The elements of product success for business leaders

› Nick Myers @nickmyer5

The elements of product success

The challenges we face today in software creation The elements that lead to product success: user insight, design, organizational effectiveness Principles, techniques, examples of each element

What  I’ll be talking about

More customer interactions are now digital

User experiences have improved

Products are now simpler

Expectations are now higher

Expectations are now higher in business

Expectations are constantly being redefined

It’s no longer enough to be intuitive. Competition is fierce.

www.flickr.com/photos/retrocactus/4949516534/

Brands are being defined by the user experience

As of Dec 2011, Facebook received 2.7 billion likes and comments per day.

Design is more valued

Many companies are now software makers

GE is now the 14th largest software provider in the world

Old methods and cultures limit product success

Michael Porter’s Value Chain model, a classic business strategy definition of of how companies should be organized to determine their market competitiveness

How do companies adapt to these changes and create amazing products?

User insight

Design

Organization

3 elements to product success

Some companies are good at one, maybe two elements. Few companies have it figured out.

Achieving excellence in all three is a monumental challenge. These are cultural values.

How do you, your teams, your company match up? What else is critical to success?

Take notes!

User insight

Only a deep understanding of your users will help you create something they love

Insight  Principle  

Let’s  look  at  an  organiza6on  Many of us are stuck in the middle

Insight  Truth  

This was especially true of engineers

Insight  Truth  

All the action is happening at the edges of your organization

Effective product teams operate close to the edge

Insight  Truth  

We need to put people at the center of our thinking. “users” is a dangerous word.

Insight  Truth  

How? Seeing how people work helps you understand their needs and goals.

Insight  Principle  

Which leads to designs that support those needs and goals

Understanding people’s needs and context also helps you innovate new products

Traditional business requirements gathering doesn’t reveal people’s latent needs

Insight  Challenge  

Why is this method bad? Interviewees have a natural tendency to please the interviewer.

People are terrible at self-reporting and over generalize

“”

A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you

show it to them.

Steve Jobs

Don’t rely on the least-experienced person to guide your product’s vision

Ethnography – the practice of observations and interview

Ethnographic research helps us understand the context and motivations for user behavior

What’s a day look like? +  Makes it feel less like a survey

+  Makes you less inclined to ask leading questions

We start with an overview question

Research  Technique  

Tell me about a specific instance when… +  Ask for interviewees to tell stories

+  Ask for specific examples

We follow up with “case-focused” questions

Research  Technique  

We also look around the room

Process  flows  Workarounds  

Team  environment  

Heavy  use  

Lots  of  codes  to  remember!  

Research  Technique  

I really love that Starmine analyst rating.

Why?

Because it’s awesome. What’s awesome about it?

It tells me how good the analyst is. Duh.

And why is that good?

Because I need to feel confident when I use their

advice . Yahtzee!

Tell me about a part of the system that you love.

We ask “why?” a lot. A conversation might go like this…

Research  Technique  

We take an interviewer’s mindset: Apprentice

Research  Technique  

+ + =

In the end it’s simple

Magic  Formula  

Attention to people’s

needs & goals

Simple, elegant ideas

Execution on the details

Great products

So what do I do with all this research? Personas: The synthesis of user research

Design  Tool  

“”

The persona is the voice of the user, each has a goal. This

informs lightweight, quickly iterated designs.  

Alan Cooper

They represent the needs of many

Scenarios, the common navigational pathways, bring personas to life

Design  Tool  

Scenarios naturally guide requirements, create more useful software

Design  Technique  

Other noteworthy research methods

Lightweight user research (street, friends) User research via web conference

Journaling Participatory design

At the very least, sketch personas can be based on a set of agreed-upon assumptions

If you can speak with authority about your users you will become an authority

How much do you know about your users?

+  How much do your teams (esp. designers) know your users?

+  Do people visit users in their environments often?

+  Do they use ethnographic techniques?

+  Do you know what they need and want?

+  Does your organization have and use personas?

+  Do you design from their point-of-view?

+  Do your customers love you and acknowledge that you “get them”?

Design

Design is hard

Fact  

End results are simple. But simple is hard.

We’re making stuff. All made things take effort.

Fact  

Design takes time. It isn’t tacked on at the end.

Design  Truth  

We’re all solving problems

http://dthsg.com/what-is-design-thinking/ Roger Martin’s Design of Business

Design  Principle  

What’s makes designers good? Abductive thinking: imagining what could be possible

http://dthsg.com/what-is-design-thinking/ Roger Martin’s Design of Business

Design  Principle  

Good designers consider the possibilities

Design  Principle  

Good designers are also filled with many design patterns

http://www.mobile-patterns.com/

We aren’t magicians, nor artists

We use methods

Project Charter

Stakeholder research

Domain research

Experience workshop

Ethnographicinterviews

Service Blueprints

User & DomainAnalysis

DesignImperatives

ConceptSketches

Interaction Models

VisualLanguageStudies

Detailed design

Form & BehaviorSpecification

Visual style guide

Prototyperefinement

User feedback

Front-enddevelopment

User & DomainAnalysis Exploration Detailed

Design

Scenario-based design

Product ecosystemvision

User feedback

Prototypedevelopment

FrameworkDesign

DevelopmentCollaboration

Productstewardship

Designsupport

Front-enddevelopment

Figuring out the big ideas first using sketches. They’re cheap.

Design  Principle  

Everyone can participate in idea generation

Great exercise you can do: what are ten ways I could solve this problem?

Design  Technique  

The exploration workshop

Design  Technique  

The more you explore the more we can create novel interactions

“”

It’s easy to be different but it’s difficult to be better.

Jonathan Ive Apple

We’re aiming for better

Design should be based on good rationale – great to ask why? a lot here too!

Design  Technique  

Ideas are best shared as stories

+ + =

Stories help people imagine how your idea will change their lives or the lives of others

A character we believe (persona)

A trigger that sparks a quest

(problem)

Journey to resolution (solution)

Great story (excitement)

Prototyping (aka visualization) is a more sophisticated exploration and storytelling method

Prototyping has become more important as interactions + motion are more pervasive

Prototyping helps you evaluate the design and refine faster

Designers are relentless down to the last detail

“”

Attractive things work better…When you wash and wax a car,

it drives better, doesn’t it? Or at least it feels like it does.

Donald Norman Author of the Design of Everyday things and Emotional Design

Why is this important? Aesthetic products are perceived as easier to use than less-aesthetic products

Rich prototypes are the best way to create excitement and win support

How design-capable are you?

+  Is design important to your company?

+  Do you have great designers?

+  Is design integrated with development?

+  Are teams generative?

+  Are there clear design processes that people use?

+  Do people communicate their design vision?

+  Do you care about the details before shipping?

+  Do you sell design with stories and prototypes?

Organization

Hard lesson: You can know your users, do great design, and still fail

Hard  Truth  

Plastic Logic Que Proreader

Beautiful design Multiple product delays Market changes Competition Expensive

It takes a great deal to be successful at product success

+  Leadership

+  Process

+  Principles

+  Tools

+  People

+  Education

+  Collaboration

+  Communication

Change is hard! Metro has taken years of effort

Hard  Truth  

P&G VP of Design, Claudia Kotchka said it takes 7 years to affect change

Effective design leadership is more operational

Opera6on  Insight  

Citrix VP of Product Design spends half her time marketing internally

Opera6on  Insight  

+ + = Small win

Show results

Share work Progress

Change: Create small wins. Show results. Share how you did it. Ask for more.

Opera6on  Technique  

Ask for more +

Experience workshops open the dialog about what design means

Images bring life to the conversation and guide an ideal experience

Create tools: UI guidelines inspire product teams to adopt a new system

Standards  improve  the  baseline  expecta6ons  and  share  design  ra6onale  

Tool libraries save teams development time, improve consistency and quality

Going further, design principles foster culture change

Principles are now everywhere: UX, HR, training, legal, ID badges

Why design matters

Video credit: Energy Energy

The results for Citrix

Design is now one of their top annual objectives

Superpower: Socialize your ideas with individuals to gain support

Opera6on  Technique  

Innovative companies diversify their product strategies

hNp://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/02/0228_inshort/source/5.htm  

Only truly innovative companies are willing to disrupt their own business

If you don’t disrupt your product someone else will

hNp://theonbuNon.files.wordpress.com/  

New platforms let you leave behind legacy code and start fresh

Prac6ce  Fusion  has  disrupted  the  healthcare  space,  now  they’re  disrup6ng  their  own  products  

Prac6ce  Fusion’s  web-­‐based  EMR  

Practice Fusion iPad EMR app has disrupted their web software

The design was successful and the prototype excited the crowd

Practice Fusion is managing to achieve success in user insight, design and organizational will

+  Does your company have values in design and innovation?

+  If not, is it willing to change?

+  Does your leadership value design and product invention?

+  Do your teams have strong processes that incorporate user involvement and design?

+  Do you attract the talent?

+  Does your company support risk-taking?

+  Does your company value quality over deadlines?

How  does  your  organiza6on  measure  up?  

A few things to remember…

A deep understanding of your users will bring clarity to your requirements

Great design comes from simple elegant ideas and an obsessiveness to execute the details

Small wins with strong results lead to bigger opportunities and change

Insight, design, and hard work can excite your organization to change

nick@cooper.com @nickmyer5 cooper.com/journal

› Continue the conversation…

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User research, domain Research, and analysis

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Interaction design and service design

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+1 415 267 3500 business@cooper.com