The learnings and best practices gained from a 5 week engagement between a product manager and UX. The interesting twist is that the UX was part time so we took a lean approach and was still able to validate customer segments and solution assumptions.

1. Incorporating a UX mindset
into early stage product development
Presenters: Corey Dulimba & Eric McGregor
Presented at Product Camp Austin
Feb 11, 2017

2. Sponsors
Advocates
In Kind
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3. Goals today
Focus on 3 key areas that we applied to a recent project:
● How to find the right people to talk too
● Ask the right thing to the right people
● Validate the solution
We’ll uncover:
● The advantages of involving UX early on in product development
● How a PM can start having a UX mindset

4. Product’s evolving relationship with UX
Old School:
Siloed, waterfall style workflow for PM, Engineering and Design.
Modern Approach:
Collaborative, parallel workflow of discovery, iteration, and testing across
disciplines.

5. Partnering early
If you have UX or design resources, incorporate them early on.
If you don’t, bake in a few key practices to enhance your process.
• Could you be getting more of the right people to talk too
• Get more out of your client interviews
• Help you recognize and overcome biases
• Capture, document and communicate at higher fidelity

6. The Beginning

7. There is a problem
Problem
Communicating
technical problems to
clients are mostly
reactive
Solution
A single client health view
that consolidates the
"health" of major technical
configurations.
Customer Segments
External Business Users
Internal Technical Teams

8. Now what...

9. Schedule
1-2 3 4-5
Find the right people to
talk to
Ask the right people
the right thing
Validate the solution
Constraints:
● Limited UX availability
● Delivery timeline
● Limited access to clients

10. Find the right people to talk to

11. Find the right people to talk too
UX Mindset/Advantages: Internal Interviews
1. Collaborative knowledge: build a shared reality at the start, not at the end.
2. Overcome blockers: scapegoat your UX partner and play the “new-guy” card.
3. People love to be heard: internal interviews are an opportunity to build relationships.
4. Focus on who: begin to build personas at the same time you validate your business case.
5. Listen without judgement: look for underlying motivations by listening to reactions.

12. Outcome
Talked to internal technical user -
Refine persona. Problem scenarios. Who should we talk too
Challenges
1. Don’t want to harm the
relationship
2. Renewal
How to overcome
1. Get the group excited
2. Set expectations

13. Outcome
We choose email to approach the business persona:
1. Clear ask
2. What’s in it for them?
3. How long is the commitment
4. What to expect
5. What’s in it for them - rephrased
“Thanks for reaching out. I’d love to carve out some time.”
“Happy to help!”
“Thanks for the invite to share feedback, I would be happy to partake”

14. Ask the right thing to the right people

15. Ask the right thing to the right people
UX Mindset/Advantages: Client Discovery Interviews
1. Structure: get more value out of your interviews by building a persona.
2. Overcome bias: sometimes you only hear what you want to.
3. Commitment: scapegoat UX to get the solution interview.
4. Create learning environment: listen and avoid pitching your product.
5. More Jazz: the freedom to go off script but the discipline to get back on.

16. How to persona
Basic Structure
• Warmup: “What do you do at your company”
• Discovery: “Tell me about your experiences with this problem”
• Ideation: “How would you expect this problem to be solved”
UX mindset
• Questions: asking what someone “thinks” or “likes” or “wants” doesn’t count. Focus on what people do.
• Answers: unpack underlying motivations of “think”, “like”, and “want” answers by asking “why”.
• Results: turn motivations into persona goals and design principles.
• Solutions: let them provide ideas for a solution without prompting.
• Stop: as soon as you get bored hearing the same thing again.

17. Outcome
1. We validated that the problem was real and worth solving
2. Clients wanted to participate more
PM’s takeaways on having a UX mindset:
1. You are there to learn not to pitch
2. Look for patterns and be ready to move on in the process
3. Have other team members sit in (engineering, UX, etc)
4. Be open to new problems

18. Validate the solution

19. Validate the solution
UX Mindset/Advantages: Client Solution Interviews
1. Structure testing around persona goals.
2. Let customers struggle... and fail.
3. Silence is ok.
4. It can be ok to iterate your prototypes constantly.
5. The fidelity of your prototype can hurt you.

20. Outcome
1. The two personas we identified had two unique workflows
2. The business persona itself was broken out more into 2 add’l segments
3. Had learnings to finalize UX/design
PM’s takeaways on having a UX mindset:
1. Some testing is better than none
2. Use neutral language
3. Invite team members
4. Leave time afterwards

21. Wrap up

22. Applying a UX mindset early
In 5 weeks (with part time UX) we were able too
1. Validate customer segments
2. Validate the problem was worth solving
3. Test out biggest assumptions
4. Engage team members

23. My aha moment
Empathy

24. We used a 3 step process
1.Find the right people to
talk to
2.Ask the right thing to the
right people
1. Who
2. Problem
3. Solution
3.Validate the solution
1. Check functionality,
design, UX
1. Create persona
2. Test and iterate how to
reach them
Lots of other ways to apply a UX mindset, just make sure
you do it!

25. Questions

26. Sponsors
Advocates
In Kind
Supporter
s