UX for Product Excellence

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UX for Product Excellence

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Defining User
Experience

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Good UX can be difficult to define

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Good UX can be difficult to define
UX might have a number of nebulous attributes.
➔ Simple
➔ Elegant
➔ …

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Good UX can be difficult to define
UX provides a way for the software to match the
user’s expectation of how things should work.

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People
UX is the relationship between
& the Things
We Build

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Like any relationship, it’s multidimensional,
subjective, and sometimes messy.

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Experience
Flexible System
Integrated
Relationship
Platform
Part of Our Lives

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A successful UX strengthens the relationship
between people and the things we build.

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A new feature can enable them to do something they previously could not.

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A new feature can enable them to do something they previously could not.
A crafted hierarchy can present the right information when they need it.

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A new feature can enable them to do something they previously could not.
A crafted hierarchy can present the right information when they need it.
A highly performant system gives them the speed to do their work in less time.

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What relationships do your users have?
How do we make successful user
experiences?

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Making Great UX

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Gaining insight into the user perspective is
important for the entire team.

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UX matters to multiple stakeholders.

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The overlap of the professions can cause conflict
and jeopardize reaching the goal of a great UX.

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UX-focused activities.
UX
Investigative activities
Divergent activities
Convergent activities
Concept evaluation
Feasibility constraints
Business model fit
etc.
Stakeholder interviews
User observations/experiments
Feasibility explorations
etc.
Mocks
Flows
Prototypes
etc.

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Is finding a universal ‘boxes’ for UX professionals
important?

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We research to understand the world. We design to
change the world.

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What insights can you get from quantitative and
qualitative methods.
Quantitative methods are good for
measuring what users are doing
Qualitative methods help us understanding why users
behave a certain way

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Back to our runners from the beginning.

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PGM
PM
Eng
The overlap can also be used for the benefit of a
project.
UX
Shared problems,
different
perspectives
Insight into the
work of the
other
stakeholders
Distribute the workload
Research
Design
UX

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Take home messages:
● Get to know your UX professionals
● Work together with the UXers in your team to agree on responsibilities and ownership of tasks
● Allow others to voice their perspective on a shared problem situation
● Everybody (including UXers): Should not cling to defining the Product only by yourself.

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Structuring UX Process

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Ever spent hours debating bullets
when a picture could’ve aligned
everyone quicker?

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Ever been in a meeting where
each participant has a different
understanding of its purpose?

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Ever spent months crafting
solutions only to find you were not
aligned on the problem?

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These problems are frustrating
but solvable with a better approach
to process.

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There’s no perfect process

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But process fails when it’s overlooked,
underestimated or without an owner
Ad hoc processes is inefficient,
not repeatable and requires
constant reinvention.

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Process matters but communication
doesn’t always feel productive
It isn’t always as concrete or
fulfilling as making stuff.
What should we do about that?

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1. Carve out time to develop a shared
understanding of problems
Big-problems
Sub-problems
Solutions
Especially when entering an uncertain problem space, by:
Allocate time to sketch, discuss and really
understand connections between subproblems
Define roles and processes in advance, then document what does and
doesn’t work to make it repeatable
Have active discussions about trade-offs between velocity, learning
and alignment
Piggyback on existing process: make backlog grooming a cross-
disciplinary prototyping effort

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2. Build to learn (instead of building the
final product right away)
Data for presentation purposes only
What learning is
most critical to what we
build next?
What building is
most critical to what we
need to learn next?

35. 3. Ask real questions in the form of prototypes
Everyone can build to learn because
prototypes are just a question embodied.
Prototyping yields strategic value because
it allows every stakeholder to make sense
of problems and solutions.
It creates tangible outcomes and
generates knowledge about feasibility
and desirability.
BUILDING
LEARNING
IMPLEMENTING
FEATURES

36. Making things can change our view
of the problem we’re solving
Prototyping can show us where we need to
iterate not just solutions but problem scope.
Changing direction might be uncomfortable
or feel like a waste of time but the essence of
product excellence and putting users first.

37. Everyone can help ‘own’ process
Develop shared
understanding
Especially in a
new space:
● weigh velocity vs. learning
● understand subproblems
● define roles and processes
● document work for
repeatability
● piggyback on existing
process
Build
to learn
Instead of building final product
right away, ask:
● What learning is most
critical to what we build
next?
● What building is most
critical to what we need to
learn next?
Ask real questions
with prototypes
Everyone can embody a question
in a prototype
● This yields strategic value
and should be part of every
process
● Making things can change
our view of the problem
we’re solving
● Iterating scope can feel
uncomfortable but we owe
it to users

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How to Integrate UX into day to
day Product Development

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Tip 1: Include UX within your scrum / agile
process
Planning
- Backlog Grooming - Feedback on UX
- Release Planning - plan UX features early
- Sprint Planning - Review UX
During the Sprint
- Standup - Discuss UX related issues

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Tip 2: Have UX validate user experience stories on
the scrum board
- Stories that are focused more on the user experience
- Complex animations
- Detailed UI
- Solves problems early
Note:
•It’s important for UX not to become a bottleneck
UX
VALIDATE

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Tip 3: Continuous collaboration and transparency
- Don’t work in a silo
- Share work early on
- Provide feedback at a level that’s appropriate
- Be open to compromise
Working closely means no surprises, more mutual
understanding and more trust which result in a better product.

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Tip 4: Sitting with your team
Builds relationships, encourages faster, open communication, and creates a more
collaborative environment.
- If you can’t sit together then sit close
- If you can’t sit close then visit often
- Ask for more face to face time when you need it

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As we design, test and build together, we should enjoy the
process. We shouldn’t be defined by our roles
(UX, PM, ENG, PGM...), we are one team!
Our goal as a team is to make better products.
The more you partner with UX, the better our products will be.