The document discusses how designers at Liquidnet worked to design an investment research management application. The designers' first task was to understand how portfolio managers think about and value investment research. Through field research, the designers discovered that portfolio managers value access to management more than the type of research an application could provide. When the designers brought this insight back, no one believed them. The solution was to bring strategists into the field as well, who then saw for themselves. This led the team to pivot their application to focus on delivering management access services by targeting the whole ecosystem.

1. How to work with a DesignerDesign + Lean Startup = Lean UXJosh Seiden Startup Lessons Learned 2011Design + Lean Startup = Lean UXThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

2. Background:Liquidnet is an institutional broker that earns commissions when traders buy and sell stocks in the Liquidnet system. But Liquidnet’s market share is limited because they only offer trading services. They need to add other services in order to address a larger slice of the market.Josh Seiden @jseidenStartup Lessons Learned 2011Design + Lean Startup = Lean UX

3. The Brief: Design an “Investment Research Management”application to help Portfolio Managers. Allow PMs to find and manage the valuable parts of investment research. Josh Seiden @jseidenStartup Lessons Learned 2011Design + Lean Startup = Lean UX

4. The designers’ first task: Figure out who will use the application.Josh Seiden @jseidenStartup Lessons Learned 2011Design + Lean Startup = Lean UX

5. Problem 1: How do Portfolio Managers think about Investment Research?Problem 2: The team doesn’t know any Portfolio Managers.Josh Seiden @jseidenStartup Lessons Learned 2011Design + Lean Startup = Lean UX

6. Discovery: PMs and Analysts don’t value the kind of Investment Research that can be delivered through a “Research Management” Application. Josh Seiden @jseidenStartup Lessons Learned 2011Design + Lean Startup = Lean UX

7. Discovery: They value Management Access.Josh Seiden @jseidenStartup Lessons Learned 2011Design + Lean Startup = Lean UX

8. Problem: The designers bring this insight back to the office, but no one believes them.Josh Seiden @jseidenStartup Lessons Learned 2011Design + Lean Startup = Lean UX

9. Solution: Bring the strategists into the field to see for themselves. Josh Seiden @jseidenStartup Lessons Learned 2011Design + Lean Startup = Lean UX

10. The Brief: Design a “Research Management” application Pivot: How can we deliver a Management Accessservice? Josh Seiden @jseidenStartup Lessons Learned 2011Design + Lean Startup = Lean UX

11. Solution: To do that, the team had to target the whole ecosystem.

12. Recap: Working With DesignersDesigners do customer development. They call it research.Designers want to understand how users think about a problem.Design research reveals what users value. Designers need organizational support.Designers who know how to collaborate are the ones who win.Designers work at every layer in the stack, from strategy, to service design, to product design, to interface design, to visual design.Josh Seiden @jseidenStartup Lessons Learned 2011Design + Lean Startup = Lean UX

13. Thank you.Comments + Questions: @jseidenJosh Seiden @jseidenStartup Lessons Learned 2011Design + Lean Startup = Lean UX