Sara Fortier presented 10 principles for product managers to practice user experience design techniques in the real world. The principles included practicing what you preach by applying UX methods internally, breaking down walls by fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and giving a damn by caring about the work. Other principles focused on evangelizing for user research, building empathy with users, learning and adopting UX techniques, and having fun. The overall message was that UX requires an organizational mindset shift and small actions can help enable user-centered design.

1. UxD FOR PRODUCT MANAGERS
RESEARCH & DESIGN
TECHNIQUES FOR THE REAL
WORLD
Sara Fortier
sfortier@macadamian.com
Confidential 13-03-23

2. AGENDA
PART 1
Who we are?
PART 2
10 PRINCIPLES for the real world
PART 3
Final Thoughts
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3. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Sara Fortier
! Sara Fortier is a Lead UX Designer for Macadamian, an
integrated software and design consulting firm in the bay
area.
! She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design and a
Masters in Interdisciplinary Design from Carleton University.
She is an evangelist for design and design research in her
own company, and is passionate about inspiring organization
change, motivating and leading cross-disciplinary teams to
embrace varying perspectives to collaborate and produce
meaningful and compelling experiences for clients and
users.
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4. ABOUT MACADAMIAN
We create compelling user experiences for:
! Consumer and enterprise desktop applications
! Healthcare applications – both mobile and desktop
! Interfaces embedded into physical products
! Mobile interfaces and applications on multiple platforms
! Web applications and cloud-based applications
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5. Design + Development
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6. Ottawa
14 designers
48 developers
Yerevan
San Mateo
2 designers
6 designers
42 developers
Cluj
2 developers
0 designers
12 developers
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7. WHAT WE DO: UX services
! UX Strategy ! UX Design
§ Goal setting and strategy § Information Architecture
workshops § Content Modeling
§ SWOT Analysis § Interaction Design
§ Competitive Analysis § Visual Design
§ Secondary Research
§ User Centric Maps and Models
! UX Training
§ UX Strategy and Customer Centric
! UX Research Models
§ Customer Interviews, Observation, § UX Design
and Contextual Inquiry § Mobile Design
§ Task Analysis § Agile Design
§ On-line Surveys § UX in Your Organization
§ Focus Groups § Usability Testing
§ Usability Testing
§ Card-sorting
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8. 10 PRINCIPLES
FOR THE REAL WORLD
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9. #1: PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH
! Turn your organization into a design project
! Incorporate UX methodologies
! Consider user needs and research
! Collaborate
! Push back
! Embrace change
! Bring in others to complement your skill set
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10. #1: PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH:
Macadamian Customer Journey Map
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11. #2: BREAK DOWN WALLS – relationships matter
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12. #2: BREAK DOWN WALLS – relationships matter
! Don’t throw it over the wall!
! Interdisciplinary collaboration
§ Collaborative project planning
§ Collaborative requirements and design sessions
§ Sketchboards and design thinking
! Actually talk to people
! Collocate teams whenever possible
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! Trust
! Emotional literacy – know who you’re talking to and appreciate the context
! It takes time to build relationships…
! But your design iteration time will be reduced!
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13. #3: GIVE A DAMN – care about your work
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14. #3: GIVE A DAMN – care about your work
! Find your passion
! Or find another job
! You’re not going to do great work if you don’t believe in your product
! Care about the product and the users
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15. #4: SUPPORT THE CAUSE –
evangelize for user research and UX Design
! Doesn’t matter who’s doing the UX – you win
! Repetition, data-driven points
! Invest time required for change
! Create an environment conducive to design and innovation
§ Pipe cleaners
§ Conferences
§ White boards
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§ Sharpies
§ Relationships!
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16. #5: BUILD EMPATHY – get to know your users
! Create an emotional connection for your users
! Internal research team
! External research team
! Involve the whole product team - have them listen in
! Friends of friends
§ Friends, coworkers, people on the street, everyone!
§ But… Your wife/husband is not your user
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! Consider Context
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17. #5: BUILD EMPATHY – get to know your users
! Many Ways to Get User Feedback
§ Observation
§ Contextual inquiry
§ Participatory design
§ Card sorting and structured in person activities
§ Usability
§ Surveys
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18. #5: BUILD EMPATHY – get to know your users
! Consider Context – understand your users as people with busy,
complex lives and many external influences.
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19. #6: LEARN, ADOPT & ENCOURAGE UX TECHNIQUES
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20. #6: LEARN, ADOPT & ENCOURAGE UX TECHNIQUES
! Design thinking approach
§ Agile and iterative
§ Cross-disciplinary
§ User-centric
! Methods worth adopting
§ Personas, mental models, design principles and other user-centric models
§ Usage scenarios/use cases
§ Sketchboards, paper prototypes, and other collaborative design techniques
§ User research as a part of the design process
§ Allow design to inform requirements
§ Simplify simplify simplify where you can
§ Process guidelines to help organization cooperate
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21. #6: LEARN, ADOPT & ENCOURAGE UX TECHNIQUES
simple models to help educate and evangelize
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22. #6: LEARN, ADOPT & ENCOURAGE UX TECHNIQUES
documented process – how would your organization benefit?
! Reinforce collaboration
and check points
! Include guidelines
knowing everyone won’t
really follow the process
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23. #6: LEARN, ADOPT & ENCOURAGE UX TECHNIQUES
Find your North Star
North Star could be 3-8
Guiding Design Principles
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24. #6: LEARN, ADOPT & ENCOURAGE UX TECHNIQUES
personas are a tool to rally the troops
! People typically connect
with stories better than
reports
! Paint a picture of key
user types
! Demonstrate use cases
and priority tasks
! Use a quote to express
the impact the product
has on the user
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25. #6: LEARN, ADOPT & ENCOURAGE UX TECHNIQUES
sketch! and sketch again!
! Explore more ideas
faster
! It takes a while to get it
right
! Sketchboards as a
collaborative design tool
! Roll it up and take it with
you
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26. #6: LEARN, ADOPT & ENCOURAGE UX TECHNIQUES
different audiences require different methods
! Who are you trying to
convince?
! What are their needs?
What do they care
about?
! What will you highlight?
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27. #7: BEWARE OF UX TOP 10 LISTS & DOGMATIC
ADVICE
Checklists are helpful. But they can’t replace expertise.
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28. #7: BEWARE OF UX TOP 10 LISTS & DOGMATIC
ADVICE
! Like this one! J
! “Make sure users can get to everything in three clicks!”
! One list isn’t the end all, be all – it’s not that simple
! Figure out what works for you and your organization
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29. #8: IF YOU LIKE IT, STEAL IT
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30. #8: IF YOU LIKE IT, STEAL IT
! It doesn’t need to be your idea
! Learn from people, processes, methods, and designs out there
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31. #9: BREAK SOME RULES
! Design something out of scope
! Participate in an unexpected way
! Data is important, but so is instinct!
! Get users involved regardless of scope
! Don’t be afraid to be wrong
! Throw it out and start again
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32. #10: HAVE FUN!
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33. YOU CAN’T BECOME A HERO OVERNIGHT
! Pick one thing to start with:
§ Invite a designer to collaborate on requirements
§ Call a cross functional brainstorm
§ Print out sketch templates
§ Identify one piece of user feedback that would help your product
§ Identify one type of project that would benefit from formalized UX process
§ Share this presentation with coworkers
§ Reach out to a UX agency or individual for help
! You don’t need to do it all yourself, but you need to enable it!
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34. THANKS!
! Was this inspiring?
! Are you walking away with at least one actionable technique?
Sara Fortier
Lead User Experience Designer
sfortier@macadamian.com
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35. REFERENCED RESOURCES
! The Designful Company: How to build a culture of nonstop innovation, Marty
Neumeier
! Innovation Workshop, Marty Neumeier
! Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, Chip Heath and Dan Heath
! Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspired
Innovation, Tim Brown
! Inside Apple, Adam Lashinsky
Sketchboard Resources:
! http://www.adaptivepath.com/ideas/sketchboards-discover-better-faster-ux-solutions
! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVFTBj_BYy0
! http://www.slideshare.net/ugleah/sketchboards-prototypes-presentation
Persona Resources:
! http://www.cooper.com
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36. CHECK US OUT!
www.macadamian.com
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