01. Discovery through Empathy

Discovery is a preliminary phase in any product design process this involves researching within the problem space and gathering enough ‘evidence’ or insights to help frame the problem(s) to be solved. Discovery should not involve testing hypotheses or solutions, that comes later.

Methods and frameworks that have proven valuable include: customer journeys, user interviews, empathy mapping, user needs statements and persona. Super effective: 5 Whys technique (link)

02. Defining and understanding Value

It's important to have a deep understanding of the value your product aims or provides to users. This involves identifying the core benefits and outcomes that users expect or desire. By having a good grasp of the value proposition, you can align your design decisions and efforts to deliver or enhance that value. A customer will only pay you or is loyal if there is a value exchange. Product-led companies typically perform better than sales-led companies, because they understand the value proposition better, more concisely and thus have lower customer acquisition costs (CAC).

During the definition stage, we define the core value we want to deliver (in the case of new product re/launch) or frame the value an enhanced user flow might bring. This step is critical as it sets boundaries on the desired outcome of any design experimentation by defining the metrics of success.

Techniques such as value proposition canvas, user journey mapping, and empathy mapping can help you articulate insights on user motivations, pain points, and desired outcomes to the rest of the team or company.

03. Prioritization of user needs (pre-ideation)

Helps align teams to roadmaps and goals. It is as well critical for companies to maximize their efforts and achieve better outcomes.

Prioritization frameworks like the below can help you determine which efforts should the ideation stage pursue first. Considering factors such as user needs, business goals, technical constraints, and resources available is crucial in this step.

Impact Matrix (Big bets, Quick Wins, Money Pit, Fill-ins)

MoSCoW method (Must-Have, Should-Have, Could-Have, Won't-Have),

Feasibility, Desirability, and Viability scorecard

RICE method (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort)

Kano model (Attractive, Performance, Indifferent, Must Be)

Critical Path

04. Ideation

This phase involves generating a wide range of ideas to address the identified user needs. Brainstorming sessions, sketching, and concept mapping can be used to foster creativity and encourage diverse perspectives, while being awesome conveyers of proposed solutions.

Design thinking and the use of ideation tools like mind maps or affinity diagrams can greatly assist in this process. 

Personal favourites: How-might-we, Crazy 8, Worst case scenario

05. Prioritization (post-ideation)

Post ideation you have a pool of ideas generated during the ideation phase, it's important to prioritize them based on their impact and feasibility. 

06. Concept testing and prototypes

Creating prototypes allows you to test and refine your prioritized ideas before investing significant resources into development.

Rapid prototyping techniques such as paper prototyping, wireframing, or creating interactive mockups help to validate design concepts and gather valuable feedback early on. Personal all time favourite, Figma & Axure RP (especially if testing interactive form inputs)

07. Test and iterate

Iterative design enables you to refine and enhance your product based on user feedback and insights gathered during testing. By analyzing user behavior and making data-driven decisions, you can iterate on your design to continually improve its usability and functionality.

A/B testing, user feedback loops, and analytics tools can assist in this iterative process. Personal favourite: Optimal Workshop

08. Evaluation

Finally, evaluating the success of your design is crucial to measure its impact and identify areas for further improvement. User surveys, and performance analytics can provide valuable insights on adoption and customer satisfaction. Future iterations can use these as benchmark. It is always important to come back to an experience and guage its effectiveness and inform future efforts.

Applying evaluation scores for user flows such as Customer Satisfaction Scores (CSAT), Customer Effort Scores (CES) or the System Usability Scale (SUS) or Net Promoter Score (NPS) for a broader metric to measure the success of your design.

By following these core phases, including the step of understanding value and working towards it, and leveraging the appropriate skills and frameworks, you can enhance the overall product design process and create user-centered solutions that meet the needs and expectations of your target audience.

Throughout the phases a clear communication channel and collaboration is key, becasue ultimately empathy drives great product solutions.

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