A presentation outlining how Experience Design Improves Product Businesses. Langston synthesized structures from his past experiences as well as common industry practices to present to a local Bay Area MeetUp his ideas on structuring teams to produce excellent products.

1. The Experience Design
Framework
A Design Thinking Guide for Product Success
and Design Excellence
PRODUCT MANAGER PRODUCT DESIGNER
PRODUCT
January 22, 2015

2. LIVECAREER(XD)
Langston RichardsonSenior Creative Director, Experience
Design, LiveCareer

3. – Mike Montiero
“A good designer finds an elegant way
to put everything you need on a page.
A great designer convinces you half
that shit is unnecessary.”

4. • The Problem with Designing without
Insights
• Experience Design as a Product/
Marketing/Business Strategy
• The XD Team Within The Product
Development Ecosystem
• The Quickstart Guide to UX Design
• Value of Experience Design for
Product Companies

5. Product Managers try to solve their revenue goals by
volume of tickets
Design is an executional and visual consideration and
not a strategic and product architecture consideration
Use optimization as their only tool for product idea
testing validation reenforcing a belief that customers
have adoption of a feature.
PMs are risk adverse due to this lack of deep
contextual insights.
The Problem With Current
Product Design Methods…
?
!…and I still need
your figures
from last month.
MANY PRODUCT BUSINESSES HAVE BEEN
OPTIMIZED THE SAME WAY FOR YEARS

6. …Have Dire Impacts on Product Development
Initiating/
Planning
Requirements/
Design
Development/
Testing
Deployment/
Launching
Time
Scale
PLANNING BASED OFF
OF ASSUMPTIONS AND
GROUP THINK
AD HOC GUESSING
LEADS TO EVER
CHANGING PRODUCT
REQUIREMENTS
DEV GUESSED AT FUNCTIONALITY
DESIGNERS DON’T GET WHAT THEY SPECED
PRODUCT MANAGERS LOSE HANDLE OF TIMELINE
TEAM CUTS CORNERS AND QUALITY SUFFERS
PRODUCT LAUNCHES
WITH BUGS AND
IS REFACTORED TO
ADDRESS MARKET
NOT ADOPTING SOLUTION
STILL A LOT OF
WORK AND COSTS
ESCALATING
Escalating
CostsProduct Dev cost
for a recent
product launch
exceeded $3m
becoming a virtual
money pit
Uninformed PMs try new ideas
leading to frustrated team
Red Pill
or
Blue Pill?

7. Initiating/
Planning
Requirements/
Design
Development/
Testing
Deployment/
Launching
Time
Scale
Escalating
Costs
PLANNING BASED ON
RUNNING A FINANCIALLY
SOUND BUSINESS
REQUIREMENTS BACKED
BY IN DEPTH RESEARCH
FUNCTIONAL SPECS ARE
DETAILED AND LEADS
TO FASTER CODING AND
LESS REWORK AND FIXING
PRODUCT SHIPS
PRODUCT MANAGER
CAN FOCUS MORE
ON MARKETING
THE PRODUCT
Red Pill
or
Blue Pill?
But with Actual Product Design…

8. 80%
Product Work without UX often
fall victim to the 80/20 Rule
80% of most ideas
bring us 20% of
successful test results
20% of these ideas
bring us 80% of
successful
metric moving wins
I want to get
better
20%are the most
effective product
ideas
User Research
can identify this
sweet spotUSER
RESEARCHER
I don’t want to
have to guess
at this.
are bad guesses for products

9. Experience Design is at it’s
core the UX of Human Things

10. Experience Design looks to
understand people in their everyday
lives and creates marketing and
product touch points that resonates
usefulness and delightfulness

11. Experience Design is brand touch
points before product, usability
with product use, and evangelism
after product and other customer
connections.

12. Experience Design Strategy Overview

13. Experience Design to Discover New
Product Opportunities
Research and Development Exploring Untapped Areas We Can Productize
• How we research user behavior and patterns to
help uncover the product innovations that will drive
our business growth
Looks at:
Produces:
Feedback:
Understands The Market Opportunity, Learns the
Product User and/or Target Customer, and making
sense of all Existing Data.
Customer Profile, Journey Maps and other
understandings. Later, designs solutions for proof-
of-concept prototypes
User Tests and Product Optimization results that
informs future research
CORE XD TEAM
UX Designer
UI Prototyper
Researcher

14. Experience Design to Launch
New Product Initiatives
Innovation, Research and Development Exploring New Businesses
• How we identify, research, validate, design and
develop new product solutions for the business
Looks at:
Produces:
Feedback:
Receives the Business Proposal, Understands The
Market Opportunity, Learns the Product User and/or
Target Customer, and making sense of all Existing Data.
Customer Profile, Journey Maps and other
understandings. Later, designs solutions for proof-of-
concept prototypes, tests and validate assumptions
User Tests and Product Optimization results that informs
future research
CORE XD TEAM
UX Designer
UI Designer
Researcher
UI Prototyper

15. Experience Design to Grow
In-Market Products
Keeping the Product Business Afloat
• How we practically apply learnings into validated
design solutions to yield sustained growth in
business
CORE XD TEAM
UX Designer
UI Designer
Researcher
Looks at:
Produces:
Feedback:
Trends and patterns of users within the product so
we can better redesign features for user benefit.
Flows and interaction options that solve friction
points for people using our products and services.
From various testing methodologies and user
metrics analysis that informs future improvements
and product evolution.

16. Experience Design to
Optimize a Product’s Performance
Innovation, Research and Development Exploring New Businesses
• How we maximize the results of product wins, learn
from product losses and replicate successes to
sustain product growth
Looks at:
Produces:
Feedback:
Trends and patterns of product users that inhibit
conversion into a customer.
Flows and interaction options that solve friction
points for people using our products and services.
Principally from A/B/Multivariate testing
methodologies and user metrics analysis that
informs future improvements and product evolution.
CORE XD TEAM
UX Designer
UI Designer
Researcher

17. Experience Design Works Across Products
CONCEPT PRODUCT PAGE(S) PAGE ELEMENT(S) UI ELEMENT(S)
User Experience Research
User Experience Design
User Interaction Design
Fast tracking the next level of product innovation and improving existing
products with a more efficient production process.
INNOVATION IN PRODUCTS OPTIMIZATION OF EXISTING PRODUCTS
Product Discovery Products In Market
Studies Users/Potential Users of the Product.
Product Innovation Based Off Of Research.
Defines Goals and Explores Opportunities for Product
Growth.
Architects Future Product Roadmaps
Develops Interaction Patterns Based Off User Testing.
Helps Roadmap Optimization Strategies to Improve Product Conversion
performance.
Produces Functional Specifications and Works with UI Development To
Ensure Proper Interaction

18. Research/Design to Innovation
The Complete Lifecycle of Experience Design in Product Cycle
User Research User Experience Interaction/Visual Interface Development
Marketing
Requirements
Document
Research
Validation
Product
Requirements
Document
Product
UX Design
Functional
Specification
Product UI
Design
Development
Guides and Kit
Product
Integration
and Build
Quality Control,
Testing and Launch
UXR UX UI UID
Visual and Finalized
Design in HTML
Development adds tracking
implements code
Iterative Design
and User Testing
Helps learning and
definition of problem
through research

19. Optimize for Improvements
The Complete Optimization Lifecycle of Experience Design in Product Optimization
User Research UX Design Interaction/Visual Interface Dev
Data
Gathering
Opportunity
Analysis with
Product and
Marketing
Optimization
Requirements
Product
UX
Advisory
Testing
Specification
Product UI
Updates
Toolkit
Implementation
Product
Integration
and Build
Quality Control,
Testing and Launch
DATA UX UI UID
Visual and Finalized
Design in HTML
Development adds tracking
implements code
Testing Planning
with XD
Analyzing
Product Performance

20. Shared Responsibilities:
Product Management and UX
Product Management and UX Designers form a team that helps product goals
happen faster with far greater % of ROI gains
Product Management Product Designer (UX)
PM UX
PRODUCT
ROADMAPS
Product Direction
Work Coordination
Team Communication
Budgeting and Stakeholders
Scheduling of Testing
Feature Coordination
Architects Product
Studies Product Users
Develop UX Strategies/
Ideas for Product Testing
Feature Recommendation

21. Shared Responsibilities:
User Research and User Experience Design
Design is based off of insights gained by understanding the people who the
business, the product and the market sees as an opportunity.
User Research (UXR) Product Designer (UX)
UXR UX
FINDINGSAND
INSIGHTS
Primary Research
Customer Interviews
Surveys
Architects product
Studies Product Users
Develop UX Strategies/
Ideas for Product Testing

22. Shared Responsibilities:
User Experience Design and Interaction Design
All Design is not equal. UX and UI equal a stronger final product where form and
function merge into a usable and enjoyable product.
Product UX Design Product UI Design
UXDes UIDes
DESIGN/
INTERACTION
Designing Product Flows
Designing Low Fidelity
Iterative Design/Testing
Designing Page Structure
Designing Features based
off on Research
Designing High Fidelity
Interaction Details
Designing Final Details
Planning HTML/CSS with
UI Development

23. Shared Responsibilities:
UI Design and UI Development
Modern design is as much about development as it is about the visual. UI
design brings a form and function to the code that creates great experiences.
Product UI Design Product UI Developer
UIDes UIDev
HTML/CSS
Toolkit
Designing Interactions
Designing the Visual Brand
Maintaining Toolkit
and Styleguide
Coding the Responsive
Framework
Implementing
HTML Designs
as ASPX/ via Toolkit
AngularJS, adding
backend OPTIZ
tagging

24. The Experience Design Process
Benefits Business Innovation
Ordinary
World
LAUNCH GROWTH MATURE DECLINE
Improved
World
New
Baseline
World
START OF A PRODUCT
NEW PRODUCT
TO EXPAND BUSINESS
XD can help products to climb
hills of the “local maximum”
curve
Optimization puts to
breaks on decline for
only so long.
WHERE THE NEXT
INNOVATION POINT
CAN OCCUR /
FAIL TO OCCUR
Revenue
Product Evolution in Time (Launch/Growth towards Innovation before maturation)
We’re going
places.
#movingOnUp
Future Growth Goals

25. Experience Design Process
Benefits Communication
• Makes the relationship between stakeholders a 360°
connection.
• Predetermined review stages so that the project doesn't
progress in the wrong direction.
• Ensures that all parts of an organization are on board with
the evolving design process.
PRODUCT MANAGER
TIMELINES
STAKEHOLDERS
PRODUCT UX PRODUCT UI PRODUCT UI DEV
DESIGN
STRATEGY
UPDATES
PRODUCT
REQS
Updates! Best
Solution!
Reliable
Product!
Easy to
Use!

26. Experience Design Process Benefits
Implementation
• Doesn't let designers exit the scene during implementation.
They are important in this process.
• Establishes assessment procedures so that the design
process can be improved in the future.
BOOYAH!
PRODUCT DEVPRODUCT MGR PRODUCT DESIGN
+ +
QUALITY CONTROL
+
We’re on time with
our marketing and
partner launches.
+
ANALYTICS
Users are
happy.
Everything
is built.
Passed all
tests.
We’re
gathering data.

27. Experience Design Evangelism
for Product Success
• Promoting the concept of UX in general.
• Training leaders and managers in both the
theory of Experience Design and the
benefits of a UX approach to Product wins.
• Aligning Experience Design work now and
in the future with the companies goals.
• Ensuring that Experience Design is an
agenda item when it is relevant.
TELL ME…
ARE YOU
EXPERIENCED?

28. Experience Design Strategy is
Business Strategy
• Supporting Product leaders and managers to
articulate the importance of Product Design
process
• Build deep relationships with stakeholders,
leaders and other functions where Experience
Design (XD) brings the most benefit.
• Champion executive sponsorship of
Experience Design in order to flourish within
the Product business.
• Demonstrate how Experience Design efforts
currently supports the business strategy and
assists in achieving the objectives set forth
from that strategy.
IT’S ALL ABOUT
THE BUSINESS,
BABY!

29. Thanks.
PROFITABLE
PRODUCT MANAGER
EVEN MORE SUCCESSFUL
PRODUCT
EFFECTIVE
PRODUCT DESIGNER