3. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
A product & service
innovation company
Se#ng
 Strategy
 &
Â
Vision
Â
Developing
 &
 valida5ng
Â
products
Â
Innova5on
 prac5ces
 &
Â
long
 term
 change
Â
4. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Ideal outcomes from this session?
Digital UX
Product design
Product
development.
How to get better briefs that allow you to
explore interesting opportunities and less
dispute with the people who are âleadingâ it
How to get closer to the product you had
envisioned, and create greater harmony with
the team tasked with making it great
Â
âwtf ?â
9. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
New Product Development (NPD)
qï±âŻ Strategy
qï±âŻ Ideas and insight
qï±âŻ R&D Concepts
qï±âŻ Developed & Validated Concepts
(Desirability, Viability, Feasibility)
qï±âŻ Partnerships and organisation
qï±âŻ Design & Build
qï±âŻ Operate
10. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
The âNon Productâ Approach
qï±âŻ Strategy
qï±âŻ Ideas and insight
qï±âŻ R&D Concepts
qï±âŻ Developed & Validated Concepts
(Desirability, Viability, Feasibility)
qï±âŻ Partnerships and organisation
qï±âŻ Design & Build
qï±âŻ Operate
Research
Â
Business
 Case
Â
Investment
 decision
Â
11. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
qï±âŻ Strategy
qï±âŻ Ideas and insight
qï±âŻ R&D Concepts
qï±âŻ Developed & Validated Concepts
(Desirability, Viability, Feasibility)
qï±âŻ Partnerships and organisation
qï±âŻ Design & Build
qï±âŻ Operate
Opinions,
 guesswork
Â
 and
 specula5on
Â
The âNon Productâ Approach
13. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
But then they go one of two ways:
Exci5ng,
 interes5ng,
 innova5ve.
Â
Empowered,
 crea5ve,
 inspired
Â
Detailed,
 monotonous,
 not
 thinking
 for
 myself
Â
Demo5vated,
 dis-Ââspirited,
 âdone
 toâ
Â
What
 ifâŠ
Â
Wireframes
Â
Â
An
 explora5on
 of
 why
Â
Â
What
 new
 opportuni5es
 there
 might
 be
 within
 it
Â
New
 ideas,
 âblue
 skyâ
 thinking,âŠ
Â
Â
Â
Well,
 they
 seem
 to
 have
 made
 up
 their
 minds,
Â
weâll
 just
 get
 on
 and
 be
 the
 wireframe
Â
monkeys
 shall
 we?
Â
15. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
An imaginary new product
âA new range of luggage speciïŹcally for the familyâ
The budget is set
The board is all behind it
22. Hey, what if the suitcase actually
became the holiday?
23. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
But thenâŠ
âProduct
 Ownerâ
Â
But suddenlyâŠ
The
 more
 radical
 thinking
Â
simply
 gets
 dropped
 as
 it
 canât
Â
be
 validated
Â
Â
Ideas
 may
 be
 good,
 they
 might
Â
not.
 Nobody
 is
 in
 a
 posi5on
 to
Â
judge
 before
 5me
 starts
Â
running
 out.
Â
Â
Â
âWeâve
 got
 a
 whole
 stack
 of
Â
basics
 to
 do
 ïŹrstâ
Â
24. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Agile approaches in non-product
thinking companiesâŠ
Things
 we
Â
know
 we
Â
can
 do
Â
Â
Things
 we
 know
 our
Â
customers
 value
Â
The
 unproven
Â
ideas
 domain
Â
25. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Stage 3:
New ideas get pushed to the back and we focus in on the
basics, having no time, resource or remit to progress our
half-formed ideas, no matter how brilliant they wereâŠ
27. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
The Line
Exci5ng,
 interes5ng,
 innova5ve.
Â
Empowered,
 crea5ve,
 inspiring
Â
Detailed,
 monotonous,
 not
 thinking
 for
 myself
Â
Demo5vated,
 dis-Ââspirited,
 âdone
 toâ
Anything
 is
 possible
Â
I
 have
 a
 very
 5ght,
 prescrip5ve
 brief
Â
30. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Now
 design
 something
Â
magniïŹcent
Â
What we needed was an inspiring
brief with real possibilities
âDesign
 a
 suitcase
 that
 children
 and
Â
parents
 will
 love.
Â
We
 know
 that
 hassled
 parents
 and
 kids
 will
Â
love
 a
 ride-Ââon
 case.
Â
 We
 can
 save
 5red
Â
parent
 arms
 and
 5red
 toddler
 legs
 and
Â
make
 travel
 fun.â
Â
Research
 &
 Insight:
Â
A
 clear
 product
 proposi8on:
Â
32. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Product Development is pure UCD
But it doesnât design interfaces, and itâs not
concerned with usability or ergonomics
desirable
 feasible
Â
viable
Â
33. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Product Developmentâs Goals
1.⯠To ïŹesh out and validate product and service
propositions
Desirable:
Customers will ïŹnd value in it
Feasible:
We can make it work
Viable:
It can be an economic success
2.⯠Prove that this is the right thing to do, kill it early, or learn
enough to turn it into the right thing to do
3.⯠To arm a design and build team with all they need to get
the product designed and built in the right way
34. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
But what many product
development teams miss isâŠ
That once theyâve âdevelopedâ the idea into a
product, the customer experience still has to be
designed
(because generally, theyâre a bit crap at doing that bit!)
36. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
âThe
 CEO
 had
 a
Â
designer
 mock
Â
something
 upâ
Â
âWeâve
 had
 a
Â
product
 design
Â
consultancy
Â
working
 on
 itâ
Â
âWeâve
 developed
 a
 new
 brand,
Â
and
 the
 branding
 agency
 have
Â
done
 some
 mock-Ââupsâ
Â
Words that strike terrorâŠ
38. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Getting the wrong side of the line only leads
to conflictâŠ
âArrogant
 tossers,
Â
they
 just
 donât
 get
 it!â
Â
âHa,
 theyâre
 so
 wrong.
 This
 is
Â
a
 much
 beCer
 idea.â
Â
39. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Todayâs Line
Exci5ng,
 interes5ng,
 innova5ve.
Â
Empowered,
 crea5ve,
 inspiring
Â
Detailed,
 monotonous,
 not
 thinking
 for
 myself
Â
Demo5vated,
 dis-Ââspirited,
 âdone
 toâ
Anything
 is
 possible
Â
I
 have
 a
 very
 5ght,
 prescrip5ve
 brief
Â
40. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Setting out to raise the bar
Exci5ng,
 interes5ng,
 innova5ve.
Â
Empowered,
 crea5ve,
 inspiring
Â
Detailed,
 monotonous,
 not
 thinking
 for
 myself
Â
Demo5vated,
 dis-Ââspirited,
 âdone
 toâ
Anything
 is
 possible
Â
I
 have
 a
 very
 5ght,
 prescrip5ve
 brief
Â
âMmmm. Nice concept, full of possibility.
Will be fun to see how we make it work.â
41. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
So two key questions:
How do you do this cost-effectively?
We already think we donât have enough
time for design â how do you make it
worth investing in?
How
 do
 we
 ensure
 this
 process
Â
does
 not
 en5rely
 alienate
 design
Â
and
 development
 teams?
Â
42. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Three answers
Focus on generating facts, not
opinions; and be lean about it
Enable and equip your design & build
team, donât tell them what to do
Donât be precious â about your ideas,
or being right
48. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Hard
 to
 do,
 and
 a
Â
lot
 of
 risk
Â
man
ufac
ture
Â
design
 &
Â
development
Â
feasibility
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Idea
Â
d
i
s
t
r
i
b
u
t
i
o
n
insight
Â
Easy
 to
 do,
 and
Â
no
 risk
Â
Star5ng
 to
 invest
Â
5me
 &
 money
Â
49. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Hard
 to
 do,
 and
 a
Â
lot
 of
 risk
Â
man
ufac
ture
Â
design
 &
Â
development
Â
feasibility
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Idea
Â
insight
Â
Easy
 to
 do,
 and
Â
no
 risk
Â
Star5ng
 to
 invest
Â
5me
 &
 money
Â
51. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
MVP = Minimum Viable Product
Q: What is the absolute minimum we
can do to see if people actually value
our product?
52. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
distribu5on
Â
Dim
 and
Â
distant
 past
Â
insight
Â
concept
Â
feasibility
Â
design
 &
Â
development
Â
manufacture
Â
Painful,
 but
 we
 got
Â
thereâŠ
Â
Dragonâs
 Den
Â
Give
 it
 to
Â
the
 press
Â
Bankrupt
Â
factory
Â
Dodgy
Â
catches
Â
People
Â
bought
 it
Â
Licensee
Â
liquidated
Â
Rob
 Lawâs
 facts
 were
Â
generated
 by
 pu#ng
Â
his
 product
Â
 in
 the
Â
hands
 of
 the
 press,
Â
and
 sure
 enough
 they
Â
loved
 it.
Â
54. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
He believed strongly because he
had generated real facts
So what do the opinions of the
dragons matter?!
The toughness of his journey was
testament to the fact that his
MVP could not be that minimal
55. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
FortunatelyâŠ
This now happens in days, or maybe weeks,
but certainly not months.
The Labâs job within a product development
cycle is to generate evidence-based learning, to
help get the ideas right, and make good
decisions based on facts
57. labs
Basic Insight
We found it really hard to find a whiteboard the
size we want and think that other people will
have the same problem.
58. labs
This leads to a value hypothesis that we
can begin to test
âWe think that people will value a
premium service that makes and installs
whiteboards to a precise set of
dimensions.â
59. labs
1.⯠Make a site that
calculates the cost
and puts customers in
touch with us.
2.⯠Get a phone!
If people value
this service as
much as we do.
Volume of people
searching for it on Google
Requests for pricing
People who buy
62. labs
The Labâs Learnings
This is a viable, small, local
business.
It would be a good idea to make
the whiteboards erasable!
It is possible in a week to prove
out a digital physical business
in a lean way
64. labs
Amongst others, we created one
experiment designed to test
something that had been debated
for ages at the bank
65. labs
It was a thorny subject.
It involved using customersâ
personal data to do something we
thought they would like and value.
66. labs
But would they accept it, or would
they go nuts and call the Daily Mail?
We put it live in a few weeks in an MVP to
several thousand real customers who didnât know
it was just an experiment.
68. labs
It was usability tested
It
 panned!
Â
Only
 24%
 of
 people
 said
 they
 would
 do
 it
Â
69. labs
How many ACTUALLY did it in
real life?
96%
 of
 people
 just
 jumped
 right
 on
 in!
Â
70. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
âWhat people say they will do and
what they actually do is often
very different and can be greatly
affected by their level of
awareness of the task at handâ
71. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Market Research
(quant and qual)
Usability Testing
Prototype Testing
A/B Testing
Multi-variate testing
True
ethnography
MVP/Lean
Market Intelligence
and behavioural data
Unaware Aware
Product/Service
Maturity Level
Idea/Concept
Partial/Fully
Developed
Is the User
aware of the test?
The fluxx âTested Userâ Framework
72. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
A wide variety of
opinions, ideas and
stories
UsabilityOptimising where
there are multiple
options
Proving an idea
one way or the
other
History
Unaware Aware
Product/Service
Maturity Level
Idea/Concept
Partial/Fully
Developed
Is the User
aware of the test?
The fluxx âTested Userâ Framework
73. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydeeflux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
The outcome of which isâŠ
Armed with facts, a product development team
can simply âtellâ they donât âsellâ
Itâs hard to argue with, people donât want to
Itâs equally obvious how to apply that data to
influence the design later on
74. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
A key point here though isâŠ
An MVP does not a design make
Which leads us to:
Enable and equip your design
build team; donât tell them
what to do
76. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Briefing the team
Present the trail of evidence
âąâŻ A user-centred journey
âąâŻ Help the team understand the
insight on which the product
was founded
âąâŻ Donât hide any facts
âąâŻ Show your wrong turns
78. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Create useful assets.
Things that will enable, not confine your design team
Draft Personas
If you donât know these, then the product youâve
developed isnât worth the Omnigraffle itâs visualised on!
Product and Experience Principles
Distil your experience of the product development
learnings into principles that will help guide the design
and build team
79. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
What we donât say:
âYeah, we already prototyped itâ
Product development should never be testing a UI,
or a brand VI
We ask questions like:
âąâŻ Is the content valuable to our audience?
âąâŻ Is the function that it performs valuable?
âąâŻ How easy or low cost does it have to be to become, in
order to become valuable?
80. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Which has led us to a unique
design principle:
Make it as bad as you can get away with
(So long as you donât get in the way of the core testing objective)
âIâve never been asked
to make my work
âmore sh*t before!â
83. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
After a briefing like that, it should
be easy to sum it up as something
as simple as:
Brilliant basics, magic touches
⊠and a number of other principles to which
a user experience or product would have to
conform in order to be the one that we
believe customers will love
84. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Finally
Our brief must be full of possibility
âItâs clear to us that people want a degree of
serendipity; for the ïŹnding of information to have
a âfuzzy edgeâ that allows them to stumble on
something that they love, but werenât
expectingâ
86. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Creating a product design
brief with possibility
Always guide, never prescribe
Set principles, not guidelines
Design experiments, not UI
Say how it feels, not what it does
In short: Let the design team design itâŠ
89. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Take input wherever you can
Regularly take time to gather
intelligence, ideas and product
thoughts from everywhere you can,
and credit your sources
90. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Be inclusive
Get the design and development team to
develop the MVP
A RapidStart approach looks to get an
experiment out in under two days
91. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
Product Development can be a
state of mind, not a department
For complex products where there
is a high degree of uncertainty, itâs
an upfront investment
92. flux[x] @fluxxstudios @poleydee
For new features in existing
products, it can become a âspikeâ
in the existing process
Product Development can be a
state of mind, not a department