Design Strategy: Aligning Business Goals and User Needs

DESIGN STRATEGY:

ALIGNING BUSINESS GOALS AND USER NEEDS

Chris AvoreUPA-DC UserFocus: October 15 2010@[email protected]://erova.com

Monday, October 18, 2010

http://erova.com

http://erova.com

agenda

1. brief introduction

2. define the damn thing:design strategy

3. design strategy in practice

a. collaborative design strategy

b. design strategy as a deliverable

c. examples

4. questions


brief introduction

1

brief introduction


let’s set expectations

Adaptive Path has an 8 hour design strategy workshop led by 2 people

Nathan Shedroff leads an entire MBA program in Design Strategy

You have me for 40 minutes, including Q/A.


let’s set expectations

NOCriticism of your current approachEmpty promisesDiscussing software or platformsVenn diagrams, Chart PR0N

YESDefinitions of Design StrategyA buzzword or two (but hear me out)A useful and implementable approachHow to use what you already know


define the damn thing

2

defining design strategy


conventional strategy

executives make the key business decisions

transpose into business strategy

bring in design team to implement the strategy


defining design strategy (part 1 of 3)

design strategy:

the process of carefully framing a project of what to design before you figure out how it should be designed

Brandon SchauerAdaptive Path



design strategy:

the use of design processes, perspectives, and tools to create truly meaningful, sustainable, and successful innovation across a variety of design disciplines

Nathan Shedroffchairperson, MBA in Design Strategy program at California College of the Arts



design strategy:

[defines the design activities] within the constraints of time and resources...to help the designer select the best mix of creative and rational methods.

Richard Branham, Alp TiritogluCHI 97: Design Strategies and Methods in Interaction Design



baseline analysis & current state of where you’re at

roadmap & vision

research-based personas

decision, process or task flows

rough prototypes or sketches

competitive & market analysis

balanced scorecard

feature/value analysis

measuring results:what, when, how to define success

tangible design strategy:


so that’s a theoretical definition. What about a tangible design strategy? What’s it actually made of?



Strategy isn’t following an instruction manual.


design strategy is fluid


You keep you eyes open to see what’s missing, where opportunities exist, and where pursuing


not a rigid process



expect new insights & opportunitiesin unlikely places



but be prepared to align it with your roadmap and vision, so you’re not chasing

features and functionality



and measure progress & successif you pursue the new path


recap (1 of 2)

clarify a feasible, viable vision

discover threats, insights & opportunities via research

determine how to measure success over time

articulate how your product fits within the ecosystem

a plan to make it happen over time

and how to complement and enhance product strategy, business strategy, and other corporate goals

goals of design strategy:


recap (2 of 2)

design strategy is:

a collaborative process to understand what to design before you design it

a plan to align business objectives with design goals

documentation to align stakeholders, colleagues & investors with your plan of attack


design strategy in practice

3



risks: lack of design strategy

is design strategy necessary for success?


risks: lack of design strategy

incremental innovation

feature-creep, feature-chasing, useless features

little differentiation from competitors or yourown offerings

functionality that may threaten the service/product’s ecosystem within your organization


Many of us work in environments that don’t have a formal design strategy system in place. As UX designers, usability specialists, and information architects, we can spot a lot of these problems early, and recommend a better way.


how do you bring design strategyinto your organization?

or

now what?


where to start

knowns, assumptions, unknowns


By identifying what you know, what you think you know, and what you don’t know can go a long way to understanding how you can create your strategic plan.

where to start

potential important unknowns:

product vision, roadmap, plans

origin of features

definition of success

customer (& user), CoP perception

concrete strategic business objectives

key performance indicators, targets


In some cases you’ll have this documentation elsewhere; in others it simply won’t exist, and you have to determine the level of effort to create it.

Even the business objectives may need to be clarified, particularly if you work in larger organizations that will likely have people exclusively creating strategy. Use their work to anchor your own, both for validity and consistency.

where to start

determine what you need now to

avoid disaster or follow a hunch


where to start

Don’t wait for project kickoff or sprint zero

Monday, October 18, 2010You don’t need to wait for the start of a project to begin assessing it strategically. Beginning strategy work now will inform future decisions.

Every design strategy needs a benchmark or a current state, and you can do that tomorrow.

where to start

and don’t do it alone if you can help it.


Design strategy should be a collaborative process. Isolating yourself and hoping to come up with all the answers yourself doesn’t work. In many cases those decisions have put your product or service in the position you’re in today.

collaborative design strategy

Which stakeholders or business units might have an opinion here?

Which ones are we assuming might not be affected? How can we confirm?

Who’s left out of this discussion?

Where do we anticipate conflict?

The New How, Nilofer Merchant


Plus this also signals to your clients, partners, account stakeholders, or leadership that you’re not trying to do it alone, or reinvent another take on strategy. Talk to product & project managers, other designers, the customer service team, the sales force, and ask them to contribute to the discussion.


not lockstep; alignment


You’re not looking to get everyone to agree, but everyone should have an idea how and why decisions were made. Think consensus, not concession.


the air sandwich

overly ambitious ideas

choosing certainty over clarity

individual status over team results

saving, preserving personal ideas

The New How, Nilofer Merchant

collaborative strategy helps avoid:

Monday, October 18, 2010air sandwich: high level decisions at the top, poor communication from strategists to implementers.


baseline analysis & current state of where you’re at

roadmap & vision

research-based personas

decision, process or task flows

rough prototypes or sketches

competitive & market analysis

balanced scorecard

feature/value analysis

measuring results:what, when, how to define success

And then decide what fits the job.


Remember these? Now decide what to use.

tools of the UXer

tactical

strategic

mockupswireframes

prototypes

process flows

personas

usability testing

observation

experience diagrams

concept models

interviews

project durationkickoff


These are the usual deliverables we provide, in some form or another.

tools of the UXer as design strategist

strategic

balanced scorecard (strat maps)

feature value analysis

roadmap

competitive analysis functionality/process/experience

process flows

personas

observation

experience diagrams

concept models

interviews

prototypes

gap analysis


But to address how the design will reconcile business objectives and user needs, we need a few unique ways to think about, and visualize, the factors the make up the design strategy.

The roadmap provides the direction the product or service will progress through, the balanced scorecard weighs criteria when prioritizing strategic objectives, competitive analysis allows you to understand the environment your product or service will or already competes in, the gap analysis examines where earlier versions, or your current state, differs from where you want to be, and the feature value analysis provides a line by line examination of how features and functionality measure against feasibility, desirability, and viability.

questions

a few examples


design strategy lifecycle

DiscoveryUser Research

Content Analysis

Visual Design

IA Design

Interaction Design

Valida-tion

Testing

Visual Style Guide

CSS & HTMLInput Templates Test /

QA ScriptingURL Redirects

Search Reindexing

Presentation Templates

Test / QA

Metatagging

Fine-level IAURL Design

Finish Controlled Vocabularies

Search Engine Optimization

Create New ContentStep-by-Step

Guides

Voice Style Guide Rewrite Existing Content

Content Migration

ROT Removal

Address New Photographic

Needs

Create Visual Assets

Update Visual Assets

Content Freeze 1 Freeze 2 Freeze 3

Te

st

in

g

&

QA

La

un

ch

Editorial Clean-

UpCMS Training

Misc & Sundry IT Tasks

Fine-Level Visual Design

Content Inventory FInish Metadata Strategy

Content Strategy

Editorial Techno-logy IA & IxD Visual User

Research Strategy

Legend

Strategy and Design Implementation

Redesign and Implementation Roadmap

adaptive path

User Testing Design Updates

baseline metrics of current state

identify key business needs

feature/value

analysis

competitive analysis*

define success criteria

updates should still be tied to overall design

strategy

Post Launch

define product/service roadmap/vision

compare metrics/KPIs to baseline and evaluate

against success criteria

continue marching toward product/service roadmap

identify any unexpected/abnormal analytics, feedback

remarks in blue are by

Chris Avore

primary design

objectives


Design strategy within the full lifecycle of a release

examples: Feature/Value Analysis

Feature/Value Analysisbridges strategic brainstorming into tactical, tangible ideas



Feature/Value Analysisfeature descriptionbusiness priority (1-3)design level of effort (1-3)technical level of effort (1-3)strategic objectives


A simple spreadsheet that aligns each piece of functionality to weighted business priority, a strategic objective, the design and technical level of effort. This can act as the lynchpin to a design strategy simply because it encourages the designer to understand exactly why something should or should not be included in future design phases.Sometimes this can start to look like a standard requirements document.


What persona is most likely to benefit

from this feature?

Is this feature in the roadmap?

Can we prototype this feature?

What competitors currently provide this or

a similar feature?

Have we seen evidence of how our customers already try to do this

with the current offering?

Feature/Value Analysis


But the FVA can continue to mature into a lynchpin of design strategy. It can act as the center of the design strategy ecosystem, reflecting numerous other design activities and deliverables, ranging from observation exercises, competitor analyses, personas, prototypes, and more.


Reference the documentation you use today to reflect strategic objectives.


Not everything even has to be new documentation. You can frame existing work to reference your design strategy.


Reference the documentation you use today to reflect strategic objectives:

How does this wireframe align with the roadmap? What could the next version look like?

How are this persona’s needs reconciled with the strategic business objectives?

Where can the process flow reveal gaps from our current state to future ideas?Or our competitors?


other tips to documenting design strategy

Begin annotating wireframes, mockups, with business goals or referencing the FVA

Convert process flows to experience flows

Beef up competitor research to include business process (what they’re doing), not just functionality

Identify triggers, metrics to substantiate a hunch

Map primary business objectives to the customer lifecycle: reinforce the customer/user experience



differentiatethe tactical problems


Remember to differentiate the tactical problems...


and see the big picture


As practitioners, we frequently test our products and services to make sure the ideas we’re designing are usable. But design strategy attempts to confirm we’re designing USEFUL products and services too. Don’t get bogged down in tactical details if the fundamental approach is off. And while it’s easier said than done, the evidence and supporting research you’ve uncovered throughout the design strategy process will give additional credibility to your arguments.

common useful resources

Design Management Institute

Harvard Business Review

strategy+business (booz allen)

BusinessWeek

Core77

MIT Sloan Management Review


questions

4

questions


collaborative strategy in practice

Big thanks to:

@dpan

@lishubert


Design strategy isn’t meant to be a one person exercise.

Neither are presentations about design strategy.

Thank you.

Chris AvoreUPA-DC UserFocus: October 15 2010@[email protected]://erova.com


http://erova.com

http://erova.com

Design Strategy: Aligning Business Goals and User Needs

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