An overview of how UX Research is conducted in entrepreneurial Lean UX organizations. Principles and practices of Lean/Agile UX teams in high-tech, mostly Silicon Valley, settings. Presented by Susan Wilhite to startupUCLA, an accelerator for UCLA students, on June 7, 2012 on the campus. Watch the startupUCLA web site for a video of the live presentation.

1. UX RESEARCH/DESIGN IN STARTUPS
Building a foundation with Lean UX
Susan Wilhite
@Maggid @startupUCLA

2. “You can be so bad at so many things… as long as you stay focused on
how you’re providing value to your users and customers, you
get through all that stuff.”

3. “You can be so bad at so many things… as long as you stay focused on
how you’re providing value to your users and customers, you
get through all that stuff.”
MARK ZUCKERBERG

4. TODAY’S KEY TAKEAWAYS
Focus on value.
Compile your knowledge. Build a spine.
What do you know? What is your core?
How do you know it? What is unnecessary?
What does it mean? What is your niche?

5. The customer side of a business
UX = USER EXPERIENCE

6. LEAN UX DISCOUNT
“The downside of this whole lean startup thing is that a lot
of people seem to think it’s ok to launch crap. It’s not.”
@MAXNIEDERHOFER Team Europe (Berlin)
“The point of lean is to try to iteratively drive to a series of
conclusions sooner with less cash consumed.” Bart Bartlett
@bbartle
Lean UX is about making the most of a short runway.

7. LEAN UX USES SCIENTIFIC METHOD
At the core of Lean UX, you treat each design iteration as a hypothesis.
“Minimize the amount of time you're pursuing the wrong hypothesis. The
more wrong paths you can figure out quickly, the sooner you'll find the
right path.“ Jeff Gothelf @jboogie
To compensate for the absence of heavyweight deliverables, Lean UX works via
team collaboration. Lean UX methods involve the entire team as they are
happening.
Jared Spool, November 2011 blog post

8. UX
Product & Biz
Development
The Old Waterfall Process

9. UX
Product & Biz
Development
The Old Waterfall Process
Deliverables are sometimes more
enthusiastically given than received.

11. LEAN UX VERSUS REGULAR UX
Lean UX Regular UX
Instead of doing quick bursts of …running months-long
user research… engagements.
Rather than doing café testing on …lab testing a dozen+.
3-6 people…
Rather than sketching interfaces …generating reams of formal
out on paper and prototyping documentation.
them in HTML/CSS… Adapted from Andy Budd 2011

12. IS LEAN UX BETTER THAN REGULAR UX?
Lean UX isn’t a different flavor of UX, just a subset.
Research, design, and testing is one extended, morphing multi-
phase study.
“Some projects are fine with a guerrilla approach while others require more
formality.” @AndyBudd 2011
Research
Research Prototype Test & Test
Prototype

13. “Fully understand the most important attributes of your product.”
• What is it conceptually?
• How do users see the product
• Important in what way? To whom?
• Latent attributes
• How does the product/service fit into the user’s ecosystem?
• What does it displace or augment or compliment?
• What are the end-to-end experiences?

14. UX Research/Design role in the organization – what it’s like to carry the charge
THE UX LEAD

15. HOW UX WORKS IN THEORY
Habitually and harmoniously internalize
and actualize the implications of
customer needs/wishes, technical
and team processes, product
development and marketing history,
and the nature of external
relationships.
“Strong opinions, weakly held.”
Paul Saffo (Faculty, Singularity University)

16. HOW UX WORKS IN PRACTICE
Stand up for your findings
and perspectives.
Have constructive and
objective arguments.
“Leave your ego at the door”
“Play well with others”

17. “One world fair, a picnic, and a rodeo.”

18. FIELD TRIP COORDINATOR OR IMMERSIVE JOURNALIST?

19. The UX Value-add
Sell yourself, sell your methods, sell your thinking
• Propose theories backed up by well-chosen and well-illustrated empirical data
• Accept, expand on and facilitate collective + diverse thinking
• Keep D-school exercises handy (http://dschool.stanford.edu/use-our-methods/)

20. RIDE THE CHAOS
Develop & practice team learning and processing.
Work from a strong, central spine. Know what/who you can depend on.
Prepare to improvise.

21. ONE DOESN'T DISCOVER NEW LANDS WITHOUT CONSENTING
TO LOSE SIGHT OF THE SHORE FOR A VERY LONG TIME.
ANDRE GIDE

22. IS IT OK FOR A RESEARCHER TO NOT BE A MAKER?
In an ideal world the person who brings in new ideas also designs the product or
service. Yet each role has its principles, knowledge, and skills.
Researchers generate data that become findings that inform everyone.
Designers think through research findings to generate design solutions.
This question is a work in progress.

23. EXPRESS IMPLICATIONS VISUALLY

24. A rigorous learning structure supports breakthrough innovation.
COMPILE YOUR KNOWLEDGE

25. Build-Measure-Learn Lean UX dogma

26. Build-Measure-Learn Lean UX dogma
Think-Make-Check (LUXr)

27. Build-Measure-Learn Lean UX dogma
Think-Make-Check (LUXr)
Learn-Measure-Build Lean Startup Circle

28. Learn. Measure. Build. Compile…
Research
Requirements
Analysis
planning
Design
Evaluation Prototype
Testing
Adapted from Read-Write-Web: “Bye-Bye Waterfall”

29. COMPILE YOUR KNOWLEDGE
• Identify and investigate your most critical questions
• Connect your UX findings to what you already “know”
• Balance enthusiasm with skepticism
• Plan to reuse data
• UX Research/Design has a long shelf-life
• Build institutional knowledge
• Keep processing prior data and findings across roles
• Develop meta-conclusions and new hypotheses

30. JOB QUALIFICATIONS EXAMPLE
Minimum Qualifications
Bachelor's Degree in Psychology, Anthropology, Human Factors, Cognitive Science, or related
field and 3 years experience in consumer-based research design and analysis, user analytics,
or related field OR 5 years’ experience in consumer-based research design and analysis, user
analytics, or related field.
Preferred Qualifications
Master's Degree in Human Computer Interaction, Applied Statistics, Econometrics,
Psychometrics, or related field.
• 2 years’ experience researching front-end user experience solutions for mobile
applications on major smartphone platforms such as Android or iOS.
• 2 years’ experience conducting quantitative on-line research methodologies with
systems such as UserZoom or Keynote.
• 2 years’ experience conducting field-based ethnographic research.

31. WRAP UP:
UX RESEARCH/DESIGN IN STARTUPS
• Focus on value to the customer
• Apply Lean UX: compile your knowledge
• Build a spine: a reliable infrastructure as a foundation for innovation

32. @Maggid Susan_Wilhite at msn dot com
SUSAN WILHITE, UX RESEARCHER