What do you measure to make sure your user experience improvements move the needle for your product and go to market strategies? How do you invest in UX wisely? Audrey Crane from DesignMap presents the third of the four orders of design: Research and Dual-Track Agile.

1. April 26, 2017
What Business Leaders Should Know About Design

2. Model of Design

3. 1st Order:
Symbols
and Images
2nd Order:
Artefacts
(Products)
3rd Order:
Activities
and Processes
4th Order:
Environments
and Systems
Orders of Design

4. Dual-Track Agile

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Dual-Track Agile: Overall Process
Discovery
Track
Development
Track
Cycle 2 Cycle 3 Cycle 4 Cycle 5
Design for cycle 3 Design for cycle 4 Design for cycle 5 Design for cycle 6
Implement designs
for cycle 2
Implement designs
for cycle 3
Implement designs
for cycle 4
Implement designs
for cycle 5

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Dual-Track Agile: Discovery Phase

7. What Business Leaders Should Know About Design 69
Dual-Track Agile: Delivery Phase

8. What Business Leaders Should Know About Design
Advice
70
Key here is to have a process that doesn’t let
design get too far ahead of development, or
vice-versa. That gap will create risk, which the
team should work to minimize.

9. Research 201

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Research Methods

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Research Methods
Usability Studies
Interviews

12. What Business Leaders Should Know About Design 74
Interviews: Description
Goal
Location
Context
Protocol
…to understand underlying motivations,
attitudes, and behaviors (attitudinal).
…often in person, may also be via WebEx or
phone.
…does not test a specific product.
…describes areas of inquiries and
sample questions, but the session is
often wide-ranging.

13. What Business Leaders Should Know About Design 75
Interviews: Description
Need
Have
Can
...insight into customers to discover new ideas or
find inspiration for new ways to help or delight.
...a hypothesis about a customer or product
opportunity, time to conduct and synthesize
research, access to 10 or so customers, with
~60-90 minutes, preferably in their environment,
and a budget for stipends.
...comfortably conduct a relaxed open-ended
research session, and can video record the
session.

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• Predictions often don’t work.
• Details aren’t always insights.
• Biases and assumptions show and color our insights.
• Insights aren’t guaranteed.
• Synthesizing is critical!
• Recruiting can be a challenge.
Interviews: Limitations

15. What Business Leaders Should Know About Design 77
Usability Research: Description
Goal
Location
Context
Protocol
…to understand how customers might use a
product, and to uncover problems and
opportunities (behavioral).
…may be in person, via WebEx or phone.
…tests a specific product (yours or a competitor).
...may start with a few attitudinal
questions, but usually is longer and
more closely followed.

16. What Business Leaders Should Know About Design 78
Usability Research: Description
Need
Have
Can
...to get a sense of how customers’ reaction
to a specific product offering or feature, or
fine-tune an interface.
...a prototype, competitor, or working code, a
protocol, time do conduct research, access to
five or so customers.
...comfortably conduct a relaxed
usability research session.

17. What Business Leaders Should Know About Design 79
• Predictions often don’t work.
• Observer effect.
• Limitations of the artifact.
• False tasks give false results.
• Recruiting is still a challenge
• Must balance regularness of findings with flexibility of
approach
Usability Research: Limitations

18. What Business Leaders Should Know About Design
Advice
80
Interview users about a colleagues’ product, and
have them interview about yours (just as
developers don’t test their own code). This
avoids many easy-to-make mistakes (e.g.
confirmation bias, leading).

19. What Business Leaders Should Know About Design
Advice
81
• listen, be quiet!
• be neutral and avoid value words
• use incomplete sentences
• parrot to probe and avoid answering ?s
• avoid asking for predictions
• use their language

20. What Business Leaders Should Know About Design
Advice
82
• be calm
• observations ≠ recommendations
• note hypotheses up front — is success proving
them right or wrong?
• behavior first, then attitudes and motivation,
not the other way around

21. What Business Leaders Should Know About Design
Advice
83
• In person, sit behind and slightly to one side of the
moderator. Remotely, sit elsewhere.
• Be polite, attentive, and moderately interested.
• Remember, observations before ideas.
• Save your questions for the end.
• Note your top ~5 takeaways immediately.
• Don’t take your own notes!
: Note-Taking

22. Resources

23. What Business Leaders Should Know About Design 125
Org Design for Design Orgs, by Peter Merholz and Kristin Skinner
The Design of Everyday Things, by Don Norman
Don’t Make Me Think, by Steve Krug
Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days, by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky
Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience, by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden
The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web and Beyond, by Jesse James Garrett
About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design, by Alan Cooper and Robert Reimann
Recommended Reading

24. What Business Leaders Should Know About Design 126
2014 Design Value Index Results and Commentary. Rae, J. http://www.dmi.org/?page=DesignDrivesValue
Assessing Your Team's UX Skills. Spool, J. https://articles.uie.com/assessing_ux_teams/
Championing UX Design. Lavoie, M. https://uxdesign.cc/championing-ux-design-eee089884b7f
Customer Experience Drives Revenue Growth, 2016. Manning, H. http://blogs.forrester.com/harley_manning/16-06-21-customer_experience_drives_revenue_growth_2016
Design In Tech Report 2015. Maeda, J. http://www.kpcb.com/blog/design-in-tech-report-2015
Design in Tech Report 2016. Maeda, J. http://www.kpcb.com/blog/design-in-tech-report-2016
Design in Venture Capital. Au, I. https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/design-in-venture-capital
Developing a customer-experience vision. Boyarsky, B., Enger, W., & Ritter, R. http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/developing-a-customer-experience-vision
Don Normans Principles of Design. Norman, D. http://www.designprinciplesftw.com/collections/don-normans-principles-of-design
Dual Track Agile for Designers. Yang, S. https://www.designmap.com/practice/dual-track-agile-for-designers/
Essential and Desirable Skills for a UX Designer. Six, J. http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2010/12/essential-and-desirable-skills-for-a-ux-designer.php
Evidence-Based User Experience Research, Training, and Consulting. Fessenden, T. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/nps-ux/
Focus on Value. Cagan, M. http://svpg.com/focus-on-value/
The Future of Design in Start-Ups. Lee, A. http://www.nea.com/blog/the-future-of-design-in-start-ups-survey-2016-results
Hiring a designer: hunting the unicorn. Kowitz, B. from https://library.gv.com/hiring-a-designer-hunting-the-unicorn-ec8f3a2ebd78
Nothing Says Over 40 Like Two Spaces after a Period!. Cult of Pedagogy. Gonzalez, J. https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/two-spaces-after-period/
Product Discovery: Pitfalls and Anti-Patterns. Jones, C. http://svpg.com/product-discovery-anti-patterns/
A Proven Method For Showing The Value Of Good UX. Spool, J. https://articles.uie.com/a-proven-method-for-showing-the-value-of-good-ux/
Two Spaces After a Period: Why You Should Never, Ever Do It. Manjoo, F. http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/01/space_invaders.html
User Research 102 (Moderating, Note-taking, and Other Important Stuff). Crane, A. https://www.designmap.com/practice/user-research-102/
A UX Vision’s Purpose and Benefits | Cultures That Foster Great Design. Six, J. http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/03/a-ux-visions-purpose-and-benefits-cultures-that-foster-great-design.php
Valuing Design: Enhancing Corporate Performance Through Design Effectiveness. Hertenstein, J., Platt, M., & Brown, D. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
229565978_Valuing_Design_Enhancing_Corporate_Performance_Through_Design_Effectiveness
When to Use Which User-Experience Research Methods. Roher, C. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/which-ux-research-methods/
Links

25. What Business Leaders Should Know About Design 127
Thank You DesignMap: Nathan Kendrick, Chuck Moore,
Kelsey Kisner, Kelsea Kanahele, Sunny Yang, Rob
Gardziel, Michael Aurelio
Credits

27. Nathan Gregory Chuck Audrey
@audcrane

28. Welcome to DesignMap, Inc.