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ZeMing Chan explains how multi-layered user insights, creative experimentation, and iterative validation improve product hit rates and drive meaningful customer engagement.
In the race to create products that stick, understanding users isn’t just helpful. It’s essential. Too often, companies launch features based on assumptions, gut feel, or internal pressure, only to find they miss the mark.
The most successful teams dig deeper, combining qualitative feedback, behavioural data, and market trends to guide decisions. They test, iterate, and refine, balancing creativity with measurable outcomes.
For product leaders, the challenge is clear: build features that customers actually want, avoid costly missteps, and ensure innovation drives meaningful engagement.
“The key takeaways are investing in a multi-layer insight stack…, triangulation across all our various data points and insights, and eventually exercising creativity and validating across the product design journey,” said ZeMing Chan, Head, Growth Innovation & Product Marketing, foodpanda.
ZeMing took the stage at Unlocked: Mobile & App Growth Summit Singapore to share how product teams can drive smarter innovation by combining user insights, iterative validation, and creative problem-solving to design features that truly matter.
Three things Martechvibe learned from his talk;
1. Invest in a multi-layered insight stack
Effective product innovation requires combining qualitative, quantitative, industry, and macro-level insights. By regularly gathering and consolidating these insights, teams can understand user needs deeply, anticipate pain points, and make data-informed decisions before developing features.
2. Triangulate insights to avoid confirmation bias
Not all user data is equal. Observed, inferred, and stated behaviours often differ. Cross-referencing multiple data sources ensures teams identify truly valuable opportunities, prevent misinterpretation, and focus resources on features that will deliver meaningful engagement and business impact.
3. Exercise creativity while iteratively validating features
Even the best ideas must be tested with users across multiple iterations. By simulating real trade-offs, evaluating reward types, and adjusting parameters such as pricing and delivery, teams can refine product features to drive adoption, loyalty, and incremental business growth.
