Crushing the BoulderUser Experience forLean Startups

JANUARY 2013

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Ask yourself:

What 3 assumptions about your customers

do you have that, if you are wrong, your

business will fail.

Write down 3.

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First Name1 assumption1 weirdness / awesomeness

Who’s in the room?LIGHTNING FAST!

Context (startup, enterprise, consultancy)Role (biz/product, developer, design)

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The LUXr Core Curriculum helps startups deliver products that customers want, need and love to buy.

info@luxr.co • http://luxr.co twitter: @luxrco • www.facebook.com/LUXrInc

LUXr is the trusted coach that helps company founders through their hardest business problems.

Janice Fraser & Kate Rutter

@LUXRCO@clevergirl

@KateRutter

www.luxr.co

TWEET!

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A class on how to produce an awesome UI

This is not...

(How do you know it’s awesome?)

A session on making production wireframes or photoshop comps

(How do you know these aren’t a waste of valuable time?)

A “perfect approach” or a rigid point of view on what makes “Great UX.”

(1000s of entrepreneurs have used these techniques to discover an ideal UX.)

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This is not...

dogma

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Business Model Canvas? Lean Canvas?

Sure, either one.

DisclaimerI am not an expert in your business.

Only you can be the expert in your business.

My job is:• to ask the unasked questions;• to challenge assumptions;• and give you tools to succeed.

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Lean & UX Fundamentals

Three Lean UX experiments 1. Get to Know your Customer 2. Act on Customer Needs 3. Measure What Matters

Bring it all together

Today...

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Lean Startup Refresh(in 15 min)

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Lean Startup is NOT

Cheap Startup

Fast Startup

Shortcut Startup

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Low-Ambition

Lean Startup is NOT

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THE OPPOSITE OF FAT STARTUP

Lean Startup is NOT

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An approach for building companies that are

creating new products and services in

situations of extreme uncertainty.

The approach advocates creation of rapid

prototypes that test market assumptions, and

uses customer feedback in an effort to evolve

the design faster and reduce waste.

Lean Startup is...

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THE NEW CLASSICS

1. List your assumptions.2. Understand your customers.3. Experiment.4. Adjust direction based on evidence.

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Get out of the

building

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CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT

1. Discover & validate the market for your idea

2. Build a product that solves customers’ needs

3. Test the correct model for acquiring customers

4. Deploy the right organization for scaling

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A pitch is not customer development

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“The courage to speak truths, pleasant or unpleasant, fosters communication and trust.

“The courage to discard failing solutions and seek new ones encourages simplicity.

“The courage to seek real, concrete answers creates feedback.”

—Kent Beck

The Influence of Agile

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Build measure

learn!

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Lean Startup advocates experiments & learning

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}

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Victory is measured in

learning.

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This will change how you think

about your role, your work, your

team, your process.

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Plot the difference

THINK

release

MAKErelease

MAKErelease

MAKE

time

Risk

(unv

alida

ted

effo

rt)

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Lots of little wigglesRi

sk (u

nvali

date

d ef

fort)

time

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unva

lidat

ed ef

fort

time

Each wiggle is a learning cycle.

MAKE

releaseMAKE

THINK

CHECK

MAKE

THINK

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How will you learn?Quantitative Qualitative

Generative

Evaluative

InterviewsSurveys

Metrics Usability

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Not an MVP for lemonade

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User Experience

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A person’s perceptions and responses that

result from the use or anticipated use of a

product, service or system.

User Experience is...

product UI UX

via Ed Lea: http://design.org/blog/difference-between-ux-and-ui-subtleties-explained-cereal

Generative Research • Ideation • Mental models • Participatory Design • Contextual Inquiry • Concept Maps • Behavior Models • Test Results • Competitive Analysis

THINK

Personas • Sketches • Prototypes • Wireframes • Value Prop • Landing View • Hypotheses • Comps • Deployed CodeMAKE

Evaluative Research • A/B Testing • Site Analytics • Usability Testing • Funnel Analysis • Interruptive SurveysCHECK

THINK

MAKE

CHECK

Reduce cycle time,not build time

UX cycles = Lean Startup learning loops

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Needs1. I need...2. I want...3. My goal is...

UsesMary can...

Features

Users

Sketches, wireframes, pixels

Business thinking goes here

whywhathow

PrototypesUser Stories

Themed Releases

This Week

Design > UI THINK

MAKECHECK

BUILDMEASURE

LEARN

People, their goals & needs

Sketches and prototypes

Interactions and flows

More evidence that UX = Customer Discovery

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UX brings 10* years of experience, methods, and

patterns of work.

*20, 30, 50 years

UX people are EXPERTS at “getting out of the building”

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1. Get to Know your Customers2. Act on Customer Needs3. Measure What Matters

Three Lean Team Activities

TODAY

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Hypothesis

We believe that modern families would benefit from having better ways to keep up with tasks,

and are willing to pay for a better way to coordinate tasks with other family members,

friends and neighbors.

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Types of ResearchPersonas

How to InterviewPractice Interview

Get to Know Your Customers (Customer Development)

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User Researchquant qual

Generative

Evaluative

surveys

Usability

•Hallway usability

•remote

•Interviews

• Mental Models (Indi Young)

• Contextual Inquiry (Byer & Holzblatt)

•Starbucks

Analytics•Optimizely•

Key Metrics•

A/B Testing•

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User Researchquant qual

Generative

Evaluative

Interviews

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Customer Interviews(step-by-step)

1. Identify who you want to talk to.

2. Articulate your hypotheses.

3. Craft a topic map for the session.

4. Jot down conversation prompts.

5. Have the conversation

6. Debrief!

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{Activity}

Let’s do it!

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{Warm-up Activity}

Let’s Sketch...Clothespin Man!

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Who is your customer?

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{Activity}

Make a personaPortrait

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{Activity}

Make a personaDemographics

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{Activity}

Make a personaBehaviors

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{Activity}

Make a personaNeeds & Goals

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{Activity}

Consolidate

1. Do a quiet read. (5 minutes)

2. Discuss your personas (10 minutes)

3. Consolidate (5 minutes)

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Customer Interviews

✔ Identify who you want to talk to.

✔ Articulate your hypotheses.

3. Craft a topic map for the session.

4. Jot down conversation prompts.

5. Have the conversation

6. Debrief!

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{Show & Tell}

Topic Map

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Topic Map

mobile/internet habits?

last time they got help

(house cleaner)

keeping everything

working

feeling overwhelmed

commutepersonal time

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mobile/internet habits?

last time they got help

(house cleaner)

keeping everything

working

commute

{Activity}

Add two topics

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Customer Interviews

✔ Identify who you want to talk to.

✔ Articulate your hypotheses.

✔ Craft a topic map for the session.

4. Jot down conversation prompts.

5. Have the conversation

6. Debrief!

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“Have you ever had ________ experience?”

“Can you tell me the story about that?”

“And then what happened?”

“Why [or how] did you do that?”

“What did you love [or hate] about that?”

“If you could wave a magic wand, what would it be like?”

Conversation Prompts

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“Have you ever had __________________________ experience?”

{Activity}

Brainstorm a question

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Customer Interviews

✔ Identify who you want to talk to.

✔ Articulate your hypotheses.

✔ Craft a topic map for the session.

✔ Jot down conversation prompts.

5. Have the conversation

6. Debrief!

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During the Interview

DO• Take notes • Smile• Ask open-ended questions• Get their story• Shut up and listen

DON’T• Talk about your product• Ask about future behavior• Sell• Ask leading questions• Talk much

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{Activity}

Practice an interview1 interviewer + 1 interviewee

note-takers

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After the Interview: Debrief

DUMP (5min, solo)1 idea per sticky“What I heard”“What I saw”“What stood out”

SORT (10min, team)Collect similar itemsLabel groupsStack duplicatesNote trends and exceptions

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{homework}

Debrief

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Sketching6-Up UsesDot Voting

Act on Customer Needs(Developing product and interface ideas)

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Remember this?

Needs 1. BLAH2. BLAH3. BLAH

UsesMary can...

Features

Users

(CREATE SKETCHES, WIREFRAMES & PIXELS)

(INSERT BUSINESS THINKING HERE)

whywhathow

User Stories Themed Releases

This Week

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why

what

how

Your business

vision

A person and their

needs

BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH

BLAH BLAH

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why

what

how

Your business

vision

A person and their

needs

BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH

BLAH BLAH

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USES: What can Mary do with your product?

why

what

how

Your business

vision

A person and their

needs

BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH

BLAH BLAH

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6 Uses

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{Activity}

Sketch 6-up Uses

with __________, ________ can...

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{Activity}

Sketch 6-up Uses

with __________, ________ can...

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{Activity}

Dot-vote top picks1. Each person place 3 dots.

2. See patterns.

3. Team identifies the top 2 uses.

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{Activity}

Redraw the top 2with __________, ________ can...

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{Activity}

Redraw the top 2with __________, ________ can...

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{Activity}

Brainstorm features

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{Activity}

Select 1 feature

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Persona Limited features to support the uses

6-up uses

What you have nowWho is our user and what are their needs & goals?

What can a user do with our product?

How will they do that?

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{Organize!}

Post on the wall…Consolidated persona,

2 top uses, 3-4 features.

(off to the side)

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Common research questionsMetrics & Analytics

Measure What Matters(Quantitative & Qualitative Evaluation)

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Will people use it? Why won’t people use it?What’s wrong with this?How could I make this better? How can I improve conversion?Are we making progress? Do people like this?Are these results good? Why do people do that?Did we do the right thing?Why is there dropoff?

Top questions

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User Researchquantitative qualitative

generate ideas

evaluate product

surveys

usability testinga/b testing

user interviews

analyticsKPIs

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quantitative qualitative

usability testinganalytics

a/b testing

KPIs

CLOSED-ENDED QUESTIONS OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS

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Product(black box)

Conversion Funnel

Traffic

Measuring what?

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{Activity}

Brainstorm measures(from features)

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{Activity}

Divide into 2 piles:more

importantless

important

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{Activity}

As a team, get to 5

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{Activity}

Check your metrics

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Metrics checklist

3. Is there an object basis?

• “per user” [ ___/user]• “per user per week” (fancy!)• Examples: per user, per session, or by interaction or item (messages per file, emails per thread)

* not required, but helpful

• “per week” [ ___/wk ]• “per month” [ ___/mo]2. Is there a time basis?

• “number of...” [ # ]• “average number of...” [avg ]• “percent of...” [ % ]

1. Does the metric begin with a number?

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Metrics checklista good metric... a great metric...

...makes you look at all the other metrics and say “none of those other numbers matter if we don’t get this right first.”

vanity good better

...measures the usage of your product by a person. The usage should be specific to features that deliver value to your user.

unhelpfultotal number of registered

users

% of users who share a

task 3+ times a day,per week

sign-ups

awesome% of users who sign in 3+ times a

day,per week

% of new users per

week

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{Show & Tell}

Metrics Dashboard

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Metrics dashboard

% of users who share a

task 3+ times a day,per week

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{Show & Tell}

Information Radiator

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Information Radiator

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“Vanity Metrics”“KPI”“A/B Tests”“Metrics for Pirates”

What should I be measuring? (a few search terms)

Conversion metricsCohort metricsInstrumentation

Advanced topics

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Making the storyLiving the Lean Team life

Bring it all together

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{Activity}

Tell the story

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{Activity}

Make a narrativeWe are _______________Meet...

with __________, ________ can...

using these featuresMVP

we will measure

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A direct through-line

Needs 1. BLAH2. BLAH3. BLAH

UsesMary can...

Features

Users

(CREATE SKETCHES, WIREFRAMES & PIXELS)

(INSERT BUSINESS THINKING HERE)

whywhathow

User Stories Themed Releases

This Week

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Techniques

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Techniques Checklist1. Generate independently, discuss as a team

(3 people ideal)2. Dump & Sort

(one item per Post-It, use Sharpie)3. Sketch

(especially of people)4. Work at the wall 5. Timebox!

(speed kills the censor and keeps you moving)6. 2x2 organizing framework

(help decision-making when lots of items)7. Quick decision-making techniques

(dot-vote, roman vote, stack rank)

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Go be awesome.

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The LUXr Core CurriculumLean UX Week Special!

25% offuse the discount code

“merlion”through February 5, 2012

Thank you!