Is your customer service call center flooded with calls? Is your product getting bad reviews online? Does it have a low retention rate? You’re not alone. It’s not uncommon for a company to find itself in this position after a recent product launch. If you’re thinking about sending out a product SOS, there are a few things to keep in mind [hint: they involve user experience].

Before we get into it, though, shake off what is done. You may not have realized that UX efforts should precede interface design and development. And that’s ok. Hindsight is 20/20. If you’re wishing you could go back and avoid some of the rework you might be facing now, it’s time to let it go. Here are some things to consider as you get your project back on track.

Is there a point of no return?

From a UX perspective, no. It’s never too late to leverage the user experience process. All successful products evolve to become what the user needs. We’re not talking about an evolution that happens by chance. Product evolution has to be intentional if it’s going to be worth the budget dollars. A good UX firm follows a process involving design analysis, user testing, and design iteration.

That said, take this into consideration…

Designing for user experience is much more seamless when it is considered ahead of UI design and development. When you bring in UX after development, you’re likely to feel the pain (and expense) of a design based on assumptions. If the product tests poorly, the UX team often has to go back to square one to get to the root of the problem and reconcile the design to the users’ goals.

And, you may be facing other challenges.

At this point, the project’s budget might not have much flexibility left for user experience. Are you prepared your UX team to uncover some potentially large issues which may require more funding to correct? How much have you spent on rework already?

Another challenge could be your project’s timeline. Greatness take time, and this rings true with UX. If your deadline is quickly approaching, or you have already launched the product and are looking for a quick fix, understand that the UX process can take a couple of months. You may need to build in some time to step back and make sure that you’re doing everything you can to make a quality product.

We’ve helped many projects through this problem, and we have seen some major product turnarounds and successes. So if you’re asking yourself the question “is it too late to bring in UX?” remember that the answer is no! And next time, we can put UX before development to prevent rework and save you from the stress of a bumpy road to success.