Desire Paths

Ever heard of "desire paths"? 🏞️

They’re those trails you see cutting through the grass where people have ignored the sidewalks and forged their own way. It’s a clear signal that shows us that the "designed" path wasn’t the "preferred" path.

When supporting our SaaS customers, we have to be highly tuned to the desire paths that pop up in customer behavior.

➡️ The onboarding process they regularly skip.

↗️ The awesome feature they didn't know about and therefore didn't adopt.

↙️ The invite they ignore.

↖️ The workflows they creatively “hack” to meet their needs.

When customers consistently deviate from the path you designed, it’s not a failure on their part. It’s a signal: you designed the wrong path.

Great customer experience design requires humility. Sometimes, you need to listen to the feedback, tear up the bricks, and rebuild the path where your customers are already walking.

SaaS is fluid and changes are constant. Don't get too comfortable with your old processes just because they used to work. They need to be regularly reevaluated and adjusted.

In the end, forcing customers to follow your existing processes won't net the best results. You'll need to design processes that continually lead them to the desired destination while staying on the safe path.