the missing link between business need and software development: product design
DESCRIPTION
There is a disconnect between IT buyers and IT vendors. Buyers assume that vendors will figure out what their IT system should precisely do. Vendors assume that buyers surely know their business and know exactly what their new IT system should do. Requirement analysts are deployed to gather requirements and write a specification which becomes the basis of a contract. A project is executed and the end result is taken to use. Users hate the system because it is clunky, does not meet their needs and is too complicated. Why? The problem is systemic. Both the buyer and vendor assume that someone knows what the new system should do and how. In new product/service development requirements do not exist and cannot be gathered, they have to be developed collaboratively and iteratively. When automating an existing business no one knows with sufficient detail how that business works. Agile software development proposes to fix the problem by iterative and incremental development where feedback from users using working software is used to guide the development effort. But working software is an expensive way of getting feedback when compared with role-play or paper design prototypes. To solve the disconnect a new mindset and tools are needed. The mindset should be one of product and/or service design, where multiple stakeholders engage in a participatory design process centered around common, cheap, design artifacts. This topic will include discussion about: - the disconnect between business and software - the nature of product and service development - the role of feedback and learning - participatory design and user-centered methods including service blueprints, role-play, prototyping and simulation and how they can be used to fix the disconnect - advantages: better products, new ideas, engaged stakeholders, utilizing latent and tacit knowledge, increased empathy, cheaper more purposeful systemsTRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
The missing link between business need and software development: product design
Ari TanninenWildcard Conference 2013
Jūrmala, Latvia, Sept 13
“Bridging the gap between business and development, development and user, and buyer and vendor with participatory product and service design”
![Page 2: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Ari TanninenProduct development consultant15 years software product development, 8 years Agile/LeanBEng, finishing MBA
[email protected]@aritanninen
![Page 3: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Hello, who are you?
IT workers?Business / management / designers / development?Consulting / sub-contracting / internal development?
![Page 4: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
The problemDisconnect between buyer and vendorConsequences of disconnectFundamental issuesProposed solutions
Design & feedbackNature of designFeedback in naive WaterfallFeedback in naive Agile
An improved solutionProduct/service designParticipatory designToolsExamplesAdvantages
Products and services have form (or shape), and structureProduct design creates the formIT systems make up the structure
![Page 5: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
The problem
![Page 6: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Req. spec.Contract
Buyer Vendor
I need some IT!Sure! Just write down
precisely what it should do.
Here’s a specialist to help you out!
Analyst Dev team
Ummm...
Users
Tell me everything!
We hate it!
Happiness is to code!
Aaargh!Aargh!Aaargh! Aaargh!
Aaargh!
System
Followed by... Change management process and more billing!
![Page 7: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Surely my expensive vendor is best in designing my IT system!
How could I possibly know precisely what I need?
That’s why I pay consultants for!
Buyer Vendor
How could I possibly know what my customer needs?
Or how their organization works?
And how their business ticks?
Surely my customer knows!
The disconnect
![Page 8: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Example of disconnect
BuyerIT consultant
“How do you receive customer orders? Phone, email? Actually,
which of your companies receives these orders?”
“Do you expect us to know? But you are the software
consultant!”
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Prototype factory built, need IT to orchestrate customer orders, production, deliveries and billing. Consultants designing business processes that are to be automated in part by IT.
![Page 9: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Consequences for users
• Complexity due to feature bloat
• Features missing
• System does not fit work
• System changed work and now needs changes
• Systems and service touchpoints work poorly together
• Fragmented user experience
![Page 10: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Other consequences
• Systems never fit their intended use
• Expensive projects
• Failed projects
• Poor business
• Taxpayer lossesBuye
rs effec
tively
outsource o
wnership
of
their
products
/servic
es
![Page 11: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Vendors assume buyers are aware and able to articulate their needs
Gathering requirements assumes they exist to be gathered
Fundamental issues
Buyers taught to believe in IT as fairy dust
The words we use guide our thinking: “requirements gathering”, “business process consultant”
![Page 12: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
More detailed requirements!
More control!
More change management processes!
Solution?
![Page 13: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Agile software development?
Solution?
Image: flickr / IamNotUnique
![Page 14: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Let’s look at design and feedback first
![Page 15: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Design
"Design is the successive application of constraints until only a unique product is left."
-- Richard W. Pew
Take a need. Create solution. Try it. Take another need. Add to solution. Check that solution still fills all needs. Fix if broken. Take the next need... Repeat until done.
![Page 16: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Design problems / solutions
What users ask is not what users need
Tacit and latent needs
Describing problems/solutions without common language
Observation, prototypes, simulation
Iterations, experiments
Design artifacts as boundary objects
Cannot ask users, must iterate and experiment with artifacts
![Page 17: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
The key to design is creating new knowledge
Feedback and learning is essential
![Page 18: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Feedback in Waterfall
Spec.
Real usersin context
System
Perceived needs
Biz processes
Workflows
Org structures
Domain knowledgeAssu
mpa
tion
s!
Requirements gatheringyears / months / weeks
Software developmentyears / months
Deploymenthours
Feedbackyears / months
![Page 19: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
Feedback in Agile
Backlog.
Real usersin context
System
Perceived needs
Biz processes
Workflows
Org structures
Domain knowledgeAssu
mpa
tion
s!
PO workweeks / days / hours
Agile software developmentweeks / days
Deploymenthours
Feedbackweeks
How to get faster feedback and even more iterations?
![Page 20: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
An improved solution
![Page 21: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
How about this?
Prototype
Perceived needs
Biz processes
Workflows
Org structures
Domain knowledge
Real users
Product/service designweeks / days
Agile software developmentweeks / days
Deploymenthours
Real usersin context
System
Real users
Feedbackimmediate
Feedbackimmediate
Why code & deploy, can’t we bring users into our office?(the last feedback loop from users omitted for clarity)
![Page 22: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Rough comparison
Max design iterations
Cost of iteration
Waterfall 1 cost of project
Agileproject length /
length of iterationcost of project /
number of iterations
Product / service design & Agile
unlimited negligible
Writing functional software is an expensive way to get user feedback
![Page 23: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
Service design
User-centered design
Participatory design
Co-design
Design thinking
Co-creation
Prototyping
Personas
Scenarios
Wizard of Oz
Drama Role-play
Informance
Ethnography Bodystorming
Experience prototypeMock-ups
VideoMoodboards
Customer journey
Service blueprints
A few keywords for you to google :)
![Page 24: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Participatory design
• Collaborative design & development
• Buyers, vendors, stakeholders, users
• New concepts, products, services, business processes, user interfaces, user experience...
• (feelings, smells…)
• Fast & cheap learning
![Page 25: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
Some tools
• Low/high-fidelity prototypes
• Role-play & drama
• Wizard of Oz
• Service blueprint
Simulation! Not
conceptual hand-waving
![Page 26: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Examples
• UI & device paper prototypes
• Future library service (drama & Wizard of Oz)
• Talking sports watch (Wizard of Oz)
• Public-sector service (role-play, service blueprints)
• Cardboard hospital (1:1 prototype of environment)
• Urban planning: OurCity Meri-Rastila
![Page 27: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
User interfaces and devices
Image: flickr / Samuel Mann Image: flickr / benarent
Functional paper prototypesEven detailed design possible by simulating with users by manual “animation”
![Page 28: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
Future library service
Concept, picture & video: Pirjo Kivistö, Marika Latvala, Mia Rahkonen, Terhi Kärpänen, Mikko Tenni / Laurea University of Applied Sciences
Functional future library: working lend/return machine, software, and verbal commandsDrama, Wizard of Oz
![Page 29: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
Talking sports watch
Concept and pictures: Juho Vesanto, Marjo Karjalainen, Sami Virtanen, Irina Ylikylä, Riikka Heloma / Laurea University of Applied Sciences
Prototype
User
Concept testing of a sports watch with a remote earphone verbally guiding the user to optimal exercise, like a personal trainerTest set-up: jogger, observer, and a talking sports watch prototype (real watch + person)Wizard of Oz
![Page 30: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
Service blueprint
Image: flickr / Kennisland
Image: flickr / rachel.shadoan
![Page 31: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
Public-sector service
Images: Gosei Oy
Automating existing public-sector serviceService blueprints (a powerful alternative to user story maps)
![Page 32: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
Public-sector service
Crashed system
Blind user using a system
Child using multiple touchpoints
Images: Gosei Oy
Drama & role-play
![Page 33: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
Cardboard hospital
Juha Kronqvist, Heini Erving, Teemu Leinonen (2013): Cardboard hospital: Prototyping patient-centric environments and services. Nordes 2013.
http
://de
sign
forh
ealth
care
.blo
gspo
t.fi/p
/spr
ing-
2012
-car
dboa
rd-h
ospi
tal.h
tml
http
://vi
meo
.com
/468
1296
5
http
://w
ww
.slid
esha
re.n
et/ju
hak/
card
boar
d-ho
spita
l-pro
toty
ping
-hos
pita
l-env
Cardboard hospital space at Aalto University where patients, staff, architects are co-creating ideas for the future hospital for Tampere University Hospital in Finland
![Page 34: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
Cardboard hospital
Juha Kronqvist, Heini Erving, Teemu Leinonen (2013): Cardboard hospital: Prototyping patient-centric environments and services. Nordes 2013.
http
://de
sign
forh
ealth
care
.blo
gspo
t.fi/p
/spr
ing-
2012
-car
dboa
rd-h
ospi
tal.h
tml
http
://vi
meo
.com
/468
1296
5
http
://w
ww
.slid
esha
re.n
et/ju
hak/
card
boar
d-ho
spita
l-pro
toty
ping
-hos
pita
l-env
![Page 35: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
OURCity Meri-Rastila
http://meidankaupunki.wordpress.com
Images: flickr / MarianaSalgado
OURCity - sub-project of World Design Capital Helsinki 2012Co-design of urban area, involving residents, children, city planners, and architecture studentsMethods scale from individual user interfaces to cities
![Page 36: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
Advantages• Fast feedback
• Validated learning
• Cheap
• Stakeholder buy-in & commitment
• Increased communication bandwidth
• Evangelization
• Foster innovation & creativity
• Access tacit and latent knowledge
• User empowerment
• Empathy towards users - walk a mile in their shoes
![Page 37: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/37.jpg)
Summary
![Page 38: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/38.jpg)
Service/prod design + Agile
Prototype
Perceived needs
Biz processes
Workflows
Org structures
Domain knowledge
Real users
Product/service designweeks / days
Agile software developmentweeks / days
Deploymenthours
Real usersin context
System
Real users
Feedbackimmediate
Feedbackimmediate
Last feedback loop omitted for clarity.
![Page 39: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/39.jpg)
Key points• Remember the disconnect
• Software design != product/service design
• Design services and products
• Iterate early with real users - get out of the building!
• Validate assumptions about needs and design solutions
• Seek to shorten learning cycle
• Writing software is expensive
• Quick'n'dirty participatory design - 20/80 rule
![Page 40: The missing link between business need and software development: product design](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051819/54c7abad4a7959d4368b456f/html5/thumbnails/40.jpg)
Questions? Thoughts?