I was invited to speak as an industry expert with the Engineering department at the University of Washington as part of their Human Centered Design & Engineering graduate speaker series. My talk was about how my team at Avvo.com used Design Thinking to support the creation of a new product called Avvo Advisor.

1. Ask The Right Questions
Disrupting Industries Through UCD-Driven Discovery
Puja Parakh
@pujaparakh | http://puja.rocks

2. How many people
have searched online
about a legal issue?
@pujaparakh

3. How many people
have hired a lawyer
before?
@pujaparakh

5. People come to Avvo in search of
answers/direction to their legal
situation…
Everything from how to handle a child
custody to starting a small business.

6. Online Q&A
Cost: Free
Value: Low

7. Online Q&A
Cost: Free
Value: Low
Hiring a lawyer
Cost: Expensive
Value: High

8. Online Q&A
Cost: Free
Value: Low
Hiring a lawyer
Cost: Expensive
Value: High

9. Online Q&A
Cost: Free
Value: Low
Hiring a lawyer
Cost: Expensive
Value: High

11. “Creating products customers love
begins with discovering a solution
that is valuable, usable, and
feasible. If you can’t do this, then
it’s not worth building anything”
- Marty Cagan

12. How we used empathy in our
process to shape and
unexpectedly discover a
whole new industry in legal…
@pujaparakh

13. Average # of questions per user: 1.4
Immigration questions per user: 3.8

14. We knew that users
were coming and going
off of our site multiples
times.
Happening on both
mobile and PC.
...and sometimes in their underwear
@pujaparakh

15. I have a weird case of identify theft,
and I am at my wits end dealing with
it! What should I do?

16. Why?

17. There are 3 types of problems

18. Known knowns
There are 3 types of problems
1
You know how to
solve them

19. Known unknownsKnown knowns
There are 3 types of problems
1 2
You know how to
solve them
You know ways to
find out how to solve
them

20. Known unknownsKnown knowns
There are 3 types of problems
1 2
Unknown unknowns
3
You know how to
solve them
You know ways to
find out how to solve
them
You don’t know how
to solve them because
you don’t know the
root cause

21. Known knowns
There are 3 types of problems
1
You know how to
solve them
I got a parking ticket.
Pay by mail for the ticket.
Required activities:
Execution & implementation
Required mindset:
Checklist thinking

22. Known knowns
There are 3 types of problems
1
You know how to
solve them
I got a parking ticket.
Pay by mail for the ticket.
Required activities:
Execution & implementation
Required mindset:
Checklist thinking
Known unknowns
2
Required activities:
Search, learn, sort, solve
Required mindset:
Analytical thinking
My phone doesn’t have service.
How can I fix it?

23. Known knowns
There are 3 types of problems
1
You know how to
solve them
I got a parking ticket.
Pay by mail for the ticket.
Required activities:
Execution & implementation
Required mindset:
Checklist thinking
Known unknowns
2
My phone doesn’t have service.
How can I fix it?
Required activities:
Search, learn, sort, solve
Required mindset:
Analytical thinking
Unknown unknowns
3
Customer ignores my product.
How can I understand why?
Required activities:
Immersion, engagement
Required mindset:
Design thinking

24. Design Thinking is an
abstraction of the principles
and process that
user-centered designers
use to solve problems

25. You have to understand
a problem before you
can solve it.

26. Understand
Explore
Materialize

27. Understand
Empathize
Conduct research
to develop an
understanding of
our users

29. Doogie Howser, MD
Season 3, Episode 7
“I had to employ a very
advanced, scientific
approach to make the
diagnosis…

30. Doogie Howser, MD
Season 3, Episode 7
“I had to employ a very
advanced, scientific
approach to make the
diagnosis…
… I sat down on her
bed and asked her
about her family.”

31. @pujaparakh

32. @pujaparakh

33. @pujaparakh

34. @pujaparakh

35. http://www.softicons.com/toolbar-icons/vista-people-icons-by-icons-land@pujaparakh

36. Understand
Define
Combine all of our
research and see
where our users’
problems exist

38. Price transparency

39. Price transparency
Friction
Speed
Affordable

40. Price transparency
Friction
Speed
Affordable

41. Price transparency
Friction
Speed
Next steps

42. This sucks.

43. This sucks.
What can we do to make it easier for
consumers to be happier with their
experience?
@pujaparakh

44. http://krakowerlaw.net/

45. What can lawyers do to make it easier
for consumers to be happier with their
experience?
@pujaparakh

46. Busy Busy
Not as busy

48. Call within 15 minutes
Legal advice for 1 hour
$99 flat fee

49. Would they do it?

51. Would they do it?
Could

52. Would they do it?
Could
Yes!?!
@pujaparakh

54. Reality of what our
team looked like

55. Explore
Ideate
Generate a range
of crazy, creative
ideas

56. What can Avvo do to
remove frustration and
trigger excitement?

59. Explore
Prototype
Build real, tactile
representations for
a range of ideas

60. Super important to have outside
team members to help with
solutions, and always include
your developers

64. “No business plan
survives first contact
with customers”

65. Materialize
Test
Return to users for
feedback.

66. Developers
UX Designers
Prototypes3

70. For Consumers
Get a call in 15 minutes
Pay $39/15min
No sales pitch

71. For Consumers For Lawyers
Get a call in 15 minutes
Pay $39/15min
No sales pitch
Respond to SMS within
15 min
Give good advice

72. Cool story…
But how did it turn out?
@pujaparakh

73. “
With Avvo Advisor, I received a call back from an
attorney within 15 minutes. He listened to my
situation, offered some good advice and
confirmed I was on the right track. Without this
service I would have been waiting - and worrying
- for over a week until I could see a lawyer in
person.
- Arnulfo E., Santa Barbara, CA
@pujaparakh

74. Getting a lawyer can be a
really scary process, it’s
new for most of us.
Anything we can do to be
simpler, more accessible,
and less scary is valuable.

75. Empathy is at the heart of
design.
Without the understanding of what others
see, feel, and experience, design is a
pointless task.
@pujaparakh

76. Empathy is a
strong driver for
building truly
useful products.

77. Thanks!
@pujaparakh | http://puja.rocks