Hey all! This is a quick presentation on how to stay connected with your users so you can build the simplest and most relevant product. This was inspired by my experience building Knowledge Management systems at P&G, but these are my own learnings. This will be very helpful for anyone building an internal application, or an intranet, to stay connected with all their global users. I'm sure there are also smaller startups looking to learn how to connect with all their potential customers, as they visit their fledgling site - willing to offer feedback. I'm sharing this with you hoping you'll help me improve it. Share your thoughts!
Good Stuff Happens in 1:1 Meetings: Why you need them and how to do them well
Staying connected to your users - for everyone
1. These are not statements of Procter & Gamble.
Adam Siemiginowski
@ATSiem
2. Workout! Raise your hand if…
• Your team gathers and reviews user feedback.
• Someone on your team is responsible for
conducting user interviews and sharing
learnings.
• Someone on your team is responsible for
conducting and scheduling user interviews
which your team observes.
5. I make design I buy systems, and
I build new services. choices which configure new services.
affect my users.
6. • “To go and look for oneself is the best, if not
the only, way to test whether the assumptions
on which a decision had been made are still
valid.”
• “Failure to go out and look is the typical
reason for persisting in a course of action long
after it has ceased to be appropriate or even
rational.”
– Peter Drucker, The Effective Executive
1967
7. • “There’s no substitute for real people
using your app in real ways.”
– 37Signals, Getting Real
• “Get out of the building.”
– Steven Blank, The Four Steps to The Epiphany
2006 & 2005
9. Collect and respond to feedback
Goal
• Enable users to share ideas, questions and
problems with you in one click
• Enable users to see what other users are saying
and voting on
Tool
• UserVoice
– Make it easy and implement single-sign-on
11. Chat with your users now
Goal
• Enable users to ask questions and get live
support
• Enable product team to ask users how they
can help
Tool
• Olark
12. Chat with your users now
Goal
• Enable users to ask questions and get live
support
• Enable product team to ask users how they
can help
Tool
• Olark
13. Ask for content in-the-moment
Goal
• Enable users to offer content suggestions
when they discover outages
Tool
• Email!
14. Ask for content in-the-moment
Goal
• Enable users to offer content suggestions
when they discover outages
Tool
• Email!
15. Speak to users where they are!
Goal
• Enable users to get updates on what is new
and important about what they’re looking at
right now
Tool
• HelloBar
16. We learned with our knowledge management
systems how to apply this…
This is just a start for web apps.
Take these ideas and run with them.
Next up, testing for all services and systems.
17. Recruit users and get to know them.
Goal
• Spend time observing your users, listening to
them describe their tasks as they complete them.
Tool
• Use Ethnio to setup a simple screener and embed
it in a website that your typical user visits.
– I recruited 211 volunteers for a 30min interview in just
a few days.
– I then used Ethnio to manage the scheduling of
interviewees, along with Outlook and Webex.
18. When testing our research repository…
We recruited with Ethnio.com
24. Add a line chart
• A customer has asked you to add a line chart
with another set of data. They think it will
better represent the data than a bar chart,
and correlates to what they want to
communicate with the scatterplot you already
added. Go ahead and add a line chart to the
bookmark with your scatterplot.
25. A MORNING A MONTH.
THAT’S ALL WE ASK.
• ‘User Research Friday’
• Three 45min Interviews
• Three Insights / Interview
26. EXTRA CREDIT
Goal
• Engage your users in your design sessions, to
learn and codevelop solutions.
Tool
• Sketchboard
27. Maxims on Staying Connected to Users
• A morning a month, that’s all we ask.
• Start earlier than you think makes sense.
• Recruit loosely and don’t stress, just talk.
• Make it a spectator sport, for everyone.
• Focus ruthlessly on a small number of the
most important problems.
• When fixing problems, always do the least you
can do to ensure the problem is solved fast.
via ‘Rocket Surgery Made Easy’
28. For the overachievers…
• Lean Usability Testing at Meetup.com
• Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The DIY guide to
finding and fixing usability problems (Krug)
• Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a plan
that works (Maurya)
• From Paper to Pixels: A hands-on strategy for
user-based design (Siemiginowski)
These are not statements of Procter & Gamble.
Is this critical to delivering great solutions?Settlers of Catan, see how strategy unfolds rapidly
Is this really true?From my Product Research experience… I say yes.
How does it work in our IT Development Organization – everyone needs design.Every presentation needs a venn diagram
Let's take a look outside…How is what you're making being used…x% of software is never used...
Highest Rated Monitor of 2005 - 24"
Staying connected is critical.Now, how do we do it?Avoid "When all you've got a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” with options.
Tip #1How do we empower users to share insights in context?
Tip #1How do we empower users to share insights in context?
Tip #2In a global company, how do we recreate a 'storefront'?Informal smalltalkIn context
Tip #2In a global company, how do we recreate a 'storefront'?Informal smalltalkIn context
Tip #3Gather dynamic input
Tip #3Gather dynamic input
Tip #4Got a key message to deliver? Get it on the site.Emails are out of context
Tip #5 – The Golden Rule of User SensingA.G. Lafley, the former CEO, challenged P&G to put an end to focus groups.1:1 Interviews are critical.In our knowledge management project, 16 go-to partners recruited by ethnio.
This is what an example screener looks like. I customized it to my needs and data. You can leave the javascript on the site, and turn the screener on and off and modify it from the backend in Ethnio.
This is what an example screener looks like. I customized it to my needs and data. You can leave the javascript on the site, and turn the screener on and off and modify it from the backend in Ethnio.
Here is a view of the live data coming in via Ethnio. You can see we had 2500 people view the screener, and 211 sign up. Awesome! You can filter by your specific recruiting needs, then invite them to meetings, and keep notes on status of interviews in ethnio.
This is how Meetup.com iterates.
Everyone should know what it feels like for a user. From CEO to new hire.
Sample User Sensing TaskCreate a context, then observe, and make them comfortable to share their stream of conciousness.
Team breakouts on certain componentsOutline experience, workflow and interfaceShare with others, even interview other users
