better product definition with lean ux and design thinking

BETTER PRODUCT DEFINITION WITH LEAN UX & DESIGN THINKING

Crisp - May 2013

@neo_innovation || @jboogie

@jboogie

“While the initial launch and traction proved extremely exciting, it misled us into believing there was a larger market ready to adopt our product.”

http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/22/post-mortem-for-plancast/

@jboogie

“100,000 have registered and over 230,000 people visit each month.”

@jboogie

“People often tell me “I like Plancast, but I never have any plans to share.”

@jboogie

“Most social networks feed primarily on vanity….Sharing plans, unfortunately, doesn’t present the same opportunity to show off and incur the same subsequent happy feelings.”

@jboogie

“…[lack of an invitation feature]…caused a situation where many people feel awkwardly aware of events to which they don’t feel welcome…”

@jboogiehttp://blog.capwatkins.com/formspring-a-postmortem

“…The first big project we worked on was a Formspring button that sites could embed at the end of blog posts... We had millions of users, so we figured it wasn’t a stretch to imagine they browsed other web sites and would gladly click a Formspring button at the end of a post ... This was just as the Facebook Share and Twitter “Tweet This” buttons were appearing...”

“…We spent months on that system. We had to make sure our servers could handle…huge influx of traffic, had to design & implement the feature, make sure the implementation was easy for publishers, make deals with publishers, etc.

We bet huge.

On someone else’s (Facebook and Twitter’s) plan.

Flop...”

@jboogie

Key questions:

How long do we wait before launch?

@jboogie

Key questions:

How long do we wait before launch?

How do we define the right requirements for our product?

What signals are we looking for from the market?

REQUIREMENTS ARE ACTUALLY ASSUMPTIONS

@jboogie@neo_innovation || @jboogie

@jboogie

Do you know this product manager?

Requirements = Assumptions

We know We believe

Let’s build it! Let’s test it!

DESIGN THINKING CAN HELP!

@jboogie

Design Thinking

“As a style of thinking, it is generally considered the ability to combine empathy for the context of a problem, creativity in the generation of insights and solutions, and rationality to analyze and fit solutions to the context. ”

- Tim Brown, CEO & President, IDEO

I’VE HEARD GOOD THINGS ABOUT THIS LEAN UX THING TOO

@jboogie

Lean UX

Inspired by Lean Startup and Agile development theories, it’s the practice of bringing the true nature of a product to light faster, in a collaborative, cross-functional way with less emphasis on deliverables and greater focus on a shared understanding of the actual experience being designed.

That’s me!I said this.

PRIORITIZE LEARNING OVER GROWTH

@jboogie

Early product definition assumptions include…

@jboogie

Early product definition assumptions include…Who is our customer?

@jboogie

What pain points do they have related to our product or service?

@jboogie

How will our product/service solve their pain points?

@jboogie

What features are important?

@jboogie

What is our differentiation?

@jboogie

What is our differentiation?

What is our business model?@neo_innovation || @jboogie

@jboogie

…which we then turn into hypotheses…

@jboogie

We believe that

@jboogie

We believe that [building this feature]

@jboogie

We believe that [building this feature] [for these people]

@jboogie

We believe that [building this feature] [for these people] will achieve [this outcome].

@jboogie

We believe that [building this feature] [for these people] will achieve [this outcome].

We will know we are successful when we see [this signal from the market].

@jboogie

Hypothesis: We believe that creating the ability for people to share events will provide them with better awareness and greater enjoyment of their social circles.

@jboogie

Case Study: TheLadders

@jboogie

Requirement: Provide each paying customer with a personal job search assistant available via email and phone

@jboogie

Requirement: Provide each paying customer with a personal job search assistant available via email and phone

Hypothesis: We believe that providing a personal assistant to each customer will drive up customer satisfaction, renewals and retention rates

@jboogie

How could we have better defined our products?

@jboogie

Articulated our assumptions

@jboogie

Defined our hypotheses

@jboogie

Run lightweight tests to validate the need

@jboogie

Run lightweight tests to validate the need

What outcome were we targeting?

@jboogie

What problem are you trying to solve?

@jboogie

How will you solve it?

@jboogie

How will you solve it?

How do you know it will work?

@jboogie

How does this change the way a team approaches a project?

@jboogie

The measure of progress changes…

@jboogie

The measure of progress changes…

…from output to outcome.

@jboogie

You can launch features…and they can still suck.

@jboogie

Output

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Outcome

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Impact

@jboogie

Many companies currently manage to output.

Instead, they need to focus on outcome and not task teams with responsibility for impact.

@jboogie

14%@neo_innovation || @jboogie

MAKE DECISIONS BASED ON OBJECTIVE OBSERVATIONS

@jboogie

Double-down

@jboogie

Case Study: Lenddo

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Case Study: Lenddo

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Case Study: Lenddo

MITIGATE RISK BY NOT BUILDING THINGS PEOPLE DON’T WANT

@jboogie

Case Study: Sesame Street

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Entering a new market

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Heavy investment

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Heavy investment

High risk

@jboogie

Heavy investment

High risk

Long term initiative

@jboogie

In-class observation

@jboogie

V1 = PDF content test

@jboogie

V2 = card sorting

@jboogie

V2 = card sorting

V3 = clickable prototype

@jboogie

V2 = card sorting

V3 = clickable prototype

Not a line of code written

@jboogie

Case Study: Agile UX NYC 2012

@jboogie

Would anyone attend our conference?

@jboogie

Lots of up front costs

@jboogie

Lots of up front costs

Increasing fidelity of tests

@jboogie

LEAN UX AND DESIGN THINKING ARE NOT JUST FOR DESIGNERS

@jboogie

Cross-functional teams…

@jboogie

Bring perspective to the product definition process from all disciplines

@jboogie

Possess increased empathy for the user

@jboogie

Understand the “why” behind every initiative

@jboogie

Understand the “why” behind every initiative

Learn more, faster, by sharing the discovery and creation process

Competencies over roles

Je!rey Allen "Je! Skunk" Baxter (born December 13, 1948) is an American guitarist, known for his stints in the rock bands Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers during the 1970s. More recently, he has been working as a defense consultant and chairs a Congressional Advisory Board on missile defense.

@jboogie

Case Study: PayPal

@jboogie

Case Study: PayPal

@jboogie

Defining the right product…

@jboogie

Reduces the time spent building the wrong product

@jboogie

Builds team-wide momentum & shared understanding

@jboogie

Builds team-wide momentum & shared understanding

Ensures that resources are spent on the right initiatives

@jboogie

By shifting the way we work…

@jboogie

Requirements are assumptions

@jboogie

Focus on outcomes

@jboogie

Focus on outcomes

Work together to come up with ideas

@jboogie

Focus on outcomes

Work together to come up with ideas

Test those ideas ruthlessly

@jboogie

Thank you!

jeff@neo.com

@jboogie

www.leanuxbook.com

www.neo.com

better product definition with lean ux and design thinking

atthe end of blog posts

jboogiekey questions

design thinkingcan help

aformspring button

web sites andwould

situation wheremany

implementationwas easy

awkwardlyaware of events

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