Keeping the Vision Alive: UX Leadership in Long-Term Projects

Lisa Ba'le President [email protected]

Laura Chessman Principal Consultant [email protected]

Keeping the Vision Alive USER FOCUS CONFERENCE • 17 October, 2014

@design4context Keeping the Vision Alive User Focus 2014 2

© Design for Context

Presenters

PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER Understand user needs and tasks. Design applicaFons that work the way people expect them to.

Lisa Ba'le

PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT Untangling the complex problems in user experience design.

Laura Chessman



VISION



A user-‐centered design process leads to

creaFng a vision for a major redesign, a

new product, a strategically important

next generaFon of a product suite.

USER-‐CENTERED DESIGN



VISIONARY PROTOTYPE

Provides a holisPc view of what the experience will be like when the future product is complete, used as a constant reference point.

Clickable Prototype Watch videos



ParFcularly when projects extend over a long

period, challenges come up: technical

constraints, scope changes, new feature

requests, poliFcs, changes in leadership…

CHALLENGES

h'p://i.istockimg.com/file_thumbview_approve/24376371/2/stock-‐photo-‐24376371-‐business-‐people-‐talking-‐on-‐conference-‐call



APer facilitaFng the creaFon of a vision

for a redesign or new product, the UX

team oPen becomes responsible for

keeping the vision alive.

KEEPERS OF THE VISION



COMMUNICATING THE VISION



ExecuPves

Project Leads

Development Team

WE COMMUNICATE THE VISION TO DIFFERENT AUDIENCES…



Project Leads

Development Team


Early Middle Late

ExecuPves



Project Leads

Development Team


Early Middle Late

What is the vision?

How is it be'er than what we had before?

How much have we accomplished so far?

What is our roadmap to achieve it?

ExecuJves



VISUALIZATION OF PROCESS AND PAIN POINTS

Allow decision makers to visualize pain points in a current process and show how the vision is simpler and cleaner.

Customer DB

Sales Leads

External /Manual Processes

Mark as prospect

Customer found?

Open report in Excel

Remove duplicates

Yes

No

View customer

info

Run prospect report, export

Search for customer in sales system

Create record in sales system

Review customer record

Mark record as new prospect, add notes

Valid new prospect?

Current System

Send to Sales Team

Open Prospect

Spreadsheet

Customer Service Team

Sales Team



VISUALIZATION OF PROCESS AND PAIN POINTS

Allow decision makers to visualize pain points in a current process and show how the vision is simpler and cleaner.

Full CRM

External /Manual Processes

Mark as prospect

View customer

info

Open Prospects

List

Review customer record

Mark record as ready for contact

Valid new prospect?

Future System

No external or manual processing

Customer Service Team

Sales Team



ROADMAP IdenPfy feature groups and explain what will be done for each of them in the short term, mid term, and long term.

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

1. People (Customer/Prospect DB)

2. CommunicaPons

3. Workflow

4. Knowledge Base

5. Issue Tracking

6. Sales Leads



ROADMAP Over Pme, track the feature groups and show which ones are done, which are in progress, which have not started yet.

Group Short Term Mid-‐Term Long-‐Term Framework Clarify structure,

navigaPon Streamline look and feel

Streamline access levels

Expand access for external users

Establish interacPon model between elements

Enhance interacPons between element

Define complex interacPons elements

Customer/Prospect DB

Consolidated data Develop base view Enhanced, context sensiPve views and access points

Develop responsive view

Further develop tools and views

IdenPfy views and access points

Support history tracking dependencies

CommunicaJons IdenPfy types and prioriPes

Integrated views independent of mechanism

Clarify views and relaPonships

Support history tracking dependencies

Automate response opPons

Define model with person and issues

Integrate with 3rd party tools

Workflow IdenPfy rules and user interacPons

Build rules engine Define work management opPons

Enhance noPficaPon and access points

Establish interacPon model

Build base noPficaPons and access points

Build work management opPons

Completed In progress At risk



PROJECT GOALS Build towards goals, not features. Understanding goals and keeping a focus on them throughout a project is essenPal.

Decrease call Pme

Increase conversion rate

Faster idenPficaPon of

each caller

More personalized

offers

Offer incenPves

Quick answers to most common

quesPons

Feature

Feature

Feature

Feature

GOAL (WHY) HOW WHAT (FEATURE SETS)

Sub feature

Feature Sub feature

Sub feature

Sub feature

Sub feature

Sub feature

Sub feature

Sub feature



PROJECT TIMELINE

A Pmeline that looks back over the project history and points out key milestones, phases and achievements—showing what’s been done so far and what’s sPll coming.

Q3 2013 Q4 2013 Q1 2014 Q2 2014 Q3 2014 Q4 2014 Q1 2015 Q2 2015

Business Process Re-‐engineering

Focus Groups and Surveys

Visionary Prototypes

Build for Beta TesPng Build for Extended Pilot Build for Full Release

Framework

People

CommunicaPons

Workflow

Issue Tracking

Knowledge Management

Sales Leads

Design direc+on agreed on by stakeholders (Dec ‘14)

Demo to Board (May ‘14)

Release for Beta (July ‘14)

Demo to Board (planned Nov ‘14)

Release for Pilot users (planned Jan ‘14)

Today! (Oct ‘14)



ExecuPves

Development Team


Early Middle Late

What is in scope? What are the prioriPes?

What goes into development next?

Where can we scale back?

Project Leads



VISION WALL Surround the project team with arPfacts that express the goals and success criteria.

Image of a team room with flip charts showing goals, criteria for success, user research findings

Challenge: Distributed teams do not have a shared workspace



PROJECT MULTI-‐TRACK OVERVIEW

Keeping different parts of the project in synch and focused on how they can work together towards a vision.

Q4 2013 Q1 2014 Q2 2014 Q3 2014 Q4 2014 Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015

Fram

ework

Custom

er/Prospect

DB

Commun

icaP

ons

Workflow

1.1 EvaluaPon and Feedback

1.2 IteraPve Design and Development: Base Element

1.3 IteraPve Design and Development: Overall look and feel

3.1 Data modeling

2.1 Data modeling

4.2 Build rules engine

2.2 IteraPve Design and Development: Customer/Prospect InformaPon

3.2 3rd Party IntegraPon R&D

4.1 IdenPfy business rules

2.3 History Tracking

3.3 IteraPve Design and Development: CommunicaPons

3.3 IteraPve Design and Development: Workflow InteracPons



FEATURE SUMMARY

Create digesPble summaries of features, explaining what it is and why it helps. Discuss which features have been built so far…

To Do This Week Cases prioriPzed automaPcally for each user.

Tasks and AcJviJes Non-‐case work is listed in the same area as case related work so users have just one place to look.

DASHBOARD A single star=ng point for planning the user’s work and finding any cases that are wai=ng for the user’s ac=on.

Quick Access to ReporJng and Search Users can quickly find their reports and saved searches.

2014 VERSION



FEATURE SUMMARY

… and which features are sPll coming in the future.

DASHBOARD Addi=onal tools will be integrated into the dashboard to give users more visibility on their produc=vity and help them plan ahead, including what-‐if scenarios. FUTURE FEATURES

Credit Calculator Users will see credits earned and credits needed to meet their goals

ProducJvity Data and Tools Views of producPvity data allow users to see their historical performance

Upcoming Work Planning tools allow users to make be'er decisions today



USER STORY OVERVIEW

A quick overview of user stories in a process flow, to help the team visualize the relaPonships between user stories.

CUSTOMER

CUSTOMER

SER

VICE

REPRE

SENTA

TIVE

Epic #21: Process a service request

Request a service

Customer found?

Epic #15: Create new customer

Find available services

Service available?

Address valid?

Receive new service request

US #1032 Find

customer record

US #1041

Verify address

US #1016 US #1017

Edit address

US #1018

Browse services

US #1058

Search services

US #1059

Preview a service

US #1060 View

recommendaPons

US #1061 Submit service request

US #1035 US #1033

Receive confirmaPon

US #1036

US #1042

US #1034

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No



USER STORY SPREADSHEET WITH GRAPHS

Extend the user story list to show status of stories.



ExecuPves

Project Leads

Development Team


Early Middle Late

How does __ feature fit in?

What alternaPves are there?

Is this a short term or a long term design?



ELABORATION OF DESIGN

Over Pme, parts of the original visionary prototype are elaborated in more detailed wireframes.

Vision prototype

Wireframes



SHOW FEATURES IN CONTEXT

Within a user story, provide a “big picture” wireframe and idenPfy areas that aren’t in scope for the current story.



USER STORY SHORT TERM AND LONG TERM VERSIONS

SomePmes a short-‐term design soluPon differs from the intended design. When possible, signpost this.



● Not geung too far ahead of development

● Needing new, more granular prototypes that demonstrate the evoluPon of the vision (evoluPon in Pme and depth)

CONSIDERATIONS

Lisa Ba'le President [email protected]

Laura Chessman Principal Consultant [email protected]

Keeping the Vision Alive

30

USER FOCUS 2014

Thanks!

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PresentaFon is on Slideshare – Go to www.designforcontext.com/publicaFons