasibility of customer support
• Second, a community strategy should be part of any product development strategy
• Third, for a technology-enabled service product, operations must play a key role during product development
• And Fourth, tying all these together, interaction designers should be tasked with designing for internal customers—customer service and operations—just as much as they should design for external customers