How do you create a User Centred Design culture when the user doesn't even get a mention at the table? Two years ago, I made a bold career move - moving from Australia's largest UX consultancy (Stamford Interactive) where everybody was a UXer to a consultancy where UX was someone else's remit and the UX community hadn't heard or couldn't even pronounce the company's name (DiUS). My goal was to help DiUS not just build products right, but to build the right products.
In this talk I'll share my last two years at DiUS and discuss how I've tried to shift the focus from 'tech stack' conversations to conversations that talks about human centred design, design thinking, end users and customers.
It hasn't been all smooth sailing. So I'll share my approach and strategy, and delve into what has worked and what hasn't.
And as always, I'll engage the audience using some live online polling tools.
http://www.uxaustralia.com.au/conferences/uxaustralia-2016/presentation/building-the-right-products/
5. @amir_ansari @dius_au #UXAustralia
“There is surely nothing quite so useless
as doing with great efficiency what
should not be done at all.”
Peter Drucker (1963) - Managing for Business Effectiveness
7. @amir_ansari @dius_au #UXAustralia
9093 Kettle | Alessi
It doesn’t pour until you take the bird out — which you can’t
because hot steam is bubbling out of the spout.
ft.com
17. @amir_ansari @dius_au #UXAustralia
Doing agile before agile was popular
“ Since you helped
us release, we’ve
had 100% uptime!
“
Quality baked in
“Goal is to always reduce waste
“
Supplementing existing teams
“The ‘Good guys’ promoting agile by doing
“
Made teams hum
“
22. @amir_ansari @dius_au #UXAustralia
We just trusted that the client
knew the product they wanted
was the right product
“ Didn’t really go
looking for
customer / user
insight
“
We were being
lead as opposed
to leading
“Got the brief, but didn’t
ask the why questions“
Designers - give us
the magic, we need
something to build
“Photoshop files would be
thrown over the fence“
Didn’t engage
with end users“
33. @amir_ansari @dius_au #UXAustralia
INWARDOUTWARD
Inductions
Sales team
One on ones
Brown bags
Billable
Overservice
Blogs
Client
brown bags
Meetups
Conference
talks
Sponsorships
Rebrand
Consult
Thought
leadership
Brand
awareness
Cred / trust
Coach /
upskill
Process
Pairing
Pre-sales
Increased
demand
Hire Use within
Grow!!!
36. @amir_ansari @dius_au #UXAustralia
Kao’s wants to engage its employees,
customers and all stakeholders to form brand
advocacy through training and education, to
aid in the increase of sales.
37. @amir_ansari @dius_au #UXAustralia
Kao’s wants to engage its employees,
customers and all stakeholders to form brand
advocacy through training and education, to
aid in the increase of sales.
We want a training
platform please!
41. @amir_ansari @dius_au #UXAustralia
Technology won’t solve your problem.
Consider experimenting with a tweak in your business model.
We recommended ourselves out of a gig!
Our recommendation
47. @amir_ansari @dius_au #UXAustralia
● Agreed vision
● Value proposition
● Understanding of or access to customer
● UX baked in and co-leads inception
Non-negotiables
52. @amir_ansari @dius_au #UXAustralia
The ideal engagement!
Client
● Early stage of product lifecycle
● Appetite to be challenged
● Trust and want to reduce waste
Team structure
● Product champion
● Co-located and X-functional
● We lead or co-lead with client
Business problem
● Not sure what the problem is
● Not sure what product to build
53. @amir_ansari @dius_au #UXAustralia
Lifting the bar re what it means to
have UX baked in, for everyone“ We start with
understanding the
business and
customers
“
Gettings better, say no to client's
briefs or push back“
Asking the questions upfront and
early as not to waste the client's
time or money
“Spending more time upfront getting the
product / market fit right“
Pushing for a
product mindset,
not project!
“
55. @amir_ansari @dius_au #UXAustralia
Ongoing
challenges
● Post engagement
● Poor client analytics
● We don’t all question the product
● Product Ownership
● Client ‘project’ mindset
● Don’t tell me my baby’s ugly! (the IKEA effect)
56. @amir_ansari @dius_au #UXAustralia
● No plan? That’s OK!
● Growing a capability is easy… if…
● The right team, right mindset, right time
● Clients need help with value prop and vision
● Outcomes sell, not roles
Learnings
57. @amir_ansari @dius_au #UXAustralia
● No plan? That’s OK!
● Growing a capability is easy… if…
● The right team, right mindset, right time
● Clients need help with value prop and vision
● Outcomes sell, not roles
Learnings
It’s about products, not projects
60. @amir_ansari @dius_au #UXAustralia
THANK YOU
@amir_ansari
@dius_au
#UXAustralia
In every industry we see endless
stories of failed launches,
ill-conceived projects, and
large-batch death spirals. I
consider this misuse of people’s
time a criminally negligent
waste of human creativity and
potential.
Eric Ries - The Lean Startup
61. @amir_ansari @dius_au #UXAustralia
Questions Net Votes
How do you schedule ux process into Sprint timeframes? 10
Do you have designers embedded in sprints or do separate design sprints 10
How do you manage stakeholders that believe they have the answers? 9
How do you put a monetary value on your "ux"? 8
What makes a good product owner? 7
What's your most awkward moment when telling a lucrative client that what they are looking you to build is just
the wrong thing!
7
How do you deal with clients that already have that idea in mind? 7
How can we convince sales people to stop upselling French fries? 6
Questions?
UX Aus 2016 Live Poll
62. @amir_ansari @dius_au #UXAustralia
Questions Net Votes
How did you get people to understand the value of ux design in addition to ba's 6
Would you do anything differently if you were within an organisation as opposed to a consultancy? 5
How do you get senior leadership to care about this type of approach in a developer driven environment? 4
How do you deal with client teams who are smarter/more experienced than your team? 4
How do you get client to pause development until the problem/solution has been UXed 4
How many internal battles did you have to fight to get this approach adopted? 4
What was the biggest challenge during change? 4
Part of building the right product is coming up with the right solution from the research; can you tell us a bit about
your ideation process after research synthesis?
3
Questions?
UX Aus 2016 Live Poll
63. @amir_ansari @dius_au #UXAustralia
Questions Net Votes
Do you guys only build soft products? Or physical prods too? 3
How do you get your consultants on the ground to advocate your design philosophy and ask the right questions? 2
Do you get to follow through on on projects with user testing to release/implementation? 2
What effect did the Kao business model tweak have? 2
Instead of building products, what about killing features in bloat-ware? 2
What would you have done differently? 2
Questions?
UX Aus 2016 Live Poll