@gilescolbornehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/4027405671/

Magic... or structured analysis?

Giles Colbornecxpartners

@gilescolborne

@gilescolborne

This is Sarah. i visited

her researching how

people buy from online

auctions. She said: i’d

never buy clothes

from ebay. But when i

asked her to show me a

favourite purchase...

@gilescolborne

Dolce & Gabbana!

...She ran up to her room and got these - designer trousers bought on ebay. When you go into the field, you discover the answers you get in the lab may not be the whole story.

@gilescolbornehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/32615508@N02/3047982712

We need to get

into the field. And

as context

matters more, the

need is growing.

@gilescolbornehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/cayusa/2666070091/

They won’t let me

but contextual

research is more

expensive. And it’s

hard to convince

budget holders to

pay it when the

premise is: ‘we don’t

know what we’ll find

out but it’ll be cool.’

@gilescolbornehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/niyam/2105979190/

Field research yields

lots of useless data. it’s

interesting to know that

where you keep your

phone says something

about how you use it -

but that won’t help me

design a mobile app.

@gilescolborne

And the outside

world is such an

unpredictable

place, that luck

plays a part in

getting field

research right.

@gilescolborne

Unknown insights

irrelevant insights

Out of scope insights

Just plain unluckySo that’s field

research. i need a way

of understanding

where i might get value.

And of training

colleagues to do it.

@gilescolborne

years ago, i asked an

expert how to plan field

research. she said - get

out there and just do it.

That makes it sound like

we arrive at results by

magic.

@gilescolbornehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/4027405671/

Would you trust

someone who was going

to use magic? i’D want to

know what they had up

their sleeve.

So can we be more

structured?

@gilescolbornehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/thalamus/2690847744/

When we research, we’re

looking for leverage

points - small changes

that can make a big

difference. They’re easy

to find in lab studies

because you cut out all

the variables.

@gilescolborne

in the lab, you have a

participant and a

computer. it’s easy to

see where the leverage

points are. you can

change the user (hard!)

or the device (easier).

@gilescolborne

in field studies,

it’s harder to

see where the

leverage points

might be.

@gilescolborne

Donella meadows

Donella meadows was a

systems analyst involved

in environmental

economics. She identified

12 leverage points where

you can influence a

complex system

@gilescolborne

Easie

r t

o n

otic

eConstants, parameters, numbers

The size of buffers and other stabilizing stocks

Structure of material stocks and flows

Length of delays, relative to the rate of system changes

Strength of negative feedback loops

Strength of positive feedback loops

Structure of information flow

Rules of the system

Power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure

Goal of the system

Mindset or paradigm from which the system arises

Power to transcend paradigms

Mo

re p

ro

fo

und e

ffect

@gilescolborne

Constants, parameters, numbers

The size of buffers and other stabilizing stocks

Structure of material stocks and flows

Length of delays, relative to the rate of system changes

Strength of negative feedback loops

Strength of positive feedback loops

Structure of information flow

Rules of the system

Power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure

Goal of the system

Mindset or paradigm from which the system arises

Power to transcend paradigms

She was applying this to

systems in economics and

the environment, but we

can apply this to our

information systems,

too. Still a list of 12 items

is complex. let’s simplify

it to make it easier to

apply.

@gilescolborne

Constants, parameters, numbers

The size of buffers and other stabilizing stocks

Structure of material stocks and flows

Length of delays, relative to the rate of system changes

Strength of negative feedback loops

Strength of positive feedback loops

Structure of information flow

Rules of the system

Power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure

Goal of the system

Mindset or paradigm from which the system arises

Power to transcend paradigms

Physic

al

The physical layer is

about properties and

resources. The speed

of a computer

network, the amount

of time it takes to

complete a task.

Parameters that affect

a system.

@gilescolbornehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/macspite/877883222/

so a friend creating a

mobile train ticketing

app watched users to

see how long they

stood in line for

tickets at rush hour.

@gilescolbornehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/macspite/877883222/

He figured that they

had to be able to

download the app and

buy before they got

to the front of a

ticket line. So a

constraint that he

had to meet.

@gilescolborne

Lo

gic

al

Constants, parameters, numbers

The size of buffers and other stabilizing stocks

Structure of material stocks and flows

Length of delays, relative to the rate of system changes

Strength of negative feedback loops

Strength of positive feedback loops

Structure of information flow

Rules of the system

Power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure

Goal of the system

Mindset or paradigm from which the system arises

Power to transcend paradigms

the logical layer is

about what

information is

available, to whom and

what it does. You can

relate that to the

content and

functionality specs

for a system.

@gilescolborne

When we redesigned the online

ticket buying service for a train

company, we watched people at

train stations. We saw people

arriving, looking for trains that

weren’t listed. They hadn’t

realised there were several

mainline stations and they’d gone

to the wrong one. They missed

their trains.

@gilescolborne

They didn’t have the right

info. So we added clues

to the buying process so

they’d know which

stations they were

choosing. And we added

maps to the print-outs,

so they’d be doubly sure.

in other words, we

changed the spec.

@gilescolborne

Co

nceptual

Constants, parameters, numbers

The size of buffers and other stabilizing stocks

Structure of material stocks and flows

Length of delays, relative to the rate of system changes

Strength of negative feedback loops

Strength of positive feedback loops

Structure of information flow

Rules of the system

Power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure

Goal of the system

Mindset or paradigm from which the system arises

Power to transcend paradigms

conceptual layer

is about ‘what is it

we should be

doing?’ the scope

of the solution.

@gilescolborne

Robin

Gail

when i was researching a

travel-agent extranet for

an airline i visited travel

agents big and small.

People like Robin who

worked in a big travel

agent had strict limits on

web access. we’d have

needed to get the it

department to agree to

give him access to the

extranet.

@gilescolborne

Robin

Gail

People like gail who worked

at a small travel agent set

up their computers just

how they liked. But gail’s

colleagues each favoured

different websites. it would

be hard to get them all to

adopt the site.

So there was really no

audience for the extranet.

@gilescolborne

Robin

Gail

But Gail and Robin both used

RSS feeds - getting the

airline’s info onto the right

feeds was a more efficient,

effective solution.

so we changed the scope of

the project.

@gilescolborne

Physical

Logical

Conceptual

refining

spec’ing

Scope

So now we’ve got a quick,

easy to use model for

figuring out what kinds of

leverage points to look for

- and what kinds of project

they’ll be useful in.

@gilescolborne

when you’re planning

research, you can

brainstorm the user and the

context. Ask - what might we

see? what might the users be

doing?

This helps prime you

for the kinds of

observation you might

make. Cluster these

into rough timelines.

@gilescolborne

Three types of observation

Actionable observation

context

observation context

observation

un-connectedobservation

Then look for actionable

observations (ones you

can turn into physical

constraints, logical

specs or conceptual

scopes). Actionable

observations are Things

you can influence.

Link ‘context’

observations (things

you can’t use, but which

support and add flavour.

Some observations will

be unconnected.

Now you have your

leverage points.

@gilescolborne

My expert friend had years

of experience which primed

her about what to pay

attention to. But she

couldn’t explain that

unconscious knowledge.

This method helps anyone

prime themselves for field

research. And helps show

your budget holder what you

might find.

@gilescolborne

Dr. Richard Wiseman

What about luck? Can

we get over the risk

of bad luck? Dr.

Richard Wiseman has

studied people who

appear to be ‘lucky’

and noticed that they

have some common

traits.

@gilescolborne

Social connections

Listen to your inner voice

Take control

Expect mistakes

They develop large, strong

networks of friends who can

help them. They listen to

their inner voice and know

when they have a bad feeling.

They take control of the

things they can influence.

And they accept that there

wilL be mistakes due to

things they can’t change. so

they don’t beat themselves

up. follow this advice and you

can make your own luck.

@gilescolborne

Prepare like crazy - so you can wing it.conan o’brien

@gilescolborne

Magic... or structured analysis?

• Prepare by acting out the experience and the context• Ask yourself where you’d find these points of leverage• Physical constraints - good for refining• Logical requirements - good for specing• Conceptual scope - good for scope

But don’t mistake your

preparation for

research. You’re priming

not observing. don’t

let your budget holder

go away thinking you

have the answers. you

don’t.

@gilescolborne

keep something up your

sleeve. Tell them: we

found 23 potential

leverage points. We need

to validate them. Because

the point of all this

planning is to let you go

out and do it all for

real.

@gilescolborne

giles.colborne@cxpartners.co.uk

@gilescolborne

follow cxpartners on Slideshare.net