This document summarizes a workshop on creating lean research techniques. The workshop covered challenges in research such as delivering insights faster and recruiting users. It discussed lean UX principles like design thinking, agile development, and collaboration. Techniques for lean user research included creating a consolidated source of insights, educating all employees on users, conducting weekly user interviews, and running rapid iterative user testing. Challenges of these techniques like startup costs and managing large panels were also addressed. The goal was to facilitate collaboration and sharing of experiences to discover solutions already tried or brainstorm new methods.

1. CREATING LEAN RESEARCHTECHNIQUES

2. QUICK EXERCISE
What challenges are you having that you hope to
find solutions for today?
Place the stickies on the the wall. If you see one similar to yours, please
group them together.
“I need to deliver insights faster.” be more specific
“Recruiting users takes too long and costs too much.” break into two

3. AGENDA
Welcome
Why are we here?
Lean UX
Challenges and solutions
30 min Break @ 5:00
Group exercise

4. WORKSHOP
“An educational seminar emphasizing interaction and
exchange of information among a usually small number
of participants”
My role: share my experiences and facilitate the collaboration
Your role: ask questions, provide opinions/thoughts, get
involved
I want to emphasize what we’re going to do today. This “workshop” is
all about collaborating to discover what folks have already tried and to
create new methods through brainstorming, if time allows.
This is not a scientific research based presentation. This is an “in the
trenches” session about using the vast amount of expertise in this room
to find solutions.

5. WE WANT _______ INSIGHTS.
1. faster
2. frequent
3. collaborative
4. on-demand
5. ease to digest
6. actionable
7. effective
8. successful
9. non-duplicative
10. cheap
11. efficient
12. iterative
13. not deliverables
14. inspirational
15. communicative
16. accurate

6. AGENDA
Welcome
Why are we here?
Lean UX
Challenges and solutions
30 min Break @ 5:00
Group exercise

7. LEAN UX
A brief overview.

8. Agile is NOT a synonym for Lean
We aren’t here to learn agile. We’re actually going to focus on our role
in Lean UX.

9. Lean user research is not a “thing”

10. It’s part of Lean UX

11. BASICS OF LEAN UX
• Design thinking
• Agile software development
• Lean startup method
plus
• 16 principles

12. “Get out of the deliverables business”
- Jeff Gothelf
We are here to get insights and put them in the minds of those who
need them. We didn’t become researchers to live in WORD or PPT.

13. New way of thinking
You and your team need to be ready to change the way you think about
things. I think most of you are expressing that you are ready just by
choosing to be here. It’s important to keep in mind that others in your
team or company may not be ready.

14. Building solutions users want

15. Experimenting, iterating
and learning
This is where we thrive! Frequent, ongoing engagement with users,
using qualitative and quantitative methods, to help the team
experiment and move forward quickly.

16. Collaboration!
Collaboration is all about shared understanding, increasing effective
communication and getting rid of rockstars and gurus. The is
foundational to the success of a Lean team.

17. QUESTIONS?

18. More challenges come to mind?

19. BREAK
15 mins
While I do an affinity diagram session.
Add any additional ones to the board.

20. AGENDA
Welcome
Why are we here?
Lean UX
Challenges and solutions
30 min Break @ 5:00
Group exercise

21. What are your challenges?

22. HOW HAVE I SOLVEDTHEM
Group participation here too.
1. Who has this challenge?
2. Who wants to be the recorder for this?
- jot down the challenge
- any and all proposed solutions.
- for e@ solution record the logistics/how, why and any cons.

23. OUR CHALLENGES
• Create a consolidated and consistent source of insights
• Make everyone in the company a user expert
• Talk to users weekly
• Run rapid and iterative user testing

24. Create a consolidated and
consistent source of insights
Quantitative + Qualitative
GetSatisfaction, UserVoice, a spreadsheet, anything!
Goal is to have:
a. a place where users can give you feedback voluntarily
b. a place to combine quantitative research with qualitative
c. ability to have one consistent source for the rest of the company to
go to
d. helped us quantify our qualitative research
Give examples of bugs found.
Give examples of seeing drop off in complaints once one was fixed.

25. BUT WHY?
Information is power.
Quick, constant, accessible power.
Quicker insights. Constant
The company’s goal is make the best product for the user.
To do this they need to know about the user.
Show you’re making an impact.

26. CHALLENGES
Removing the human story through quantification.
Overhead to start.
Requires up-keep.

27. Make a user expert out of
everyone in the company.
Create a “know the user” experience
within the company.
Goal is to have:
1. An on-demand video channel using UserVOD, UserZoom, Delight.io, because video is powerful.
2. Ethnography is not easy to understand. Persona research is boiled down to one pagers when there is
so much more. Share the fat you cut-off. Break up consolidated insights into digestible chucks.
3. Our world, the world of UX, is based on people. Basic psychology and biology of how people work
needs to be shared.
4. Don’t wait for them to ask for the learnings. Give it to them! Anticipate the need.
5. Don’t rely just on email. We created a constant TV and email rotation of insights, video and even basic
psychology principles with the goal of providing a "new insights experience" each week. Humans are
visual so make sure it’s engaging.

28. BUT WHY?
No more reports.
No more meetings.
We are able to focus more on deepening the understanding of users
while the company focuses on applying it to strategy and building
products.
Easy to understand insights. We need to empathize with our users.
Strength in numbers.
Mass empathy

29. CHALLENGES
Putting together the materials/snippets
Educating always comes with a price of misunderstanding/
interpretation

30. Talk to users weekly
1. We created a pre-recruited panel that fit our two personas using:
- persistent recruiting module on the top two pages of our site
- quarterly surveys with new and repeating questions (which also fed into our consolidated user insights)
- UserVoice
- ForSee
- website intercepts
- database pulls
- partnered with customer service and sales to have them direct users to us
2. We had designated time slots for interviews/sessions that could be recruited for on a regular basis by us or even sales/
customer service
3. We had designated deadlines for stakeholders to submit topics, designs, etc.
4. We used the RITE method of testing to move ideas along quicker (recommend the C-RITE method presented by the Google
team)
5. We began to work closer and more frequently with product and design

31. BUT WHY?
It’s Lean.
1. Our product team was asking for it.
2. To innovate and be lean you need fast learnings.
3. Keeps you from being the person they engage with after design is
settled.
4. Fosters communication and collaboration with the teams
5. Feeds into the education piece
6. The more you talk to users the more you’ll be able to think like them

32. CHALLENGES
Large starting costs (out weighed later on)
- Recruiting costs (both time and money)
Management of the panel
Need a local/highly collaborative team
Must be on top of logistics

33. Run rapid and iterative user
testing
RITE but on steroids
1. We tested multiple ideas that could be very different or just slightly different
2. We would switch focus from the first round to the third. Starting on the first part of the task and refocusing on the end or adding
in new questions. Whatever was necessary to get the right insights based on what we learned from the previous round
3. Tools we used: InvisionApp or Solidify. Remote testing with Join.me and Quicktime recording.
Did this at Practice Fusion too.
This isn’t about science. This is about learning and getting as close to target as quickly as possible before launching.
The “reports” were all about checking off what was “right” and what we needed to accept risk on or do more research about.
RITE can done be over a week, over two or over three. The time frame isn’t as big of a focus. It’s all about iterative and collaboration
so you’re not writing long reports.

34. BUT WHY?
1. Speed: We didn’t want to spend 3 weeks testing 3 designs.
2. Get more bang for our buck (recruiting 9 users for one week is faster
than 18 users over three weeks)
3. Easier for the entire team to commit to observing, learning and
improving over one week than three weeks
4. Our goal here is mainly usability not preference, measuring delight,
mental models, etc.
5. We wanted to make sure we were in the right direction as quick as
possible so we could build, measure and learn (Lean loop)
6. Reduce or eliminate report time

35. CHALLENGES
Team needs to be:
collaborative, flexible, adaptable
Researchers need to be good at:
organization, facilitating
Designers need to be good at:
turning around new designs quickly, consistently and fully thought
through
herding the cats

36. AGENDA
Welcome
Why are we here?
Lean UX
Challenges and solutions
30 min Break @ 5:00
Group exercise

37. OPEN DISCUSSION/
QUESTIONS

38. READING

39. ONLINE RESOURCES
http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2011/03/07/lean-ux-
getting-out-of-the-deliverables-business/
http://theleanstartup.com

40. FIND ME ON LINKEDIN
Cassy Rowe
AgileMD - Director of UX
cassyrowe@gmail.com