The document discusses upselling UX (user experience) design from pixels to strategy. It argues that UX designers should engage more with product strategy by understanding existing strategies, critiquing weak points from a user perspective, and helping shape new strategies through user research. The speaker advocates building a "chain of whys" to question strategic decisions and establish why solutions were chosen, and gaining trust with stakeholders by empathizing with them rather than acting as experts. The goal is for UX designers to elevate their focus from interface design to higher-level strategic concerns that have more impact on creating great user experiences.
Part of the #AETCWorkshop series looking at upselling.
Designed and delivered to an international audience of business owners in Tallinn, Estonia.
For all enquires contact Richard.Brooks@k-international.com
כיצד מסתדרת עבודה על אפיון ממשק במתודולוגיה מוכוונת משתמש עם הקצב המהיר של עבודה במתודולוגיית Agile? האם ניתן לעשות UX טוב ב- Agile ? איך מתמודדים עם השילוב של Agile ו-UX בארגונים גדולים?
בהרצאה קצרה זו אפריך כמה מהמיתוסים הנפוצים בנוגע לעבודה על UX בארגונים גדולים ככלל ועבודה ב-Agile בפרט, ואנסה להציע מספר טיפים כיצד להתמודד עם האתגר הלא פשוט של אפיון ממשקים למערכות מורכבות בסביבת Agile.
Part of the #AETCWorkshop series looking at upselling.
Designed and delivered to an international audience of business owners in Tallinn, Estonia.
For all enquires contact Richard.Brooks@k-international.com
כיצד מסתדרת עבודה על אפיון ממשק במתודולוגיה מוכוונת משתמש עם הקצב המהיר של עבודה במתודולוגיית Agile? האם ניתן לעשות UX טוב ב- Agile ? איך מתמודדים עם השילוב של Agile ו-UX בארגונים גדולים?
בהרצאה קצרה זו אפריך כמה מהמיתוסים הנפוצים בנוגע לעבודה על UX בארגונים גדולים ככלל ועבודה ב-Agile בפרט, ואנסה להציע מספר טיפים כיצד להתמודד עם האתגר הלא פשוט של אפיון ממשקים למערכות מורכבות בסביבת Agile.
Your a visionary with a great software idea that is sure to take off, but how do you build it the right way? Adam Culp will highlight common mistakes made by startups from a technology standpoint while building software. He will discuss how to build the right team, best practices to ensure everything is solid and well built, and management methods to carry the project forward. We will also hear how to implement these things in a manner that saves the company time and money during the crucial startup phase. Attendees will gain knowledge that generally takes years, and a stack of disposed money, for companies to discover.
Role of UI and UX in improving customer experienceZoho SalesIQ
UI & UX help brands anticipate every customer persona and create a product that its users will love. They put the customers at the centre of a company's design process (both visual and structural), which results in great customer experience. Curious to see how it works?
Here, learn how you can leverage UI and UX to understand, influence, and improve your customer experience.
Agenda:
1) What is UI & UX
2) Theoretical and psychological aspects of UI & UX
3) How does a UI/UX designer go about it?
4) Future of UI & UX in terms of CX
UXPA 2023: Experience Maps - A designer's framework for working in Agile team...UXPA International
Agile Methodology refers to software design and development methodologies centered around the idea of iterative design and development, where requirements and concepts evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. Thus, Agile enables teams to deliver value faster, with greater quality and predictability, and greater aptitude to respond to change. With evolving product features every design sprint, designers & researchers find it difficult to follow the design process. This sometimes leads to designs delivered in haste or sub-par design artifacts which result in UX debt. UX debt is accumulated when design teams take actions or shortcuts to expedite the delivery of a piece of functionality or a project which later needs to be refactored. It is the result of prioritizing speedy delivery of design to the development team over a perfect experience journey. Experience Maps is a great tool to practice UX in Agile as well as manage UX Debt.
Design Studios are a popular method for getting product teams together to focus on design. Design Studios are more than just getting people together to sketch and critique. In this workshop, Brian Sullivan, author of The Design Studio Method: Creative Problem Solving with UX Sketching, will share his secrets to planning, running, and leading successful Design Studios
In this workshop, you will learn:
Ways to creative and evaluate sketches quickly
See different tools to get you started
The 9 Steps of a Design Studio
Stories of success and failure in Design Studio
How to deal with difficult people/strong personalities
We will have plenty of time for your burning questions, too.
Managing Entropy - Clarity '13 - Keith GoodeKeith Goode
"Managing Entropy" is a presentation given by Keith Goode at Clarity '13 on September 26, 2013 in Austin, TX at the Four Seasons Hotel and Conference Center. The session was "Solving SEO Challenges at Scale," and the other panelists were Taylor Pratt, Scott Nickels, and Richard Chavez.
In this presentation, Keith Goode discusses the challenges of scaling SEO efforts without becoming a weighty organization. SEO at scale requires an organization-wide democratization of SEO. Review the slides to find out how.
Tech Talk given by Sumbry at /dev/color where we dive into the specifics of how to advocate for yourself and get ahead in your career by understanding the engineering org chart.
Slow down. Be Human. Building trust across teams with dataMatthew Eng
IBM Design’s mission was to shift how it approached product strategy, but it led to friction between multidisciplinary teams grasping for a unified vision. Learn lessons from assembling a research team that broke bad data analysis habits and started inclusive generative and evaluative techniques.
Gilt Senior Director, Program Management Office Heather Fleming and Director of Program Management Justin Riservato discuss Agile, Gilt's PMO challenges and more in this informative presentation.
Agile software development and User experience design are often seen at odds. The problem is that everything is designed by someone. So, it is better to discover how to incorporate UX into an Agile process rather than ignore it and leave the design up to the development team.
Slides from the UX 101 presentation by Abe Abe Crystal of MoreBetterLabs, given to the Carolina Chapter of STC on Feb 17, 2011. See http://www.stc-carolina.org/User+Experience+101 for details.
Generative AI Deep Dive: Advancing from Proof of Concept to ProductionAggregage
Join Maher Hanafi, VP of Engineering at Betterworks, in this new session where he'll share a practical framework to transform Gen AI prototypes into impactful products! He'll delve into the complexities of data collection and management, model selection and optimization, and ensuring security, scalability, and responsible use.
Essentials of Automations: The Art of Triggers and Actions in FMESafe Software
In this second installment of our Essentials of Automations webinar series, we’ll explore the landscape of triggers and actions, guiding you through the nuances of authoring and adapting workspaces for seamless automations. Gain an understanding of the full spectrum of triggers and actions available in FME, empowering you to enhance your workspaces for efficient automation.
We’ll kick things off by showcasing the most commonly used event-based triggers, introducing you to various automation workflows like manual triggers, schedules, directory watchers, and more. Plus, see how these elements play out in real scenarios.
Whether you’re tweaking your current setup or building from the ground up, this session will arm you with the tools and insights needed to transform your FME usage into a powerhouse of productivity. Join us to discover effective strategies that simplify complex processes, enhancing your productivity and transforming your data management practices with FME. Let’s turn complexity into clarity and make your workspaces work wonders!
Your a visionary with a great software idea that is sure to take off, but how do you build it the right way? Adam Culp will highlight common mistakes made by startups from a technology standpoint while building software. He will discuss how to build the right team, best practices to ensure everything is solid and well built, and management methods to carry the project forward. We will also hear how to implement these things in a manner that saves the company time and money during the crucial startup phase. Attendees will gain knowledge that generally takes years, and a stack of disposed money, for companies to discover.
Role of UI and UX in improving customer experienceZoho SalesIQ
UI & UX help brands anticipate every customer persona and create a product that its users will love. They put the customers at the centre of a company's design process (both visual and structural), which results in great customer experience. Curious to see how it works?
Here, learn how you can leverage UI and UX to understand, influence, and improve your customer experience.
Agenda:
1) What is UI & UX
2) Theoretical and psychological aspects of UI & UX
3) How does a UI/UX designer go about it?
4) Future of UI & UX in terms of CX
UXPA 2023: Experience Maps - A designer's framework for working in Agile team...UXPA International
Agile Methodology refers to software design and development methodologies centered around the idea of iterative design and development, where requirements and concepts evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. Thus, Agile enables teams to deliver value faster, with greater quality and predictability, and greater aptitude to respond to change. With evolving product features every design sprint, designers & researchers find it difficult to follow the design process. This sometimes leads to designs delivered in haste or sub-par design artifacts which result in UX debt. UX debt is accumulated when design teams take actions or shortcuts to expedite the delivery of a piece of functionality or a project which later needs to be refactored. It is the result of prioritizing speedy delivery of design to the development team over a perfect experience journey. Experience Maps is a great tool to practice UX in Agile as well as manage UX Debt.
Design Studios are a popular method for getting product teams together to focus on design. Design Studios are more than just getting people together to sketch and critique. In this workshop, Brian Sullivan, author of The Design Studio Method: Creative Problem Solving with UX Sketching, will share his secrets to planning, running, and leading successful Design Studios
In this workshop, you will learn:
Ways to creative and evaluate sketches quickly
See different tools to get you started
The 9 Steps of a Design Studio
Stories of success and failure in Design Studio
How to deal with difficult people/strong personalities
We will have plenty of time for your burning questions, too.
Managing Entropy - Clarity '13 - Keith GoodeKeith Goode
"Managing Entropy" is a presentation given by Keith Goode at Clarity '13 on September 26, 2013 in Austin, TX at the Four Seasons Hotel and Conference Center. The session was "Solving SEO Challenges at Scale," and the other panelists were Taylor Pratt, Scott Nickels, and Richard Chavez.
In this presentation, Keith Goode discusses the challenges of scaling SEO efforts without becoming a weighty organization. SEO at scale requires an organization-wide democratization of SEO. Review the slides to find out how.
Tech Talk given by Sumbry at /dev/color where we dive into the specifics of how to advocate for yourself and get ahead in your career by understanding the engineering org chart.
Slow down. Be Human. Building trust across teams with dataMatthew Eng
IBM Design’s mission was to shift how it approached product strategy, but it led to friction between multidisciplinary teams grasping for a unified vision. Learn lessons from assembling a research team that broke bad data analysis habits and started inclusive generative and evaluative techniques.
Gilt Senior Director, Program Management Office Heather Fleming and Director of Program Management Justin Riservato discuss Agile, Gilt's PMO challenges and more in this informative presentation.
Agile software development and User experience design are often seen at odds. The problem is that everything is designed by someone. So, it is better to discover how to incorporate UX into an Agile process rather than ignore it and leave the design up to the development team.
Slides from the UX 101 presentation by Abe Abe Crystal of MoreBetterLabs, given to the Carolina Chapter of STC on Feb 17, 2011. See http://www.stc-carolina.org/User+Experience+101 for details.
Generative AI Deep Dive: Advancing from Proof of Concept to ProductionAggregage
Join Maher Hanafi, VP of Engineering at Betterworks, in this new session where he'll share a practical framework to transform Gen AI prototypes into impactful products! He'll delve into the complexities of data collection and management, model selection and optimization, and ensuring security, scalability, and responsible use.
Essentials of Automations: The Art of Triggers and Actions in FMESafe Software
In this second installment of our Essentials of Automations webinar series, we’ll explore the landscape of triggers and actions, guiding you through the nuances of authoring and adapting workspaces for seamless automations. Gain an understanding of the full spectrum of triggers and actions available in FME, empowering you to enhance your workspaces for efficient automation.
We’ll kick things off by showcasing the most commonly used event-based triggers, introducing you to various automation workflows like manual triggers, schedules, directory watchers, and more. Plus, see how these elements play out in real scenarios.
Whether you’re tweaking your current setup or building from the ground up, this session will arm you with the tools and insights needed to transform your FME usage into a powerhouse of productivity. Join us to discover effective strategies that simplify complex processes, enhancing your productivity and transforming your data management practices with FME. Let’s turn complexity into clarity and make your workspaces work wonders!
Alt. GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using ...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
In his public lecture, Christian Timmerer provides insights into the fascinating history of video streaming, starting from its humble beginnings before YouTube to the groundbreaking technologies that now dominate platforms like Netflix and ORF ON. Timmerer also presents provocative contributions of his own that have significantly influenced the industry. He concludes by looking at future challenges and invites the audience to join in a discussion.
Enchancing adoption of Open Source Libraries. A case study on Albumentations.AIVladimir Iglovikov, Ph.D.
Presented by Vladimir Iglovikov:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/iglovikov/
- https://x.com/viglovikov
- https://www.instagram.com/ternaus/
This presentation delves into the journey of Albumentations.ai, a highly successful open-source library for data augmentation.
Created out of a necessity for superior performance in Kaggle competitions, Albumentations has grown to become a widely used tool among data scientists and machine learning practitioners.
This case study covers various aspects, including:
People: The contributors and community that have supported Albumentations.
Metrics: The success indicators such as downloads, daily active users, GitHub stars, and financial contributions.
Challenges: The hurdles in monetizing open-source projects and measuring user engagement.
Development Practices: Best practices for creating, maintaining, and scaling open-source libraries, including code hygiene, CI/CD, and fast iteration.
Community Building: Strategies for making adoption easy, iterating quickly, and fostering a vibrant, engaged community.
Marketing: Both online and offline marketing tactics, focusing on real, impactful interactions and collaborations.
Mental Health: Maintaining balance and not feeling pressured by user demands.
Key insights include the importance of automation, making the adoption process seamless, and leveraging offline interactions for marketing. The presentation also emphasizes the need for continuous small improvements and building a friendly, inclusive community that contributes to the project's growth.
Vladimir Iglovikov brings his extensive experience as a Kaggle Grandmaster, ex-Staff ML Engineer at Lyft, sharing valuable lessons and practical advice for anyone looking to enhance the adoption of their open-source projects.
Explore more about Albumentations and join the community at:
GitHub: https://github.com/albumentations-team/albumentations
Website: https://albumentations.ai/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/100504475
Twitter: https://x.com/albumentations
GraphSummit Singapore | The Future of Agility: Supercharging Digital Transfor...Neo4j
Leonard Jayamohan, Partner & Generative AI Lead, Deloitte
This keynote will reveal how Deloitte leverages Neo4j’s graph power for groundbreaking digital twin solutions, achieving a staggering 100x performance boost. Discover the essential role knowledge graphs play in successful generative AI implementations. Plus, get an exclusive look at an innovative Neo4j + Generative AI solution Deloitte is developing in-house.
GridMate - End to end testing is a critical piece to ensure quality and avoid...ThomasParaiso2
End to end testing is a critical piece to ensure quality and avoid regressions. In this session, we share our journey building an E2E testing pipeline for GridMate components (LWC and Aura) using Cypress, JSForce, FakerJS…
Maruthi Prithivirajan, Head of ASEAN & IN Solution Architecture, Neo4j
Get an inside look at the latest Neo4j innovations that enable relationship-driven intelligence at scale. Learn more about the newest cloud integrations and product enhancements that make Neo4j an essential choice for developers building apps with interconnected data and generative AI.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
Communications Mining Series - Zero to Hero - Session 1DianaGray10
This session provides introduction to UiPath Communication Mining, importance and platform overview. You will acquire a good understand of the phases in Communication Mining as we go over the platform with you. Topics covered:
• Communication Mining Overview
• Why is it important?
• How can it help today’s business and the benefits
• Phases in Communication Mining
• Demo on Platform overview
• Q/A
Securing your Kubernetes cluster_ a step-by-step guide to success !KatiaHIMEUR1
Today, after several years of existence, an extremely active community and an ultra-dynamic ecosystem, Kubernetes has established itself as the de facto standard in container orchestration. Thanks to a wide range of managed services, it has never been so easy to set up a ready-to-use Kubernetes cluster.
However, this ease of use means that the subject of security in Kubernetes is often left for later, or even neglected. This exposes companies to significant risks.
In this talk, I'll show you step-by-step how to secure your Kubernetes cluster for greater peace of mind and reliability.
Why You Should Replace Windows 11 with Nitrux Linux 3.5.0 for enhanced perfor...SOFTTECHHUB
The choice of an operating system plays a pivotal role in shaping our computing experience. For decades, Microsoft's Windows has dominated the market, offering a familiar and widely adopted platform for personal and professional use. However, as technological advancements continue to push the boundaries of innovation, alternative operating systems have emerged, challenging the status quo and offering users a fresh perspective on computing.
One such alternative that has garnered significant attention and acclaim is Nitrux Linux 3.5.0, a sleek, powerful, and user-friendly Linux distribution that promises to redefine the way we interact with our devices. With its focus on performance, security, and customization, Nitrux Linux presents a compelling case for those seeking to break free from the constraints of proprietary software and embrace the freedom and flexibility of open-source computing.
zkStudyClub - Reef: Fast Succinct Non-Interactive Zero-Knowledge Regex ProofsAlex Pruden
This paper presents Reef, a system for generating publicly verifiable succinct non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs that a committed document matches or does not match a regular expression. We describe applications such as proving the strength of passwords, the provenance of email despite redactions, the validity of oblivious DNS queries, and the existence of mutations in DNA. Reef supports the Perl Compatible Regular Expression syntax, including wildcards, alternation, ranges, capture groups, Kleene star, negations, and lookarounds. Reef introduces a new type of automata, Skipping Alternating Finite Automata (SAFA), that skips irrelevant parts of a document when producing proofs without undermining soundness, and instantiates SAFA with a lookup argument. Our experimental evaluation confirms that Reef can generate proofs for documents with 32M characters; the proofs are small and cheap to verify (under a second).
Paper: https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/1886
Dr. Sean Tan, Head of Data Science, Changi Airport Group
Discover how Changi Airport Group (CAG) leverages graph technologies and generative AI to revolutionize their search capabilities. This session delves into the unique search needs of CAG’s diverse passengers and customers, showcasing how graph data structures enhance the accuracy and relevance of AI-generated search results, mitigating the risk of “hallucinations” and improving the overall customer journey.
2. Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing 2
About Me
• I’m pretty new here – I
started in UX and
design less than 5 years
ago
• Most of my experience
has been in-house
• I remember what its
like not to know about
UX’s role in strategy
3. 3
About Me
• I’m pretty new here – I
started in UX and
design less than 5 years
ago
• Most of my experience
has been in-house
• I remember what its
like not to understand
UX’s role in strategy
Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing
4. 4
About Me
• I’m pretty new here – I
started in UX and
design less than 5 years
ago
• Most of my experience
has been in-house
• I remember what its
like not to understand
UX’s role in strategy
Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing
9. Strategy is …
• Strategy is relative
• Strategy is about planning
• Strategy is about decision making
• Strategy is about increasing effectiveness
9Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing
10. Strategy is …
• Strategy is relative
• Strategy is about planning
• Strategy is about decision making
• Strategy is about increasing effectiveness
10Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing
11. Strategy is …
• Strategy is relative
• Strategy is about planning
• Strategy is about decision making
• Strategy is about increasing effectiveness
11Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing
12. Strategy is …
• Strategy is relative
• Strategy is about planning
• Strategy is about decision making
• Strategy is about increasing effectiveness
12Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing
20. 20
Two Types of
Design
Concrete design: what
most people think of
when they think about
design. What a thing
looks like and how it
operates.
Abstract design: What
a thing is. What
problem is it solving?
Where and why will
people use it?
Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing
The Nine Pillars – Jesse James Garrett – www.jjg.net/ia/files/pillars.pdf
21. Concrete design and usability
are the thin end of the wedge
21Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing
23. How the Upsell Works:
• What it looks like: 3 phases
• How you do it: 2 things you need to build
23Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing
24. What It Looks Like – 3 phases
Understand the product strategy
Critique the strategy
Help shape the strategy
24Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing
25. What It Looks Like – 3 phases
Understand the product strategy
25Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing
26. What It Looks Like – 3 phases
Understand the product strategy
Critique the strategy
26Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing
27. What It Looks Like – 3 phases
Understand the product strategy
Critique the strategy
Help shape the strategy
27Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing
28. How the Upsell Works:
• What it looks like: 3 phases
• How you do it: 2 things you need to build
28Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing
29. Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing 29
How – Build a Chain of Whys
Understand Critique Shape
Ask why constantly
What parts of the chain seem like
weak links? Where is the user not
considered?
Do user research and suggest new
chains
30. Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing 30
How – Build a Chain of Whys
Understand Critique Shape
Ask why constantly
What parts of the chain seem like
weak links? Where is the user not
considered?
Do user research and suggest new
chains
31. Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing 31
Ask why constantly
What parts of the chain seem like
weak links? Where is the user not
considered?
Do exploratory user research and
suggest new chains
How – Build a Chain of Whys
Understand Critique Shape
32. How
Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing 32
Understand Critique Shape
The other thing you need to build is …
trust
33. How
Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing 33
Understand Critique Shape
The other thing you need to build is …
trust
34. How – Build Trust
Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing 34
Get (more)
engaged
with strategy
Demonstrate
(more) value
and build
(more) trust
Understand Critique Shape
35. How – Build Trust
Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing 35
Understand Critique Shape
• Don’t be an expert
• Empathize with your stakeholders
36. In Summary
• Strategy and design are the same thing – you
already have the tools you need
• Without being engaged in strategy, you can’t
create great experiences
• Concrete design and usability testing are the thin
end of the wedge
• Engagement with strategy moves from
understanding to critiquing to helping shape
• Along the way, build a chain of whys and
constantly build trust
Jim Laing – Upselling UX – @jhlaing 36
-- Been in the profession less than five years-- How many people here have been in the profession less than five years? (Show of hands)
-- Started my career in the field of UX in 2007, attending the University of Michigan, School of -- Worked for Adobe in 2009 and 2010, doing user research on their Experience Design team-- From 2010 until just recently, I was an Experience Architect at ITHAKA, makers of JSTOR. -- Next week, I start a new job as a designer at a technology consultancy in Pittsburgh called Summa. -- Most of my experience thus far has been working on in-house user experience teams. How many of you are in-house? (show of hands)-- That’s my perspective on UX’s role in strategy
-- I’ve recently come to understand better why and how UX should be engaged in strategy, and that’s what I want to talk about today
--A developer comes to you or your team member and asks you for a recommendation on a particular portion of the interface or step in the workflow. -- You don’t know who that feature is targeting, how that use relates to other users of the product, or what experience you’re optimizing for. -- While you’re able to make a guess based on best practices and usability heuristics, deep down you know that it is just that: a guess. -- Soon you’re making hundred of guesses, and it feels like your entire job is to make small decisions when other people cannot.
-- Or how about a product manager asks you to run a few usability tests on a new feature of the site. -- You’re able to find a few problems with the workflow, and make some concrete suggestions, but you’re confused and disappointed when those suggestions are largely ignored. -- You get the sense that either the product manager doesn’t care about UX and usability, or that your suggestions were somehow off the mark. -- In these situations, you can get bitter and grow to believe that the organization doesn’t have the will to fix simple usability problems. -- But maybe the problem is that you don’t understand what’s important to the product manager, who specifically they care about, and what defines success for them.
-- @orst case scenario is certainly when your suggestions *are* taken into account, and the UX team helps to builds a product that is fantastically usable and delightful. And it launches … and no one uses it. -- In this case, none of the stakeholders understood what was important about the product and what wasn’t-- All of that great design work was for nothing. -- It’s clear that there was an opportunity for UX to help shape the direction of the product by representing the needs and desires of users. Have people experienced any of these scenarios or something similar? -- In all of these, a very important type of information is missing: an understanding of why – why this button? Why this workflow? Why this feature? Why these users? Why this product? -- The answers to these why questions lie in understanding strategy. Specifically, the product strategy, but also how it relates to the business strategy and organizational strategy. As someone new the field, this can be a very opaque topic, and it is difficult to understand a UX team’s role in product strategy, so I’d like to share a few of the things I’ve learned.
First off, what is strategy? How many people hear this word almost every day?How many people feel like they have a firm grasp on the definition?
-- One of the most confusing things about strategy is that it is a relative term. Some people like to talk as if there is a firm category of things that are strategy, but I don’t think that’s the case.--I recently moved, and my friends and I talked about our “strategy” for loading the moving truck – big things up front and to the sides, heavy things toward the bottom and light things on top. -- In organizations, we talk about our mission and our business strategy and we also talk about our content strategy, our technology strategy, and our talent retention strategy. -- I don’t think any of these are wrong uses of the word, but it is does show that it is a slippery word, and difficult for a new UXer to understand. However, all these uses point to a few attributes that I think help define the word…
Planning:Figuring out the big picture before you get into the details.
Decision-making: Making a few big decisions that guide you in making lots of smaller decisions.
Increasing the effectiveness of an effort:Understanding the “why” for every decision … and the why for that why.
Like I said, it is a relative term on a continuum. -- The bigger the picture, the longer term the plan, the bigger the decision, and the more important the why, the more strategic something is. -- What’s missing from the scenarios we just talked through is a sense of productstrategy or site strategy. That’s the focus of this talk - Why are we making whatever it is we’re making? And who, specifically, are we making it for?-- If UX is going to be effective in actually shaping and improving the experience of using a product in a way that matters to users, it’s necessary to engage with the product strategy
Before we talk about how you can be more engaged with product strategy, let me address a question that you may or may not be wondering: what does any of this have to do with user experience design? You might be saying: I just want to design! if I wanted to be involved in product strategy, I would’ve been a product manager. Well, I may have some bad news for you … There’s another word that it somewhat hard to define, but can often be taken to mean something about planning or making a plan, is a form of setting up a framework for decision-making, and the whole point is to increase the effectiveness of site or product. Of course, I’m talking about design.
Like strategy, design exists on a spectrum. Some things are more designed and others are less designed or implicitly designed
-- Designs ARE plans-- Like strategies, they define where we’re going and they suggest how we’re going to get there.
-- Designing is a process of making decisions – of all the things something could be, deciding which it should be.-- Should it be this? Or should it be that?
-- And design should always be about increasingeffectiveness-- what problem are we trying to solve and how are we solving it?
(DON’T READ THIS TWEET)Of course, I’m not the first person to notice this, but I know it can be confusing for people new to UX – we have these two terms that we use quite a bit, that we know are super important.Combine this with all of our other nomenclature issues – the “a-word” is Dan’s tweet above is “architecture” – and it can be hard to figure this all out: what’s different, what’s the same, and what differences matter.
-- Aside from all of the nomenclature issues, there are two fundamental types of design (at least …), and that can be a genuine point of confusion here.-- I like how Jesse James Garrett labels them “Abstract Design” and “Concrete Design”, side-stepping all of the DTDT issues.--You can see how abstract design is split in half by the strategic/tactical line. Concrete design is what most people think about when they think about “designer” anything. --Abstract design has more to do with what a thing is – what problem is it solving? Where and why will people use it? Whereas concrete design is concerned with how a thing looks and how it operates – how usable something is.
-- Getting involved with abstract design and engaging product strategy starts with the types of tasks I layed out in the initial scenarios -- Requests for wireframes or usability test: Theses are opportunities to upsell UX. -- So, how it’s done?
It’s actually very simple …
-- I’ve been using the vague term of “Engage” with strategy. -- That engagement has 3 phases – understand, critique, and shaping or helping shape.
Step 1 of upselling is to understand the product strategy.-- This phase is all about discovering the bigger picture. -- The key here is to be explicit … tying specific design decisions to the bigger picture. Aligning your work to strategy. -- It could be that you don’t know what it is or it could be that no one knows, so this is about both building your own understanding and building a shared understanding.
-- Step 2 is being able to critique the product strategy. -- This is where you show how the product strategy might be at odds with specific user motivations or design constraints. -- You’re still an outsider here to product strategy, but you’re making it clear why it matters to you and what you have to offer
Step 3 is where you want to be, in order to do effective design. -- This is where product strategy is informed by the experience it will create and your understanding of users. -- You’re able to represent users, their needs, motivations, and limitations when choosing to create a new product or in looking for new business opportunities.
Okay, so those are the three phases of upselling UX … let’s talk about what it looks like.
-- The most fundamental thing you can do is ask “Why?”: Good user experiences are made by creating a “chain of whys” all the way from “Why is that button there” to “Why are we promoting that feature?” to “Why would that user want to use that feature?” to “Why are we targeting that user?” to “Why would that person use our product?” to “Why are we building this product?”. -- Indulge your inner 4 year old. -- A tweet I remember from awhile back said something like “The most important design tool is asking questions …”-- “Why” is a great question because of the way it moves up the chain from the specifics to the idea. --Don’t stop until you’re satisfied that you understand how your work fits into the organizational big picture
-- After you understand and make explicit the strategy, you’re able to being critiquing the strategy – finding the weak links in the chain of whys. -- Which links don’t match up with known heuristics or your understanding of user motivations?-- One key deliverable here is a risk report – highlighting how the strategy may or may not line up with user expectations
-- Or, if you find that you can’t figure out the strategy, perhaps that’s a signal that no one actually knows what the strategy is – that can be both a huge challenge and a golden opportunity. -- It’s here that you can really open up your UX toolkit to introduce your users to the organization. -- You can use user research to describe a user-centered strategy: tell people what your users want and how it will create value in their lives. -- Use personas and storytelling to emphasize with the users and define who the organization should be focusing on and why.
This could be a whole presentation in and of itsself:--As a new UXer, I think this is really easy to screw this up – I know I have come in to a project with an attitude of “This whole thing is done wrong, and I’m an expert. Let me tell you how to fix it …” When it comes to engaging it strategy, this won’t fly, because strategy is high stakes
-- This can be in tension with my first tip of asking why constantly, so it is important to take them together-- Like I said, be explicit about why strategy is important to your work. This demonstrates the value of you being engaged in strategy
-- Stakeholders need to be assured that you want what they want: a successful product and a successful organization. Be participant in the conversation – empathize with product stakeholders the way you empathize with users. Understand what they value and why, and help them to see where that aligns with user goals and where it does not. -- You need to walk the thin line between belief and skepticism – accepting the product strategy as it is given to you and doing your best to make sure it is successful, while at the same time looking for weaknesses and concerns and opportunities to include the user along the way.