Discover through empathy
You achieve this by being curious about your user, engage in conversation, acknowledge your assumptions, observe patterns and pain points. It’s taken for granted that you capture as much as possible at this stage, which is why you need to be meticulous. Not all research methods can all be applied at one time, planning is key.
Skills:
Empathy maps, research repo, survey, interview script writing, transcribers
Define scope & prioritise value
Feedback comes in a wide spectrum: focused or broad, sometimes it might throw you off a tangent, or you’ll start stumbling over the same patterns. At some stage mapping and grouping (synth) feedback helps you to identify patterns.Â
Skills:
Synth workshops, journey maps, personas, documentation and reporting
Ideate
Based on commonalities defined in the problem-solving exercises, quick whiteboarding and wireframing can get a team far and wide engaged. It’s a cheap way to align, but as well explore the art of possible. Get stakeholders (product managers, designers, developers..) involved as they will identify gaps.
Skills:
Ideation workshops, wireframing, customer journey
Prototype
Prototype your pitch and test your hypothesis, first internally and then external. Remember you are not the user, let others guide you through feedback. Keep in mind core UX principles
Skills:
Prototype, usability tests, AB testing, treejack testing