leanux is a useful f*&king lie
DESCRIPTION
To understand LeanUX, we'll introduce Lean, Lean Systems, and Lean Startup to situate LeanUX in context. This introduction and discussion will use Kanban to explore various aspects and ideas of LeanUX such as hypothesis formulation, assumptions gathering, multi-hypothesis testing and designing / running experiments to create tight feedback loops of customer insight. We'll cover aspects of LeanUX research, which is conducted to gain a validated understanding of the user's problem hypothesis to understand if the problem we think customers have, is something they actually have before spending months and tens of thousands of dollars doing wasteful UX research & design time on a concept that delivers no customer value. We'll also discuss lightweight techniques for sharing the research process with the entire team, covering the basics of customer research, interviewing, cognitive biases in user research, and how to create light-weight, rapid personas for solution hypothesis validation. We'll then cover collaborative ideation, designer pairing, and how lean teams work together to reduce batch size and increase the flow of customer business value increments - concepts mostly unheard of in product development teams following agile or waterfall ideologies.TRANSCRIPT
WILL EVANS
Design Thinker-in-Residence NYU Stern School of Management
@semanticwill
"My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who understands me
eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them - as steps - to climb beyond them.
He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up it.”
- Wittgenstein
“All models are lies, but some models are skillful.”
TRADITIONAL PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
TRADITIONAL PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
WHAT IS LEAN STARTUP? A post-positivist apologetics of a “movement”
The problem with many startups is that you spend months or years doing research, writing requirements, designing and
building software…
and discover no customer or user cares.
It Started With a Question
If startups fail from a lack of customers not product development failure…
Then why do we have:
• A process for product development? • No process for customer development?
“A Startup is a human institution designed to deliver a product or service
under conditions of extreme uncertainty”
– Eric Ries
“Waste is any human activity which absorbs resources, but
creates no value.” - James P Womak and Daniel T. Jones, Lean Thinking
Over the past 35 years, design & development, much like Waterfall*, accumulated a lot of wasteful, time-
consuming, CYA practices that delivered no discernable value to the
business or to customers.
Zach Nies
LEAN STARTUP LIFECYCLE
LEAN STARTUP BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS
GOOB (GET OUT OF THE BUILDING) Hypotheses, Not Requirements
Focus on Learning (innovation accounting) Use Iterative Design & Testing
Validating before Scale Small Batches = Less Risk
CORE LEAN STARTUP CONCEPTS
Your team should maximize for: LEARNING
FOCUS
While Minimizing: CYCLE TIME
1. Most teams don't start with a customer hypothesis; they work backwards from a solution hypothesis.
2. Because teams start with a solution hypothesis, it's almost impossible for them to generate multiple hypotheses for testing.
3. GOOB, when done poorly, is particularly prone to confirmation bias
4. Formulating hypotheses & stating assumptions is hard. 5. Designing reliable experiments is a skill that takes time to learn 6. There is little focus on the organization / value stream 7. It is “ahistorical” meaning little knowledge of it’s own past
DECONSTRUCTING LEAN STARTUP
Lean*UX
#WTF?
By Lean*UX most people really mean
“UX in the context of the Lean Startup Method”
Term coined by Janice Fraser, Founder of LUXR
WHAT is LEANUX?
LEAN UX CYCLE
FUNDAMENTALS OF LEAN UX • Balanced, Cross-functional team • Externalize (visualize) process • Flow: Think > Make > Check • Research to understand Customer/Problem Space • No proxies between customers and team • Collaborative Sense-making • Generative Ideation: It’s about optionality • Formulate many small experiments and measure
outcome
Your team should maximize for: LEARNING
FOCUS
While Minimizing: CYCLE TIME
• Customer Exploration • Problem Exploration • Solution Exploration • Iteration & Scaling
LEANUX PROCESS
Let’s unpack what this looks like…
BASICS OF CUSTOMER EXPLORATION
UX MANTRA
Mantra: You are not the customer.
Only through research can we
uncover people’s pains, needs, and goals, in their context.
Background
WHY RESEARCH?
Insights about an industry, market, or customer segment
were never discovered sitting on your fucking couch.
MALKOVICH BIAS
The tendency to believe that everyone uses technology
the same way you do. - Andres Glusman
Customer Research HOW MUCH RESEARCH?
Lots
People
Insights
12
Lots
People
Insights
A RESEARCH HEURISTIC
THE RESEARCH INSIGHT DESPAIR CURVE
• Most teams practicing Lean Startup don't start with a customer hypothesis; they work backwards from a solution hypothesis
• Because teams start with a solution hypothesis, it's almost impossible for them to generate multiple hypotheses for testing
• GOOB, when done poorly, is particularly prone to confirmation bias
• Most teams have trouble formulating hypotheses & identifying assumptions
• Designing reliable experiments is a skill that takes time to learn • People new to customer research are really bad at listening for
weak signals • When a customer interview is guided, it almost never provides
opportunity for serendipitous insights to emerge
Problems with Lean Startup
• Customer Exploration • Problem Exploration • Solution Exploration • Iteration & Scaling
LEANUX PROCESS
How do we make sense of the world so that we can make decisions and act?
A BERRYPICKING MODEL OF LEAN STARTUP
PROBLEM FRAMING
4 W PROBLEM EXPLORATION
§ Who § What § Why § Where
4W Exploration
Who
Who has this problem? Is it your customer? Have you validated that the problem is real? Can you prove it?
What
What is the nature of the problem? Can you explain it simply? How do you know it’s a problem? What is the evidence to support the problem?
Why do you believe it is a problem worth solving? Is it an acute problem for the customer? How acute?
Why
Where does this problem arise? In which context does the customer experience the problem? Have you observed the problem in context? Can you describe that context?
Where
By yourself - write out on post-its at least 2 • Who • What • Why • Where
4W Exploration – 10 min
As a team, present all post-its onto a blank sheet of large paper, discuss all 4 Ws people presented, take note of duplicates. • Which 2 are most revealing • Which 2 are most relevant to your
customer on your empathy map? Use dot-voting
4W Exploration – Synthesis– 20 minutes
Now, after reviewing the 4W Canvas, please write out at least a paragraph describing the problem as a problem statement. Make sure to be explicit about the Who, What, Why, Where.
Problem Statement – 10 minutes
Each team member present their problem statement. Dot vote on the 1 strongest problem (or combine them). Team must present a single problem statement to the entire group
Synthesis – 10 minutes
Every team select one person. Stand Up and read problem statement. Place on flip chart at front of the room.
PRESENT
CYNEFIN
The place of your multiple belongings
CYNEFIN
• Customer Exploration • Problem Exploration • Solution Exploration • Iteration & Scaling
LEANUX PROCESS
SOLUTION IDEATION
EXPLOITATION vs EXPLORATION
CREATE PITCH
CRITIQUE
Generate lots of design concepts (options*) Present concept as stories
Critique using Ritual Dissent Integrate (steal) & Iterate
Check stories for coherence Converge around testable solution hypotheses
Design Studio
*See Chris Matts Real Options Theory
• Customer Exploration • Problem Exploration • Solution Exploration • Iteration & Scaling
LEANUX PROCESS
ITERATE & SCALE
Prototyping and Testing
WHY PROTOTYPE?
• Explore • Quickly create testable solution options • Identifies problems before they’re coded • Reflection-in-action*
• Experiment • Early frequent feedback from customers • Low opportunity cost
• Evolve understanding of customer behaviors
* Theory in Pracice, Chris Argyris & Donald Schön
WHAT FIDELITY?
• Low fidelity • Paper
• Medium fidelity • Axure • Omnigraffle • Indigo Studio • Clickable Wireframes
• High Fidelity • Twitter Bootstrap • jQueryUI • Zurb Foundation
Beware of “endowment effect,” also called the divestiture aversion. Once people invest time/effort “sketching with code,” its very difficult to throw the concept away and explore new options.” Identify what you want to learn, pick the least effort to go through Build > Measure > Learn
LEANUX PRINCIPLES
• Discover customer problems through research
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Visualize the work
• Invalidate assumptions
• Generate many problem options
• Collaborative solutioning
• Validation before scaling
THE LEANUX KATA
• Who is the customer?
• What is their problem?
• What do you know and how do you know it?
• What are your assumptions? How will you test them?
• What have you learned and what should you learn next?
• What is your very next experiment? How will you measure
it?
LEAN THINKING
LEAN PRINCIPLES
• Identify Customers & Value
• Map the Value Stream
• Create Flow by Eliminating Waste
• Respond to Customer Pull
• Continuously Improve
PURPOSE, PROCESS, PEOPLE
• Purpose: What is our organizations purpose? Who is our customer? What is the value? Where is the target?
• Process: How will the organization assess each major value stream to make sure we’re maximizing optionality while decreasing waste?
• People: How do we empower people to own the process, own the work, and be constantly learning? How can everyone touching the
value stream be actively engaged in operating it correctly and continually improving it?
LEANUX MANAGEMENT
“Lean UX management is not about experts providing answers, or aligning “resources” to a
strategic vision. It’s about providing a system of constraints for people to ask the right questions, find purpose in their work, and be empowered to make decisions and constantly learn & improve through
experimentation and failure.”
WILL EVANS
Design Thinker-in-Residence NYU Stern School of Management
@semanticwill