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/


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



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



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“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.”



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“…[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



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?


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How will our product/service solve their pain points?


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What features are important?


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What is our differentiation?


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What is our differentiation?

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

@jboogie

…which we then turn into hypotheses…


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We believe that


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We believe that [building this feature]


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


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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


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


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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



@jboogie


How could we have better defined our products?


@jboogie



Articulated our assumptions


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Defined our hypotheses


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Run lightweight tests to validate the need


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Run lightweight tests to validate the need

What outcome were we targeting?


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What problem are you trying to solve?


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How will you solve it?


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How will you solve it?

How do you know it will work?


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


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The measure of progress changes…


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The measure of progress changes…

…from output to outcome.


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You can launch features…and they can still suck.


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Output


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Outcome


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Impact


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Many companies currently manage to output.

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


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14%@neo_innovation || @jboogie

MAKE DECISIONS BASED ON OBJECTIVE OBSERVATIONS


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Kill


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Pivot


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Double-down


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Case Study: Lenddo


MITIGATE RISK BY NOT BUILDING THINGS PEOPLE DON’T WANT


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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


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Heavy investment

High risk

Long term initiative


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@jboogie


In-class observation


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V1 = PDF content test


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V2 = card sorting


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V2 = card sorting

V3 = clickable prototype


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V2 = card sorting

V3 = clickable prototype

Not a line of code written


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Case Study: Agile UX NYC 2012


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Would anyone attend our conference?


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Lots of up front costs


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Lots of up front costs

Increasing fidelity of tests


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LEAN UX AND DESIGN THINKING ARE NOT JUST FOR DESIGNERS


@jboogie

Cross-functional teams…


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Bring perspective to the product definition process from all disciplines


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Possess increased empathy for the user


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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

Defining the right product…


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Reduces the time spent building the wrong product


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Builds team-wide momentum & shared understanding


@jboogie



Builds team-wide momentum & shared understanding

Ensures that resources are spent on the right initiatives


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By shifting the way we work…


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Requirements are assumptions


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Focus on outcomes


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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!

[email protected]

@jboogie

www.leanuxbook.com


www.neo.com

better product definition with lean ux and design thinking

Technology

atthe end of blog posts

jboogiekey questions

design thinkingcan help

aformspring button

web sites andwould

situation wheremany

implementationwas easy

awkwardlyaware of events