We know that the heart of creating successful products lies in user experience research. But conducting research is just the tip of the iceberg; effectively communicating findings is equally important. Here are the key takeaways from our recent blog post with Userlytics, “Making Sense of UX Research: 5 Approaches to Structuring Your Findings”.
read more… “Mastering UX Research: 5 Strategies for Maximizing Impact”Tag: Product Strategy
Aurelius Podcast: Episode 29 with Jorge Arango on Design Ethics
Episode 29 highlights with Jorge Arango:
- The similarities between physical architecture and UX design
- Tips we can apply from the process of architecture to digital design
- How to think about physical spaces to inform the digital information spaces you create
- Feedback loops in digital information spaces
- How the rate of change in physical buildings vs. digital spaces has changed our expectations as a culture
- The ways language greatly impact our expectations and design of digital spaces
- Design ethics in digital places where civic discourse happens and how we as designers can be more mindful in creating them
read more… “Aurelius Podcast: Episode 29 with Jorge Arango on Design Ethics”
Aurelius Podcast: Episode 9 with Melissa Perri on Product Management & User Research
Episode 9 highlights:
- Melissa’s approach to product strategy
- Setting good strategic goals for our product and user experiences
- The difference between shipping features and shipping GOOD features
- How to do user research to actually drive innovation
- Case study examples from Melissa on how she used user research to increase user acquisition
- Using product and UX goals to tie up into larger company vision and strategy
read more… “Aurelius Podcast: Episode 9 with Melissa Perri on Product Management & User Research”
Why The Best Design and Product Teams Decide What, Then How
Creating an awesome design, product and experience is hard work. Making the RIGHT design, product or experience is even harder. The smartest teams first figure out the “What” before they decide the “How”.
Whether you’re designing a new product or experience, or improving an existing one, you have to first figure out What you’re making before you can effectively execute the How.
Defining and agreeing on What you’re doing first gives everyone much better clarity to focus on executing How to get it done.
read more… “Why The Best Design and Product Teams Decide What, Then How”
Inside Aurelius – 002 with Joseph Szczesniak and Zack Naylor
iA002 episode highlights:
- The technology stack that we built Aurelius with and how it’s evolved over time
- Understanding common development terms to better communicate design ideas
- An inside look at how Joseph and Zack make decisions about the product and the company
- Behind the scenes views and opinions on making technology upgrades and feature prioritizations
- How we build Aurelius like Wyatt Earp
Aurelius Podcast: Episode 3 with Fred Beecher on Design Strategy
Episode 3 highlights:
- What is design strategy? What is product strategy?
- Effective design strategy methods and approach
- Where business strategy ends and design strategy begins and the difference between the two
- Where design fits into business strategy
- How design can help you monetize failure
- Ways that design and product strategy can drive business strategy
- Practical ways design can help fulfill your company mission
read more… “Aurelius Podcast: Episode 3 with Fred Beecher on Design Strategy”
Aurelius Podcast: Episode 5 with Dan Brown on Design Discovery
Episode 5 highlights:
- Design discovery; what it is and how to do it?
- Creating designs as a way to further push the discovery process
- Striking a balance between “big picture” and “fleshing out the details”
- Knowing when you have enough information to design
- Using a common language to share and act on user research insights
read more… “Aurelius Podcast: Episode 5 with Dan Brown on Design Discovery”
Aurelius Podcast: Episode 6 with Peter Merholz on Product & Design Strategy
Episode 6 highlights:
- Some history of Adaptive Path and how they got into design and product strategy
- Pitfalls to avoid when making a product and design strategy
- How to be more than a UX design “stylist” or “executionist”
- The role of UX and design in business strategy
- Differences between UX and product management
- Design like a lawyer and get everyone on board with your decisions and recommendations
read more… “Aurelius Podcast: Episode 6 with Peter Merholz on Product & Design Strategy”
Aurelius Podcast: Episode 2 with Jared Spool
Episode 2 highlights:
- the importance of framing the problem in UX and product strategy
- how to tell if you’re designing and building the right features or products
- measuring the impact and success of UX design and product strategy
- balancing an understanding of the business strategy to make better design and product recommendations
- Jared’s most effective way of getting your company to prioritize UX and product strategy
- who owns the user experience?
I Found a Remarkable Way to Kill Politics in my Design and Product Strategy
Can I get a show of hands from how many people have ever had an awesome idea shot down due to politics or flimsy opinions?
Yep, I’ll bet you’ve been in client or stakeholder meetings finding yourself hit with a bunch of questions and critique about the decisions or recommendations you’ve made. Heck, you might even have a great story to tell and well thought out reasons for why you did what you did. Yet, there you sit, watching all that great work get flushed down the drain right before your very eyes by the highest paid, or the loudest (or both!) person in the room. Often, the discussion turns to things about the product or service that fly in the face of customer needs or even our own company objectives. Watching well crafted ideas get argued away in a single meeting is like squabbling over what to have for dinner while the house burns down around you.
Here’s the good news: killing politics and emotions in your design or product strategy doesn’t have to be an impossible task. By setting clear, well defined goals for your strategy, you can easily sell great ideas, decisions and recommendations without banging your head against the wall.
Download the free 4 point product strategy goal checklist, and we’ll walk through how to use it right here in this post. When we’re done, you’ll be on your way to building a brilliant design and product strategy that solves the right problems for your company and its customers.
read more… “I Found a Remarkable Way to Kill Politics in my Design and Product Strategy”