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The UX of Minimum Viable Products by Anders Ramsay

@andersramsay | #agileuxUX Singapore 2013
What is a Minimum Viable Product?

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What is a Minimum Viable Product? The shortest path from idea to validated learning.

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An entire organization is struggling to use a 20-year-old internal enterprise system.

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Pain points - Entering data into wrong fields. - Changes sometimes not saved. - Data often needing to be re-entered. - Often manually renaming/moving files. - Some departments refusing to use the system saying they’d never get any actual work done.

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“Cool, let’s do some research, model some personas, create a deck of wireframes, and start building the new system…”

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“Cool, let’s do some research, model some personas, create a deck of wireframes, and start building the new system…” “No, let’s conduct an MVP experiment: Find one pain point, try removing it, and see what we learn...”

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The MVP/Shortest Path to Validated Learning:

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The MVP/Shortest Path to Validated Learning:

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Offered riches both in user and tech learning. Could be implemented quickly. A success, even if it failed. The MVP/Shortest Path to Validated Learning:

#agileux | @andersramsayUX Singapore 2013
The MVP/Shortest Path to Validated Learning:

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vi·a·ble /ˈvīəbəl/ Adjective 1.Capable of working successfully; feasible: "the proposed investment was economically viable". 2.(of a seed or spore) Able to germinate.

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“A minimal viable product is...a rolling series of releases that iterate and improve based on a mix of data and vision/judgment.” —Giff Constable, Interaction 2011

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Focusing on learning over features... Persist or Pivot? MVP #1 MVP #2 Persist or Pivot? ...etc. Experiment and learn Experiment and learn

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MVP vs Product Vision One step toward a destination on the horizon.

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How does this impact UX design?

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Changing how we collaborate Adopt Agile UX methods to enable fast/high quality cycles of work. Whole team ideation andvisioning Effective workshops Pairing across roles/ disciplines

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Changing what we measure “Is this user-friendly?”

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Changing what we measure “Is this user-friendly?” “How much would you pay for this” “How much time would this save?” vs

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Broadening our design focus Designing and testing product viability. Designing and testing user experiences.

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MVP Design Patterns

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Painkiller Try removing a high-value, low-cost pain point.

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Fa$t Money Try shipping only what you think people will pay for.

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Wizard of Oz Try manually simulating system output.

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Go Ugly Early Try shipping with the most bare-bones UX possible.

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Fake Storefront (Archetypal Lean Startup landing page) Try marketing the product as if already completed.

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Be the software (aka “Concierge”) Try manually simulating the user experience.

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Which pattern should I pick? - What offers the most learning at the lowest cost? - What best tests your riskiest assumptions? - Expect to use a combination of patterns.

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Bottom line - Designing MVPs is a craft in its own right. - Broadens the meaning of UX design. - Requires melding virtually all aspects of Agile/Lean UX. - A great measurement of your skill level as a modern UX’er.

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Thanks! andersramsay.com @andersramsay #agileux Presentation: http://bit.ly/ux-of-mvps