the elements of product success for designers and developers

› Nick Myers

@nickmyer5 @cooper

The elements of product success

Where we are today. The elements: user insight, design, organizational effectiveness. Principles, techniques, truths.

What I’ll be talking about

Many products are now digital

Products used to suck!

Now they perform magic.

Expectations have grown.

Competition is fierce.

www.flickr.com/photos/retrocactus/4949516534/

Great news! Now everyone loves designers!

But there are still failures.

Why? Companies lack the elements of product success.

1 User  Insight  2 Design  3 Organiza1on  

Take notes!

How  do  you/team/company  match  up?  What  else  affects  success?  

User insight

Only a deep understanding of your users will help you create something they love.

Many of us have limited knowledge of our users.

This was especially true of software teams.

Great products don’t happen because of new technologies, new design trends, big data, mobile first, anti-skeumorphic, micro interactions, Lean UX, No UI manifestos,…

h@p://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2009/mar/28/g20-­‐protest-­‐london-­‐put-­‐people-­‐first  

If we can learn and understand people’s goals, needs + emotions...

We can create great products that answer their needs.

Observing the world helps us spot new opportunities and invent new things.

Data is useful for learning, adapting and growth but is often hard to interpret or non-existent.

Surveys give us limited insight into how people think.

Traditional interviewing techniques don’t reveal people’s latent needs.

Interviewees have a natural tendency to please the interviewer and be agreeable.

People are poor at self-reporting and over-generalize.

Ethnography reveals more – the practice of observation and interview.

Ethnographic research helps us understand the context and motivations for user behavior.

Take an apprentice’s mindset.

What’s a day look like? +  Makes it feel less like a survey

+  Makes you less inclined to ask leading questions

Start by understanding their world.

Tell me about a specific instance when… +  Ask for interviewees to tell stories

+  Ask for specific examples

Follow up with “case-focused” questions.

Process  flows  Workarounds  

Team  environment  

Heavy  use  

Lots  of  codes  to  remember!  

Watch and learn.

I really love that Starmine analyst rating.

Why?

Because it’s awesome. What’s awesome about it?

It tells me how good the analyst is. Duh.

And why is that good?

Because I need to feel confident when I use

their advice . Yahtzee!

Tell me about a part of the system that you love.

Ask “why?” a lot. A conversation might go like this…

+ + = Attention to

people’s needs & goals

Simple, elegant

ideas

Execution on the details

Great products

In the end it’s simple…

And it’s a great way to build empathy and become expert in your domain.

So what do I do with all this research? Share it!

“”

The persona is the voice of the user, each has a goal. This

informs lightweight, quickly iterated designs.  

Alan Cooper

And share stories about your users to inform your product’s vision.

If you’re brainstorming ideas in a room but no one knows who you’re designing for then you’re just guessing.

Lightweight user research (street, friends) User research via web conference

Journaling Participatory design

It needn’t be heavy BUFD.

At the very least, sketch personas can be based on a set of agreed-upon assumptions that can focus the team.

If you have a strong understanding of your users you will have more authority with your products.

+  How much do you know your users?

+  Do you use ethnographic techniques?

+  Do you regularly observe users in their environments?

+  Do you know what your users need and want?

+  Do you design from the point-of-view of your users?

+  Do you validate your work with personas, data, surveys, user feedback?

+  Do your customers love you and acknowledge that you “get them”?

How strong is your user insight?

Design

Design is hard!

End results are simple, but simple is hard.

We’re making stuff. All made things take effort.

http://dthsg.com/what-is-design-thinking/ Roger Martin’s Design of Business

We’re all solving problems.

http://dthsg.com/what-is-design-thinking/ Roger Martin’s Design of Business

What’s makes designers good? Abductive thinking: imagining what could be possible.

Good designers consider the possibilities.

Good designers draw from knowledge of design patterns.

Try this exercise to generate more: What are ten ways I could solve this problem?

Explore ideas in teams during an exploration workshop to generate even more.

More generation increases the chances of generating signature interactions and unique designs.

Form a language for the design to be more decisive.

A strong experience strategy informs the behavioral and visual design language.

Design shouldn’t be a lonely task. Designing in pairs helps teams generate more, better ideas, faster.

Design should be based on good rationale – great to ask why? Here a lot too!

+ = To create great ideas

Convince others to use them

Designer’s responsibility

Ideas don’t sell themselves.

Sell ideas with stories.

+ + = A character we believe (persona)

A trigger that sparks a quest

(problem)

Journey to resolution (scenario)

Great story (design solution)

Stories help people imagine how your idea will change their lives or the lives of others.

Prototyping helps you evaluate the design and refine.

Prototyping has become more important as interactions + movement bring products to life.

And motion studies fill the void between screen key frames.

Prototypes sell ideas and communicate the design.

+  Are you highly-generative?

+  Are you highly collaborative with design?

+  Do you validate your ideas with prototypes?

+  Do you have a clear design process?

+  Do you support your ideas with rationale?

+  Do you communicate their design vision?

+  Do you care about the details before shipping?

+  Have you sold people on your design ideas?

+  Do customers love your products?

How design-capable are you?

Organization

Plastic Logic Que Proreader

Great design Launched at CES Multiple product delays Market changed Competition grew Too expensive

Hard lesson: You know your users, do great design + still fail.

We all suffer frustrations in product teams.

“People don’t listen to my ideas.” “We design for what the boss wants, but he’s wrong.”

“I’m not given enough time.”

“Design is an afterthought.” “I’m just following orders.”

“People don’t get what design means.”

“The project got canned.” “There’s no vision.”

Leadership Process Principles Tools People Education Collaboration

Communication

Product success is driven by great people and great culture.

Change is hard! Metro has taken years of effort.

Design leaders are changing organizations but it requires leadership support. Not everyone has that.

Company culture is controlled from the top.

www.flickr.com/photos/15918528@N00/3639993517/

But there are different spheres of culture. You can influence the culture of you and those closest to you.

Designers at Cooper wanted to be more collaborative across disciplines. One team changed their environment to work in the same room. Now everyone does it.

This is a design problem. Designers can fix these problems with design tools and methods!

Be goal-directed: Treat your coworkers like personas and consider their goals.

Design for everyone’s goals: Help development teams implement design with tools.

Design better experiences for design reviews.

Experience workshops help you educate others about design and start to define a strategy.

Teach: Design principles foster culture change.

Design experiences: Create environments with purpose.

Exploration Evaluation

Design for engagement: Help people learn about your users and identify better experiences.

Work out loud.

+ + = Small win

Show results

Share work Progress Ask for

more +

Prototype: Create small wins. Show results. Share how you did it. Ask for more!

Easy wins exist in the white spaces like new platforms or small apps or even small features.

Practice Fusion has disrupted the healthcare space, now they’re disrupting their own EMR products.

Practice Fusion’s iPad story.

Practice Fusion is managing to achieve success in user insight, design and organizational will.

+  Does your company value design and innovation?

+  Is your company willing and able to change?

+  Do you feel empowered to change your teams and company?

+  Do you have empathy for your colleagues like your users?

+  Do you design effective meetings?

+  Do you have a common language/principles for good design?

+  Does your company support risk-taking?

+  Does your company value quality over deadlines?

+  Is your company dominating its market?

How does your organization measure up?

A few things to remember…

A deep understanding of your users will bring clarity to your product or service.

Great products are designed through expansive generation, fast validation, and great craftsmanship.

Use your design skills to solve the problems in your organization.

Insight, design, and a goal-directed approach can inspire your organization to change.

nick@cooper.com @nickmyer5 cooper.com/journal

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