THE USERS THAT USE YOUA Workshop With Karen McGrane and Josh Rubin from Bond Art and Science

11 April 2007sponsored by

AGENDA

1. WE PRESENT2. YOU BREAKOUT3. WE ALL DISCUSS

WHY ARE YOU HERE?

Your project team is trying to decide between two different options for how to implement a feature. How do you persuade them that your idea is the best solution?

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You think your services firm should sell more content strategy (or usability testing, or taxonomy) work. How do you influence the organization so that happens?

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You are a new IA hired into an engineering-driven product firm. How do you gain influence over the developers so your ideas are implemented?

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You want to change the process your company follows to design products. How do you effect change?

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WHY ARE WE HERE?

2008

1995

WHAT’S LEADERSHIP?

Leadership = Status

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/

Leadership = Formal Authority

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/

Leadership = Vision + Influence

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Leadership can’t be given to you

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No one can be a leader all the time

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HOW CAN IAs THINK ABOUT LEADERSHIP?

The user doesn’t adopt the product.Don’t blame the user.It’s the product’s fault.

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Your colleagues don’t adopt your ideas.Don’t blame your colleagues.It’s your fault.

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Think of yourself and your ideas as a product on the marketplace. If you’re not successful, you can use familiar user-centered design techniques to improve your product.

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REDESIGN THE USER EXPERIENCE OF YOU

UX TECHNIQUES APPLIED TO YOU

1. User Research Understand Your Audience

2. Competitive Audit Who’s Competing for Resources?

3. Problem Definition It’s Rarely The One You’re Asked to Solve

4. Usability Analysis Useful, Usable, Desirable? You?

5. Iterative Redesign If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again

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1. USER RESEARCH: UNDERSTAND YOUR

AUDIENCE

THINK OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU NEED TO PERSUADE AS “USERS” OF YOUR IDEAS.

Who are the people who will use or implement your ideas? What do they need? What are their goals?

What is their role? What is their situation?

What does it mean for them to be successful at work?

How is their success measured? How do they get rewarded?

What motivates them? What persuades or influences them?

How can you tailor your ideas or your approach so that they fit in with what your users need?

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DURING YOUR OWN MEETINGS, IMAGINE YOU’RE CONDUCTING ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

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Photo from Flickr user LEEDSJMECELAB under a Creative Commons License

2. COMPETITIVE AUDIT: WHO’S COMPETING FOR

RESOURCES?

THINK OF OTHER IDEAS AS “COMPETITORS”

What other ideas or approaches are out there competing for scarce resources: time, money, or mindshare

What are the strengths and weaknesses of these competing ideas? What opportunities and threats do you see?

Which competing ideas succeed? Why do some approaches fail?

What makes for a successful pitch in selling to this particular audience?

Tom Peters, The Brand Called You, Fast Company, http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/10/brandyou.html

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IDENTIFY YOUR FEATURES AND BENEFITS

ruthlessly stolen Brandon Schauer of Adaptive Path who claims he stole it from Scott Weisbrod of Critical Mass

Reliability Speed LikabilityEase

of use Stability Cost Quality

Low

High

You

The Chick From Down The Hall

Some Developer Dude

3. PROBLEM DEFINITION: IT’S RARELY THE ONE YOU’RE

ASKED TO SOLVE

DEFINE THE RIGHT PROBLEM TO SOLVE

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Photos from Flickr users ZoofyTheJinx and rodrick.reidsma under a Creative Commons License

DEFINE THE RIGHT PROBLEM TO SOLVE

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Photos from Flickr users ZoofyTheJinx, Templeton Elliot, and rodrick.reidsma under a Creative Commons License

4. USABILITY ANALYSIS: USEFUL, USABLE, DESIRABLE?

YOU?

com

pete

nce

likability*via Harvard Business School

Dreamy Rockstar

Incompetent Jerk

Competent Jerk

Lovable Fool

INTERFACES TO YOUR USERS

What tools and information are available for people to interface with you?

Can they find out about you on the internet? Facebook? MySpace? Conference presentations? Articles? Your blog?

What are you like in person? How do you participate in internal meetings or give presentations? Do you socialize at lunch or over drinks?

How can people get a sense of how credible or trustworthy you are? Do you ever let people down?

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You’re your own internal start-up and management is your venture capitalist

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It wasn’t the “I Have a Nightmare” speech

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From The New York Times “Challenges to Both Left and Right on Global Warming”

5. ITERATIVE REDESIGN: IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T

SUCCEED, TRY, TRY AGAIN

WHY ARE YOU BEING IGNORED?_You don’t have a vision, or you don’t communicate your passion for your ideas (or you are not talking nearly enough about it to the right people)

_You talk too much, your signal to noise is considered low, you waste people’s time and never get straight to the point

_You’re not clear about what you’re trying to say, or you sound stupid

_You don’t listen, you always ignore everyone else, you always push your own agenda without ever giving time for someone else’s

_You do not tailor your delivery for the audience

_You are not saying anything they care about, or you aren’t convincing them why they should care. Maybe you don’t provide enough context for your ideas, or maybe you don’t understand their point of view well enough to convince them

_You pick too many battles and have never won any of them

_You have not earned anyone’s respect and you have no power, or no one has a reason to trust you

_They’re too busy/stressed/overcommitted to listen

_Your comments uncover issues that management doesn’t want to deal with, so the truth of your comments isn’t welcome — maybe you expose someone who is not doing his job

_You always bring problems and expect other people to solve them, or you don’t distinguish between having ideas and complaining

_You aren’t clear about what your goal is. Do you want to be listened to, or do you want the other person to do something different?

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from Scott Berkun, “Why are people ignoring you?”

Choose Followership!

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“Chosen Followership”© Morgan Stanley

WHEN IT’S A BUST

When you recognize that your users are motivated by very different values than you are

When there is a fundamental lack of respect for you and your ideas

When you fundamentally disrespect your boss or other key people you need to persuade

When you’ve iterated multiple times and still haven’t been able to successfully effect change

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BREAKOUT!

WRAP-UP

SUMMARY: CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL LEADERS

Vision: Have an idea that will improve your business and other people can get behind

Usability: The product called “you” has to meet your users’ needs, goals, and expectations

Empathy: Cultivate respect for the people who interact with you and implement your ideas

Persuasion: If you expect your users to do something different or adopt a new means of working, and you have to convince them to change

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