This document summarizes a workshop on creating customer-centered product visions using contextual design. The workshop will have participants analyze customer data to understand user needs and issues, then brainstorm ideas for addressing those needs. Participants will develop multiple visions for how new technologies could improve the customer experience. They will evaluate the visions and consolidate them into a coherent solution. The goal is to redesign products and services around customer needs revealed by contextual inquiry research methods.

1. ProductCamp Vancouver 2011
Creating a Customer-Centered Product Vision
Using customer data and group brainstorming
Dave Flotree
Program Manager
dave.flotree@incontextdesign.com
www.incontextdesign.com 206-546-3833
Copyright © 2011 InContext Enterprises Inc. All rights reserved.

2. InContext Design
Developers of Contextual Design
 A repeatable end-to-end design process
 Used to develop business systems, products
web-based applications, consumer goods…
 Used and taught in universities and companies
all over the world
 Supporting any methodology: RUP, Agile, Corporate …
Principals
 Karen Holtzblatt, co-founder and CEO
• Recognized worldwide as an expert on user-centered design
 Hugh Beyer, co-founder and CTO
• The technology backbone to all our designs and processes
InContext
 Founded – 1992
 >20 professionals
 Offices in Boston and Chicago

3. Let’s pretend…
We work for Good Groceries Corp.
 Provides products and services to support grocery store operations.
Management wants to create new offerings
 Focused on helping grocery shoppers to have a better shopping experience
 Are there new ways to use current technology to improve shopping?
We’ve gathered customer data, it’s on the wall
 We interviewed shoppers as they created shopping lists and went to the store
 We created an affinity diagram to organize shopper’s issues, acts as the VOC
 The affinity is organized in a readable hierarchy
• Yellow = Individual notes from interview interpretation
• Blue = Issues or work distinctions
• Pink = Common themes
• Green = Areas of concern
 (In real life there would be other models, and a complete affinity)

4. Brain priming—Walk the customer data
Silently read the affinity
 Ask yourself: if this is what’s going on, what should we do?
Think of broad, systemic ideas to address shopper needs
 Focus on big ideas, don’t dwell on one-offs
• Use slogans or metaphors if you like (“put all the information the shopper needs
in the palm of their hand”)
 Write ideas on Post-Its and stick on wall
Affinity hints
 Start anywhere
 Read the hierarchy like a story outline (green->pink->blue)
 Don’t worry about the yellow notes unless you need clarification

5. Vision a coherent solution
A group storytelling process
 Multiple visions explore possibilities
• And flesh out cases and issues
identified by the data
 Evaluate afterwards to free creativity
• “Just because you think it you don’t
have to build it”
Make the story real
 Who am I? What am I doing?
 Weave technology into the story
 Synthesize it as you tell the story
 Let the story drive technology
together
 Let the story suggest new business
process

6. Visioning: work redesign steps
Identify Business Issues
 Issues and hot ideas Hot
Issues Technology
Ideas
& Tools
Vision Vision
 Brainstorm multiple hot
ideas for the new work ž
ž
ž
practice
Evaluate
 Pluses and minuses + – + – + –
 Fix minuses with design
ideas Consolidate
ž
Consolidate ž
ž
 One coherent vision for
the new work practice

7. Contextual Design
Requirements & Solutions
Contextual Inquiry Talk to specific customers in the field
What matters to
Interpret the data as a team to capture key issues
users –
Interpretation Session
characterizing
what they do
Work Models and
Consolidate data across customers for a full market view
Affinity Diagramming
New ideas and
Visioning Redesign people’s work with new technology ideas
direction
Define & Validate Concepts
Storyboarding Work out the details of particular tasks and roles Redesign
activities and
technology to
User Environment provide value
Design system to support this new work
Design
Paper Mock-Up
Mock up the interface using interaction patterns for testing
Interviews Iterate the
system with
Interaction & Visual users
Design and test the final look and user experience
Design

8. Thank you!
Dave Flotree
dave.flotree@incontextdesign.com
www.incontextdesign.com