lean user research - uxpa 2013 workshop

CREATING LEAN RESEARCH TECHNIQUES

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

AGENDA

Welcome

Why are we here?

Lean UX

Challenges and solutions

30 min Break @ 5:00

Group exercise

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.

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

AGENDA

Welcome

Why are we here?

Lean UX

Challenges and solutions

30 min Break @ 5:00

Group exercise

LEAN UXA brief overview.

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.

Lean user research is not a “thing”

It’s part of Lean UX

BASICS OF LEAN UX

• Design thinking

• Agile software development

• Lean startup method

plus

• 16 principles

“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.

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.

Building solutions users want

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.

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.

QUESTIONS?

More challenges come to mind?

BREAK15 mins

While I do an affinity diagram session.Add any additional ones to the board.

AGENDA

Welcome

Why are we here?

Lean UX

Challenges and solutions

30 min Break @ 5:00

Group exercise

What are your challenges?

HOW HAVE I SOLVED THEM

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.

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

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 voluntarilyb. a place to combine quantitative research with qualitativec. ability to have one consistent source for the rest of the company to go tod. helped us quantify our qualitative research

Give examples of bugs found.Give examples of seeing drop off in complaints once one was fixed.

BUT WHY?Information is power.

Quick, constant, accessible power.

Quicker insights. ConstantThe 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.

CHALLENGES

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

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.

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

CHALLENGES

Putting together the materials/snippetsEducating always comes with a price of misunderstanding/interpretation

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 us2. We had designated time slots for interviews/sessions that could be recruited for on a regular basis by us or even sales/customer service3. 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

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 teams5. Feeds into the education piece6. The more you talk to users the more you’ll be able to think like them

CHALLENGES

Large starting costs (out weighed later on) - Recruiting costs (both time and money)Management of the panelNeed a local/highly collaborative teamMust be on top of logistics

Run rapid and iterative user testing

RITE but on steroids

1. We tested multiple ideas that could be very different or just slightly different2. 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 round3. 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.

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 weeks4. 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

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 throughherding the cats

AGENDA

Welcome

Why are we here?

Lean UX

Challenges and solutions

30 min Break @ 5:00

Group exercise

OPEN DISCUSSION/QUESTIONS

READING

ONLINE RESOURCES

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

http://theleanstartup.com

FIND ME ON LINKEDINCassy Rowe

AgileMD - Director of UXcassyrowe@gmail.com