Better Product Definition with Lean UX and Design Thinking

BETTER PRODUCT
DEFINITION WITH
LEAN UX &
DESIGN THINKING
Crisp - May 2013

@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/
@neo_innovation || @jboogie

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

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

@jboogie
“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.”

@jboogie
“…[lack of an invitation feature]
…caused a situation where
many people feel awkwardly
aware of events to which they
don’t feel welcome…”

@jboogie
http://blog.capwatkins.com/formspring-a-postmortem

@jboogie
“…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...”

@jboogie
“…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
include…
Who is our customer?

@jboogie
include…
What pain points do they have related to our
product or service?

@jboogie
include…
product or service?
How will our product/service solve their pain
points?

@jboogie
include…
product or service?
points?
What features are important?

@jboogie
include…
product or service?
points?
What is our differentiation?

@jboogie
include…
product or service?
points?
What is our differentiation?
What is our business model?

@jboogie
…which we then turn into hypotheses…

@jboogie
We believe that

@jboogie
We believe that
[building this feature]

@jboogie
We believe that
[for these people]

@jboogie
We believe that
[for these people]
will achieve [this outcome].

@jboogie
We believe that
[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

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

@jboogie
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
How could we have better defined our
products?

@jboogie
products?
Articulated our assumptions

@jboogie
products?
Defined our hypotheses

@jboogie
products?
Run lightweight tests to validate the need

@jboogie
products?
Run lightweight tests to validate the need
What outcome were we targeting?

@jboogie
What problem are you trying to solve?

@jboogie
How will you solve it?

@jboogie
How will you solve it?
How do you know it will work?

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

@jboogie
The measure of progress changes…

@jboogie
The measure of progress changes…
…from output to outcome.

@jboogie
You can launch features…and they can
still suck.

@jboogie
Output

@jboogie
Outcome

@jboogie
Impact

@jboogie
Many companies currently manage to
output.
Instead, they need to focus on outcome and
not task teams with responsibility for
impact.

@jboogie
14%

MAKE DECISIONS
BASED ON
OBJECTIVE
OBSERVATIONS

@jboogie
Kill

@jboogie
Pivot

@jboogie
Double-down

@jboogie
Case Study: Lenddo

MITIGATE RISK BY
NOT BUILDING
THINGS PEOPLE
DON’T WANT

@jboogie
Case Study: Sesame Street

@jboogie
Entering a new market

@jboogie
Heavy investment

@jboogie
Heavy investment
High risk

@jboogie
Heavy investment
High risk
Long term initiative

@jboogie
In-class observation

@jboogie
V1 = PDF content test

@jboogie
V2 = card sorting

@jboogie
V2 = card sorting
V3 = clickable prototype

@jboogie
V2 = card sorting
V3 = clickable prototype
Not a line of code
written

@jboogie
Case Study: Agile UX NYC 2012

@jboogie
Would anyone attend our conference?

@jboogie
Lots of up front costs

@jboogie
Lots of up front costs
Increasing fidelity of tests

LEAN UX AND
DESIGN THINKING
ARE NOT JUST FOR
DESIGNERS

@jboogie
Cross-functional teams…

@jboogie
Bring perspective to the product definition
process from all disciplines

@jboogie
Possess increased empathy for the user

@jboogie
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
Jeffrey Allen "Jeff 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…

@jboogie
Reduces the time spent building the wrong
product

@jboogie
product
Builds team-wide momentum & shared
understanding

@jboogie
product
Builds team-wide momentum & shared
understanding
Ensures that resources are spent on the right
initiatives

@jboogie
By shifting the way we work…

@jboogie
Requirements are assumptions

@jboogie
Focus on outcomes

@jboogie
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!
jeff@neo.com
@jboogie
www.leanuxbook.com
www.neo.com

Better Product Definition with Lean UX and Design Thinking

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