Sei sulla pagina 1di 20

LEAN UX

AN AGILE
METHOD FOR
USER EXPERIENCE
DESIGN
SUMMARY

3 INTRODUCTION

5 UNDERSTANDING LEAN STARTUP


5 The fundamental principles of Lean Startup
6 The 3 pillars of Lean Startup
7 The benefits of Lean Startup
7 The Two Basic Stages of Lean Method Implementation

9 USER EXPERIENCE AND LEAN UX:


WHY KEEP THE FOCUS ON THE USERS
9 What is User Experience
10 Now, what is Lean UX after all?
13 Synergy between Lean Startup and User Experience
through Design Thinking
14 How to apply Lean UX to projects

15 CASE STUDY: DEVELOPING AN APP FOR RETAIL


15 Results
16 Return on Investment (ROI)

17 CONCLUSION

18 ABOUT MJV
INTRODUCTION

In this material, you will have access to a rich content on Lean


UX, an agile method for user experience design. Are you already
familiar with this concept? To understand it its important to
review the origins of the Lean model and the definition of the
term Lean Startup.

The Lean concept is well known in the management of


traditional industries. It comes from Lean Manufacturing, an
approach suggested in the 50s for the Japanese automotive
industry, and involves the identification and systematic
elimination of wastefulness and losses. If youve seen the
LEAN UX AN AGILE METHOD FOR USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN | MJV TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

classic movie Modern Times, you will certainly remember


the scenes where Chaplin works in a production line. Of
course, some aspects are exaggerated, but the reduction of
wastefulness and loss, including time, must be considered in the
Lean model. After all, time is money.

Lean Startup, on the other hand, a term coined by Eric Ries


in 2011, has as its goal to eliminate the uncertainties in the
process of product construction, and can be defined as:

AN APPROACH TOWARDS THE


DEVELOPMENT OF BUSINESSES THAT
IS BASED ON THE PRINCIPALS OF LEAN
PRODUCTION, A MANUFACTURING
METHODOLOGY THAT VALUES THE ABILITY
OF BUSINESSES TO CHANGE RAPIDLY.

Today, it is a method that has been transforming the way


companies develop. To put it simply, Lean Startup is the practice

3
of developing products and businesses based on validated
learning, receiving feedback from clients quickly and frequently.

Instead of building away from users, startups regularly expose


their product to clients throughout the development cycle. In
this way, the production process walks parallel with the tests
and with prototyping. By doing this, teams are able to make
better informed decisions about what to build based on the main
functions, which makes the whole process more sensible and
practical. It is no surprise that over the last years Lean Startup
has become the new norm for how to build a startup.

In the next chapters, you will understand how these concepts


and other methodologies -like Design Thinking and agile
methods relate to the user experience (UX), building the
definition of Lean UX together.

The idea is to reflect on how we can apply the Lean UX in


the development projects of varied products and services in
companies of all sizes and that act in any market segment. In
the end, to sum up all that was discussed, we will present a
success case conducted by MJVs innovation team.
LEAN UX AN AGILE METHOD FOR USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN | MJV TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Enjoy your reading!

4
UNDERSTANDING
THE LEAN STARTUP:
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

In the book that coined the term Lean Startup (of the same
name), Eric Ries highlights some fundamental principles of this
method:

Frequent tests and quick learning


The advice here is to not build an elaborate product before
performing several tests along the way, including showing the
target audience so they can experience and/or analyze, critique
and propose alterations and adjustments.

Observing the behavior of the real client


LEAN UX AN AGILE METHOD FOR USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN | MJV TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

You should avoid focus groups and see how the real clients
behave; delivering a minimum viable product (MVP) to real
clients early on and quickly learn by observing what they do,
how they react and what they say.

Focusing on metrics that really matter


Avoiding vanity metrics, meaning metrics that create a favorable
impression of performance when actually that is illusory. For
example: what good does it do to have a page with one million
accesses if visitors do not become clients? Instead, and within
the principles of Lean Startup, businesspeople need to focus on
actionable metrics, meaning real metrics, that can help make
effective decisions.

Adopting new accounting methods


Ries argues that, within Lean Startup, one should embrace
innovative forms of accounting. He suggests that progress is
best monitored based on observing things like user activity,
engagement and retention. In other words, if, for instance, the
number of users is increasing and they are being kept so that the
Life Time Value (LTV) is increasing significantly, this is a better
indicator of progress than traditional accounting methods.

5
Permanent Lean
The word lean refers to the speed and agility and not to cost
reductions, as some people usually interpret it (despite the
method condoning and helping loss reduction).

Therefore, Ries recommends that startups stay lean to take


advantage of the methods of fast discovery and learning, instead
of using the method only at the start of the business model.

THE 3 PILLARS OF LEAN STARTUP


We could say that the objectives of Lean Startup are: arriving at
the right product concept (Minimum Viable Product), identifying
clients willing to pay for it and, if possible, set up a sustaining
business.

Therefore, it is a method that can be used to assess the


development of any product or service where there is
uncertainty over client interest. The most important aspect of
the methodology is that it allows for quick answers from the
prototype experimentation processes and client feedback.

We can synthetize the three great pillars of the Lean Startup


method in the following way:
LEAN UX AN AGILE METHOD FOR USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN | MJV TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

1. Customer Development
Continuous process of consumer interaction that aims at testing
and validating hypothesis about clients, product and market,
encompassing quantitative and qualitative research. In other words,
one needs to hear the client using empathy and putting yourself
in his shoes to understand him to create something he actually
wants. The best way to do that is to ask him what his demands are
and then to create the product or service based on that.

2. Agile Development
Applying methodologies like UX and Scrum (non-traditional
management and software development methods, that take into
account the individuals and can respond to change), that help
manage projects in the day to day, increasing the learning speed
through client/user feedback.

3. Low cost technology platform


There are several free tools (Google Docs, Google Sites,
WordPress, Basecamp, Ruby on Rails, Evernote, EC2 etc.) that
can help create a good information technology structure with
little investment.

6
THE BENEFITS OF LEAN STARTUP
The Lean Startup method is known for having three main
benefits. First, it allows businesspeople to have full control
over their business. That is because it teaches them how to
create new business models and products without external
financing (which usually implies handing over control of a
business to an investor).

Second, this methodology makes it possible for businesspeople


to quickly modify projects when they notice their initial
suppositions are incorrect or inefficient. By applying the
principle of early and frequent release, the entrepreneur can
identify problems and make adjustments as needed.

The third major benefit of Lean Startup is that it helps


businesspeople obtain better profit margins, regardless of how
much money they make. Although most business managers are
obsessed with revenue, this methodology can help them realize
a profit gain in the more traditional sense, even if they generate
less revenue than their competitors. This is possible because
Lean Startup focuses on a drastic reduction of initial costs.

THE TWO BASIC STAGES OF LEAN METHOD IMPLEMENTATION


LEAN UX AN AGILE METHOD FOR USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN | MJV TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

The method works for all companies, regardless of the segment


they are in. According to Eric Reis, anyone can implement it
following these two basic stages:

1. DEVELOP AND VALIDATE A HYPOTHESIS:

This stage begins with the formulation of a particular hypothesis


and continues with consumption interviews, hypothesis
validation and exploration of market attractiveness.

Formulating Hypotheses
In order to develop a successful business model or product,
the entrepreneur must make sure they are offering an effective
solution to a specific consumer group. A well formulated
hypothesis must encompass an innovative or faster idea, or a
cheaper solution in comparison to other available options.

Consumption interviews and Hypothesis Validation


Consumption interviews allow business owners to validate
or invalidate their hypothesis. The best group of consumers
for hypothesis validation is that which includes people who
have one or more problems; who have actively searched for

7
solutions to those problems; who have come up with their
own solutions; and who have purchasing power to by a better
solution when they find it.

Market Attractiveness
After validating a hypothesis, the entrepreneur must explore
its market attractiveness, studying the competition, the size of
the market and the ability of the company to manufacture the
solution. A full analysis of these three elements will confirm if a
particular innovation should or not be developed.

2. DEVELOP AND VALIDATE THE SOLUTION

If a solution meets the specific needs of the market, it should


be developed. This stage can also be completed with the help of
three steps:

Develop the set of resources


An entrepreneur must find the most effective way of creating
a set of functional characteristics for the new solution. The
business owners must bear in mind that the consumers are
LEAN UX AN AGILE METHOD FOR USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN | MJV TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

more likely to choose familiar characteristics that are, however,


subject to changes during subsequent meetings.

Develop a prototype
After consumers have validated a specific solution together
with its set of resources, the businesspeople can develop the
prototype. The best prototype is a virtual model, which allows
companies to discover the most adequate and accessible
technologies to produce the final product or service.

Testing the solution


This stage is essential, as it allows entrepreneurs and
consumers to test the solution. During this stage, project
managers can make last minute changes.

8
USER EXPERIENCE AND
LEAN UX: WHY KEEP THE
FOCUS ON THE USERS

So far we have explained the concept of Lean Startup in detail.


That is because, as we have mentioned, understanding the
principles of this method is essential to relating it to User
Experience Design and, therefore, to understanding Lean Ux.

WHAT IS USER EXPERIENCE


The International Organization for Standardization
summarizes User Experience as the perceptions and
answers which result from the use of a product, system or
service. It is a concept created by Donald Norman in the
90s, then vice-president of the Apples group of advanced
LEAN UX AN AGILE METHOD FOR USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN | MJV TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

technologies. At the time, he wanted to encompass all the


points of contact of the user with the software, hardware,
software manual, product packaging and brand perception.

In general terms, user experience is what product users feel


about every interaction they have with whatever is in front of
them at the time of use.

It is important to distinguish the user experience from the user


interface (UI), even though the user interface is, obviously, an
important part of the design. Consider, for instance, a website
of movie reviews. Even if the user interface to find a movie is
perfect, the UX will be poor for a user who wants information on
a small independent release if the data banks only have movies
from the larger studios.

We should also distinguish UX from usability. By definition,


usability is a quality attribute of the user interface, covering
such issues as whether the system is easy to learn, efficient
to use, pleasing, and so forth. Again, this is very important,
but the user experience is an even broader concept, that
encompasses everything that relates to the way users
interact with products.

9
NOW, WHAT IS LEAN UX AFTER ALL?
Lean UX is an extremely useful technique when working on
agile development projects. It is UX done in a much more agile
way, because it is lean. Traditional user experience techniques
oftentimes do not work when the development is done in quick
bursts there is not enough time. Essentially the Lean UX and
other forms of UX have the same objective in mind: to provide a
great experience for the user.

Basically, the Lean UX is focused on the experience of the project


and is less focused on results than the traditional UX. It demands
a greater level of collaboration with the entire team and its main
purpose is to focus on obtaining feedback as early as possible so
that quick decisions can be made. This is in complete accord with
the nature of agile development, which is to work in quick and
iteractive cycles (meaning they are linear and do not recur).

THE 15 PRINCIPLES OF LEAN UX:

1. Multifunctional teams
Bringing together software engineers, product managers,
interaction designers, visual designers, content managers,
LEAN UX AN AGILE METHOD FOR USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN | MJV TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

marketing and quality assurance (QA) to make teams more


multifunctional and multidisciplinary.

2. Small, dedicated and allocated


Small teams, of up to 10 people, dedicated to a project and
working in the same place. This improves communication and
there is a focus on the same priorities.

3. Results, not production


Functionalities and services translate into production. The business
aims these must meet are the results. Lean UX measures progress
in terms of explicit and defined business results. Managing results
and progress made towards them, the team gains notions about
the effectiveness of the functionalities being built.

4. Team focused on problems


Geared towards resolving business problems, as opposed to a
set of functionalities to program. This is the logical extension
of a focus on results. This allows the team to bring their own
solutions, creating a profound feeling of pride and ownership of
the solutions the team implements.

10
5. Removing wastefulness
One of the main dogmas of Lean Manufacturing is the
removal of everything that does not lead to the end goal.
In Lean UX, the end goal is to improve results, and what
doesnt contribute to that is considered a waste, and should
be removed from the teams processes. The resources are
limited; therefore, the more waste the team can do away with,
the faster it will move.

6. Less is more
Only the design that is necessary to move the team forward,
and avoiding creating a major inventory of untested and not
implemented ideas.

7. Anti-standard: rock stars, gurus and ninjas


Lean UX defends a team based mentality. Rock stars, gurus
and ninjas, or other elite specialists break team cohesion and
destroy collaboration.

8. Learning before growing


Because it is difficult to imagine the right thing to do and build
LEAN UX AN AGILE METHOD FOR USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN | MJV TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

the business around it at the same time, Lean UX favor focusing


on learning first, and then growing.

9. Getting out of the deliverables business


Lean UX focuses the design process away from the
documents the team is creating and towards the results
they are achieving. With high collaboration between
multifunctional teams, talks with stakeholders become less
about what artefact is being created and more on what
results are being achieved.

10. Shared understanding


The team seeks to collectively understand what it is doing,
because it depends less on detailed documents to continue
their work.

11. Continued discovery


This is the ongoing process to engage the user during the design
and development. This engagement is done through regularly
scheduled activities, using quantitative and qualitative methods.
The aim is to understand what the users are doing with the
products and why they are doing it. Research involves the

11
entire team. Finally, as the team learns together, the need for
documentation and alignment meetings are reduced.

12. GOOB: centralizing on the user


GOOB is in fact an acronym for what the Stanford University
professor, businessman and author Steve Blank calls getting
out of the building. He defends that debates in meeting rooms
about the needs of the users dont have to be concluded inside
the office. Instead, the answers are in the market, outside of the
building.

13. Externalize the work


Teams use white boards, panels, flyers and post-its to expose
the progress of their work to colleagues, clients and project
partners. By externalizing, ideas flow from the team to the walls
allowing everyone to see where the team is. This also allows all
members of the team, even the quieter ones, to take part in the
activities and exchange of information.

14. Doing instead of analyzing


There is more value in creating the first version of an
idea than in spending half a day debating its merits in a
LEAN UX AN AGILE METHOD FOR USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN | MJV TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

conference room. The answer to the more difficult questions


the team will face are found out in the field, through
clients. In order to get these answers, the ideas need to be
implemented, something needs to be done so clients can
respond to it.

READ THE E-BOOK FAST PROTOTYPING


AND LEARN TO TEST IDEAS QUICKLY

15. Permission to fail


To find the best solution to a business problem, Lean
UX teams need to try out new ideas. Most of them will
fail. The team needs to feel safe to fail if they want to
succeed. Permission to fail means that the team has a
safe environment to experiment. This philosophy applies to
technical as well as cultural environments. Permission to fail
generates a culture of experimentation. Experimentation
generates creativity. Creativity, in its own time, generates
innovative ideas.

12
SYNERGY BETWEEN LEAN STARTUP
AND USER EXPERIENCE THROUGH DESIGN THINKING
As we have seen, Lean UX is strongly influenced by Lean Startup.
The context of uncertainty (doubts about what people want, if they
will buy, how it should look and what the product needs to have),
is brought to Lean UX projects. The idea is to understand how
soon users will actually buy and use the product.

That is why Lean UX is also influenced by two other concepts:


agile development and Design Thinking.

Influence of Agile Development


As with agile development, the idea is to deliver working
software as fast as possible, the four principles of what we refer
to as agile development are also assimilated into the Lean UX
methodology. They are:

1_ Individuals and interactions with processes and tools;


2_ Software that works with extensive documentation
(minimal);
3_ Client collaboration on contract negotiation (client
participates in all stages of development);
LEAN UX AN AGILE METHOD FOR USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN | MJV TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

4_ Answers to changes on following a plan (flexibility to


make quick changes).
Influence of Design Thinking
In Design Thinking, all aspects of the business can be
approached using design methods. This gives designers the
freedom to act in a much broader way while people who are not
designers can approach their problems using design methods.

Design Thinking encourages teams to collaborate between


different roles and consider the design product from a
holistic perspective. In other words, all areas have an
understanding of everything that makes sense in the project;
developers understand the demands of design and marketing,
marketing analysts understand the demands of development.
In this way, everyone works in a more unified way to create
the same solution.

The approach to the project is also focused on iterative solutions


iteration is a shared characteristic between Design Thinking,
agile development and Lean UX. The idea is to deliver small
packages in a constant way and refine the solution until it
becomes consistent.

13
BOOK DESIGN THINKING UNDERSTAND HOW THE
METHOD CAN BRING INNOVATION TO BUSINESSES.

HOW TO APPLY LEAN UX TO PROJECTS


As we have seen so far, to apply Lean UX it is necessary to have
multidisciplinary teams. It is also interesting to note that the
focus of the team is on business goals and not in functionalities.
To do this there needs to be a consistent way to validate
generated ideas, because the answers are in the market and
not internally. In other words, instead of long meetings, fast
prototypes are CREATED that are presented to the market in
order to understand whether or not they work.
LEAN UX AN AGILE METHOD FOR USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN | MJV TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

14
CASE STUDY:
DEVELOPING AN
APP FOR RETAIL

The challenge of a large retail brand was to create a smartphone


app in four months. The users of this app are furniture builders,
professionals that go to client homes to install the furniture
bought in the store.

For this project MJV used Design Thinking to understand the


views and needs of the areas involved (IT, logistics, assembly
department, builders etc.), the apps context of use (followed
from receiving the service order, to the builders work and the
conclusion report) and the real user difficulties.
LEAN UX AN AGILE METHOD FOR USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN | MJV TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

All the builders journey was photographed so that the entire


team could understand the day to day of these professionals.
Aside from that, the client was involved in workshops to share
their understanding of the scope of the project and to prioritize
functionalities, which helped get to a minimum viable product
(MVP), a prototype of high functional fidelity.

After that, Lean UX was inserted into the process to perform


cocreation activities we called some of the clients specialists,
from several areas, including sales and IT. In this way, all those
involved created a low fidelity prototype, with the clients vision
of how the app should be. In one afternoon, three possibilities for
this tool were found and later, in two days, all the visions (client
and project team) were consolidated.

The whole process was monitored by designers. Afterwards


a model was created that was more faithful to what the final
version would be, and the paper prototype was sent to the
builders for testing. Approximately 15 builders analyzed the
proposal and provided feedback. Next, the final delivery was done.

RESULTS
By the end of this process, the project team had on hand a
set of screens ready to be developed. These screens reflect

15
inputs from the field and the opinion of all departments
involved in the project. Aside from the set of screens with the
functionalities, a set of help screens was also developed to
help the interaction with the builders. After the first use, they
are disables but can still be consulted.

The final prototype was developed in current programming


language. The main behaviors were implemented with all the
functioning navigation links to visualize the flow between screens,
and the feedback messages in the end of the flow. Assistance can
be activated and deactivated in the setup screens of the prototype.
It was also possible to test all the functionalities of the app
following the script of testing developed.

VALUE RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI)


So that the operational gains made from the app can be
measured, it was necessary to select and define indicators to
measure efforts and results (metrics) and, in this way, develop
a system to monitor performance and progress. Some of the
indicators taken into consideration include:

__Reduction in the use of paper;


__Reduction in complaints to customer service;
LEAN UX AN AGILE METHOD FOR USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN | MJV TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

__Gains in logistics (transportation


and equipment requests);
__Reduction in labor costs (reduction
of accidents and worker complaints);
__Gains in productivity (amount of furniture assembled).
Aside from operational gains, the app can also generate
value from the point of view of internal processes and work
methodology.

Using a participatory and inclusive approach like Design


Thinking in planning the creation and evolution of the solution
brings a new perspective and a new approach to the client
(large retail brand). Where before there was a strict and morose
system, now there is a process of creation and idea development
that is continuous and agile, and takes into consideration the
creative capacity of stake holders, and recognizes the need for
more flexible and adaptable processes. This results in more
assertive solutions for users and for the company.

16
CONCLUSION

As we have seen, the Lean UX has as its main benefit its fast
application and immediate results. However, there are still a lot
of companies that do not work in an agile environment for the
development of software and products.

For the application of Lean UX, it is first necessary to stimulate


this new mindset. Afterwards it is essential that the company
has a culture and propensity of valuing more the results of the
business aimed for in the project, rather than the delivering of
functionalities.
LEAN UX MTODO GIL PARA USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN | MJV TECNOLOGIA E INOVAO. TODOS OS DIREITOS RESERVADOS.

The practice of research should also be quick. The idea is that


one day of research can save one month of development time,
for example; in other words, wasting little time in research to
produce and test more.

Maybe the best thing to do when dealing with methods like Lean
UX, Design Thinking and agile methods is looking for specialized
consultancy. Each case is different and needs to be worked on in
the most careful and detailed way possible and this is a job for
specialists with the necessary background.

HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT IMPLEMENTING


AGILE DEVELOPMENT IN YOUR COMPANY?

17
ABOUT MJV

TRANSFORMING BUSINESS WITH DESIGN


THINKING AND DIGITAL STRATEGIES

Since 1997, MJV Technology & Innovation has worked with some of
the biggest companies in the world in their business challenges. With
offices in Europe, United States and Latin America, the consultancy
firm today relies on a multidisciplinary team of over 300 professionals.

MJV is composed of three pillars, structured in total synergy:

INNOVATION IN BUSINESS: development and implementation of


innovative solutions to reduce costs, increase profits and create new
business models.

TECHNOLOGY CONSULTANCY: development and implementation of


personalized business intelligence services (B.I), IT and Internet of
Things.

DIGITAL STRATEGY: Development and implementation of corporate


strategy and user experience so that the digital self and digital
thinking become intrinsic to the business model.

We believe that innovation comes from the combination of design


and technology principles. For us, empathy, creativity and processes
centered on the user lead to relevant and impactful solutions, that
generate real value for the business.

Distinct challenges demand distinct approaches. That is why we


combine different expertise Design Thinking, Service Design,
Gamification, User Experience, Big Data, Lean Methodology, Internet
of Things, amongst others with the aim of transforming complex
MAURCIO VIANNA
challenges in to innovative solutions.
Global CEO
mvianna@mjvinnovation.com

YSMAR VIANNA
Chairman
yvianna@mjvinnovation.com
LONDRES
25-27 Horsell Road
N5 1XL Londres
Reino Unido
+44 20 3586 1233

ATLANTA
75 5th Street NW
Suite 424 Atlanta, GA
30308 Estados Unidos
+1 404 771 7187

RIO DE JANEIRO
Av. Marechal Cmara, 160
Gr. 206 Centro Rio de Janeiro
20020-080 Brasil
+55 21 2532 6423

SO PAULO
Rua Helena, 280 Gr. 306
Vila Olimpia So Paulo
04552-050 Brasil
+55 11 3045 0536

BARUERI
Av. Sagitrio, 138 Gr. 2205
Alphaville Conde II Barueri
06473-073 Brasil
+55 11 2898 4731

WWW.MJVINNOVATION.COM
LEAN UX AN AGILE METHOD FOR USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN | MJV TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

20

Potrebbero piacerti anche