As designers and visionaries, our job is to explore what's possible for tomorrow, within domain spaces that aren't our own. We're pressured to discover answers to questions we don't know to ask and the quality of our concepts and recommendations are only as strong as the problem details we're able to uncover. This is where our subject matter experts—end users, project leads, and domain space veterans—are both valuable and hindering. We know we need what's in their brains, but they're blinded by today and yesterday. "We've always done it this way," is the default barrier from ease-of-use and progress. In this talk, Anthony will share by example, how his team is innovating in a space that's literally hundreds of years old (the railroad), to help preserve and advance a people and culture being threatened by new technologies. He'll expose some of the workshop facilitation techniques he'd used to get fresh and open-minded ideas out of the most pessimistic of participants—to maximize your understanding of the mega (and not so mega) design problems you're grappling with every day.

1. Envisioning the Future
with Teams Bogged in the Past
UXD Chicago Meetup 2017 • @anthonydpaul

2. Painted into a corner

3. Wasn’t a problem

4. New competitors

5. New technology, better data about environment

6. 100+ years of the same management

7. e.g., “string line”

8. “Cliff” = retiring workforce
Half retiring
by 2019
Already half
under 10yrs
experience
Already third
digital natives
@anthonydpaul

9. Anthony D Paul
Futurist, Researcher, and Usability Flag-Waver
@anthonydpaul

10. Awarded project budgets
Creative studio
Chicago and Atlanta (soon Sri-Lanka)
WeWork membership
Field travel and workshops
UX team like an agency
@anthonydpaul

11. The hardest part of a business
transformation is changing the
culture—the mindset and instincts
of the people in the company.
Lou Gerstner, former CEO of IBM

12. Not actually sci-fi
Honoring regulations and culture
Industry language vs usable language
Layers of network (incl. MOW, cargo, docks)
Layers of success (fuel vs schedule)
Futurists or diplomats?
@anthonydpaul

13. not just drama

14. Case study
@anthonydpaul

15. Building a new control tower
Part 1 of 2 • Today

16. early needs analysis

17. Summarize understanding
@anthonydpaul

18. Summarize understanding
@anthonydpaul

19. Summarize understanding
@anthonydpaul

20. TopCoder

21. TopCoder

22. TopCoder

23. TopCoder

24. 3 views and 3 train icons
Iconography survey (SME mix)
Remote unmoderated tests (non-SMEs)
Remote moderated tests (SMEs)
Concept evaluation

29. View 1

30. View 2

31. View 3

32. script

33. TryMyUI.com

34. QuickTime

35. Building a new control tower
Part 2 of 2 • Tomorrow

36. Any customer touchpoint

37. worksheet

38. worksheet

39. worksheet

40. Jeff Patton approach

41. script

42. @anthonydpaul

43. @anthonydpaul

45. @anthonydpaul

46. context

47. TopCoder

48. TopCoder

49. TopCoder

50. TopCoder

51. @anthonydpaul

52. @anthonydpaul

53. @anthonydpaul

56. Usability tests
POC development
Field play tests
Next
@anthonydpaul

57. Closing
@anthonydpaul

58. Continuously summarize what we know
(for correction AND refocus)
Use “filetype:pdf” for cram studying
Be humble but informed
@anthonydpaul

59. Every problem is an “opportunity”
(don’t insult the past)
Keep future humans as strategists and SMEs
(avoid future titles and focus on tasks/decisions)
Create public small wins and give credit
Be diplomatic
@anthonydpaul

60. Set research goals for every exercise
Ask for more activity time; plan for less
Series of tiny, simple activities
Channel your cat wrangler
@anthonydpaul

61. Use long-term vs near-term to your advantage
(capture future ideas)
Each “step” is of many (be excited about next)
Microtest and cite your findings
Frame user needs as business needs
Channel your Obi-Wan
@anthonydpaul

62. So often a project fails because
we fail to see the perspective of
the [decision makers] who hold
the keys to our success.
Tom Greever, author of Articulating Design Decisions

63. Nancy Duarte
The secret structure of great [persuasive] talks (video)
https://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_duarte_the_secret_structure_of_great_talks
Christina Wodtke
MicroStories for Pitching (blog)
https://medium.com/the-overlap/microstories-for-pitching-79e306a4216a
Tom Greever
Articulating Design Decisions (book)
https://www.slideshare.net/TomGreever/articulating-design-decisions-76285810
Become a better persuader
@anthonydpaul

64. Detailed talks
http://stickielab.com/speaking
wireframing • lean requirements
usability testing • information architecture
Stalker links
http://adp.rocks or http:// .ws or http:// .ws
Thank you
@anthonydpaul