Agile 2013: The Ideation Framework — Develop and Validate New Ideas Before Coding

Occom Group Company Confidential © 2013 All rights reserved.
Joshua Wexler,
Chief Executive Officer
josh@occomgroup.com
The Ideation Framework

Who is in the room?

Josh Wexler,
Chief Executive Officer
josh@occomgroup.com

My Fear

What we will cover
• 2 big questions
• Outcomes of the framework
• The ideation framework (with exercises!)
• Takeaways

2 Big Questions

How do you communicate (a technical idea) to others?

Communication is difficult.Text is ambiguous.

Car Car

How do you decide which ideas will be valuable?
That’s it!

How do you decide which ideas will be valuable?
Usable
Valuable Feasible

Collecting meaningful feedback is challenging

With a new idea, people don’t always
know what they want until
…they see it.
…they try it.
…they experience it.

Tell me something.And I will forget.
Show me something.And I can remember.
Involve me.And I will understand.
- Chinese Proverb

What we need
• Shared understanding
• Shared vision
• Consensus

The Ideation Framework
UNCERTAINTY CLARITY
ENVISION
Get the team speaking the
same language through
inspiration and design
exercises.
PROTOTYPE
Collaboratively build initial
solution as an on-device,
interactive prototype.
EVALUATE
Get feedback on prototype
from potential customers to
validate assumptions.

Envisioning
• Problem statement
• Inspiration
• Idea expression
• Customer definition
• Personas (proto people)
• User narratives
• Paper prototypes

Wouldn’t it be cool if…
Students could improve their study habits with a
mobile app?

Problem statement
1-2 sentences that describe an issue (need) for a
target customer that we are going to solve

Raphi’s problem statement
Too many students never complete high school not
because they lack intelligence, but because they
never gained the academic habits they needed

Your turn…
Take 1 minute to write down your problem statement
Turn to someone else and share for 30 seconds
A mobile app that helps people book flights faster

Inspiration
Inspiration is defined as other systems that attempt
to solve our problem or inspire us with their design
or functionality.

Your turn…
Take 2 minutes to come up with a piece of inspiration
and write down the following:
Name
What you like?
What do you not like?
What can you “borrow”?

Inspiration Board

Idea expression
An idea expression is a short and succinct
statement of your idea that everyone agrees to.

Customer definition
Who are the groups of people that will be using
your system? These are the primary customers
(i.e., early adopters) and are the people who feel
the pain of our problem the most.

Raphi’s customer definition
Students in 6th to 12th grade who own
smartphones.

Your turn…
Take 1 minute to come up with at least 2 meaningful
customer groups
Turn to someone else and share the group you picked
and why they would be good for 30 seconds

Personas
Characters created to represent the different user
types within your targeted demographic, attitude
and/or behavior set that might use our solution.

Raphi’s persona
Name: Derek Rodriguez
Age: 14
Demographic: 9th grader in NYC
Background:
• Attends a large urban high school
• Owns a smart phone and loves to use it
• Does not own a computer so uses his phone as his primary technology
• Regularly does his homework
• Takes notes and pays attention in class
• Typically reviews notes before a test as a way to prep
• Never had any formal study prep classes
• Has parents who are invested in him doing well in school
Goals:
• Wants to keep track of his homework assignments on his phone
• Wants to do well in class and get good grades
Frustrations:
• Even though he “studies” he still does not feel like he gets the grade he thinks he deserves
• Does not know how to get a better grade through studying

Your turn…
Take 2 minutes to write 1 persona. Give them the
following:
Name
Age
Background (2-3 points)
Goals (why would they use this system)

User narrative
A user narrative is a story about one of the
personas using and interacting the idea in the
world. Narratives are different then features, but
they can contain features.

Raphi’s user narrative
Derek is in a math class and hears about a test in
a week. He opens the app, adds the test and can
see all the study steps he will need to complete to
do well on the test. He adds those steps to his
plan.

Your turn…
Take 2 minutes to come up with a narrative for your
persona (make sure you give the background)

Paper prototype
A hand drawn version of a user narrative that gives a
visual to the story.

Raphi’s paper prototype

Your turn…
Take 4 minutes to draw a paper prototype using the
storyboard part of the paper.
Turn to someone else and share for 1 minute

Levels of fidelity in prototyping
Low Medium High

Validation and documentation
• Get the right level of fidelity in your prototype for the
project
• Put in front of users
– Ask if they match your personas
– Validate problems
– Watch them use it
• Ask developers to do an iteration with you
• Document as much as you need to

2 weeks
ENVISION
WORKSHO
P
1 Day
PROTOTYP
E
WORKSHO
P1 Day
PROTOTYPE
DEVELOPMEN
T
3 Days
EVALUATION
4 Days
PRESENTATION
1 Day
START FINISH
1 Cycle through the framework for agreenfield idea

Wrap up
• Shared vision and understanding is critical
• It is hard to test things in the real world
• People need to learn with you to build that shared
understanding
• Narratives are invaluable in communication

Josh Wexler
Josh@occomgroup.com
OccomGroup.com

Agile 2013: The Ideation Framework — Develop and Validate New Ideas Before Coding

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