Business Goals of UX

Question 1

What percentage of projects fail due to a lack of user acceptance?

a. 10%
b. 50%
c. 70%

Answer 1

c. 70%

Question 2

Why is “task” a big word in UX?

Answer 2

Because that is how we measure success and is what users are actually trying to do.

Question 3

What is Featuritis?

Answer 3

Features added for the sake of possibility

Question 4

What is one of the things Frank recommends to achieve good UX team performance?

a. Giving UX teams clear cut tasks to perform
b. Giving UX teams autonomy in the Org Chart
c. Giving UX teams regular promotions and awards

Answer 4

b. Giving UX teams autonomy in the Org Chart

Question 5

What are some examples of ugly team performance?

Answer 5

1. Fighting over the design or Jealously guarding the design
2. Dev vs Marketing turf war
3. Business requirements dictated point blank
4. Designs are altered to match politics
5. Findings Reports are scrubbed of or distorted
6. UX designers are inflexible or “Usability Police”

Question 6

What is the purpose of a UX wall?

a. To provide a place to place material in UX workshops
b. To promote UX and user insights throughout the organization
c. To keep the UX team separate from the development team

Answer 6

b. To promote UX and user insights throughout the organization

Question 7

What are examples of analysis paralysis from a UX designer?

In one paragraph, either describe a current or past situation you have encountered that involved over-analyzing a UI or describe how a UX designer might be led into doing so.

Question 8

What is the risk that UX reduces or removes?

a. Building too many levels of navigation
b. Building the wrong product
c. Putting too much time into doing research

Answer 8

b. Building the wrong product

Question 9

Why is ROI a really important topic?

Answer 9

Because it’s the “show me the money” question and managers and teams that are trying to build a case for usability or for taking the time or spending time in the field, they need to justify that what they’re doing is yielding results.

Question 10

What are the 5 key ROI areas of UX?

Answer 10

1. Overall revenue/conversion boost (loyalty)
2. Lower support calls (cost)
3. Reduced development waste (efficiency)
4. Increase customer satisfaction (also B2B))
5. Reduces the risk of building the wrong thing!

Other ROI Factors
6. Increased customer loyalty
7. Customer satisfaction, measured through polls, surveys, etc.
8. Increase customer retention
9. Increased employee retention
10. Strengthened Brand loyalty
11. Reduced time to market (production/development)
12. Improved leadership position
13. Improved Job performance
14. Savings in labor costs
15. Reduction in inventory

Question 11

Why is wireframing important?

Answer 11

Rapid prototyping has become popular and for good reason.

In one study:
50% more accurate estimates for build time and cost

80% reduced requests for clarification by the development team

25% reduced rework and bug fixes post-launch

Question 12

Why is Usability testing important?

Answer 12

Usability testing makes teams smarter by improving design decision-making with the results.

90% saved in support costs by MacAfee after integrating usability testing into its ProtectionPilot software.

Question 13

Emotional Intelligence comes from…

Answer 13

empathy (Social Intelligence)

Question 14

The more you think about the user, the more you empathize for them, the more you bake that in your design, the more you end up with… Emotionally Intelligent Designs.

Question 15

What is the key question of a product manager?

a. Is everybody meeting their deadlines?
b. Was the business need satisfied?
c. Was the testing conducted properly?

Answer 15

b. Was the business need satisfied?

Question 16

What is the best way for senior management to support the UX team?

a. To show an active interest in UX activities, while trusting the designers to make decisions
b. To show an active interest in UX activities, and not giving the team decision power
c. To not participate in any UX related activities so that the UX team can work undisturbed

Answer 16

a. To show an active interest in UX activities, while trusting the designers to make decisions

Question 17

What are the 12 Characteristics of Outside-In Design Organizations?

Answer 17

1. Gather Evidence and Data
2. Validate with users
3. Test UI Assumptions
4. Think like your users
5. Factor user needs at key decision points
6. Reference user habits, behavior, and needs
7. Empathize with user pain points and problems
8. Research like a boss
9. Spread the obsession from top-down to bottom-up with stops in the middle
10. Revolutionize product management with UX
11. Fund and Empower UX
12. Give UX Senior management (an ear to the CEO)

Question 18

What can management do to ensure that you “research like a boss”?

a. Ensure that you do quantitative research with a lot of users
b. Set up regular user research activities as part of the work process
c. Allow each UX designer to make his/her own decisions about whether UX research is necessary

Answer 18

b. Set up regular user research activities as part of the work process

Question 19

Why is gathering evidence and data important?

Answer 19

Evidence-based design means that opinions are grounded in customer insights, specifically, behavior captured and interpreted by trained UX professionals. Data informs design. Whether conversion optimization or efficiency improvement, you cannot run on assumption any longer.

Manager-to-do item: Start building a pipeline of data based on user behavior (think usability research, not market research). Build a research team or outsource it.

Question 20

Why is validating with users important?

Answer 20

Design concepts (before they are sketched or photoshopped) need validation based on user goals, tasks, habits, and expectations. The whole point of human-centered design is to align a UI with the mental processes, constraints, and behaviors of a user.

Manager to-do item: Start questioning the source of the design idea. Is it being creatively dreamt up or is it coming from a tangible “day in the life” customer insight?

Question 21

Why is testing UI assumptions important?

Answer 21

Forget design “war room” debates or political in-fighting, that’s so inside out it will make your head spin. Instead, get users to user the interface, and watch what they do.

Manager to-do item: Start a program or throttle an existing “small bites” effort into regular and consistent usability testing. Usability testing should be as regular as clockwork and should cascade into Sprint and Backlog planning in AGile or Learn organization.

Question 21

Why is testing UI assumptions important?

Answer 21

Forget design “war room” debates or political in-fighting, that’s so inside out it will make your head spin. Instead, get users to user the interface, and watch what they do.

Manager to-do item: Start a program or throttle an existing “small bites” effort into regular and consistent usability testing. Usability testing should be as regular as clockwork and should cascade into Sprint and Backlog planning in AGile or Learn organization.

Question 22

Why is thinking like your users important?

Answer 22

All of the usability involves user advocacy. Instead of thinking on behalf of the brand, technology, or business… think about how a customer would approach the challenge your design helps them solve. Most problems are created by insiders (that’s you!) who know too much (about the inside)

Manager to-do item: Give your team access to your users, no matter what your industry. THere is no excuse for accessing difficult users (yes that’s you financial industry, healthcare or C”suite” level users). Get help from UX professionals if you need to guarantee successful interactions.

Question 23

Why is it important to factor in user needs at key decision points?

Answer 23

User needs are often left out of business and technology decisions. User journey mapping, personas and other tools of user research can help inform decisions “just in time”

Manager to-do item: Make sure teams are utilizing field studies, a key UX technique to ensure that user needs are being injected into conversations. Putting a UX person into business and development (Sprint meetings) can help. Make sure their role is clearly defined and respected by the team so they are not a neutral opinion.

Note: UX is not neutral - it’s advocacy driven, which means it has an agenda (that should only intend to help the bottom line)

Question 24

Why is referencing user habits, behavior and needs important?

Answer 24

Culture comes from referencing users in conversations. This is where evidence-based design, user validation, and thinking like your users come together.

Manager to-do item: Ask team members where their assumptions come from or how they relate to a problem a user is trying to solve. In short ask, “what is the users’ task here? What problem is the user trying to solve? Encourage teams to ground their solutions on user probabilities and not engineering or marketing possibilities. Ask “What’s the probability the user will do this or need this? (that alone can bring a feature-oriented debate or edge case discussion to a standstill)

Question 25

Why is empathizing with user pain points and problems important?

Answer 25

All smart UI and user decisions are made with empathy. Beyond a design tool, empathy is critical to how we use our socially wired brains, Understanding how someone (who we are designing or developing for) feels about their work, tasks, goals, and dreams is extremely valuable.

Manager to-do item: Give your teams time and opportunities to experience user data (attend user visits, watch videos or review photos). Take and give your team Design thinking training, where empathy is experienced as a core design tool.

Question 26

Why is researching like a boss important?

Answer 26

In the field of UX, Quantitative data (surveys, analytics, stats) are considered low-insight. Getting insights beyond traditional data(think stats, numbers, tables, graphs) is part of Qualitative research. QUAL research gives you the why and the how of what users are doing and what you should do to fix (a design or innovate)

Manager to-do item: Set up a regular User Research effort as “part of doing business). Good research is a cost of doing good UX work. Make sure you have a balance of usability testing and out-in-the-field visits as part of your definition of User Research. Many teams are defining research as user testing and that is missing a very critical half.

Question 27

Why is spreading the obsession from top-down to bottom-up with stops in the middle important?

Answer 27

All levels, including the engineers, product management, and CEO– need to be engaged and slightly obsessed, as in Apple’s case: “Everybody there is thinking about UX and design, not just the designers_

Manager to-do item: UX needs grassroots advocates (your developers), strong partnerships (your product managers), and executive sponsorship at the same time. It’s not enough for UX to be the passion of a single person, a leader, or a department. Everyone must be aligned for UX to blaze the trail it is capable of blazing– so that UX can inform each level of the organization.

Question 28

Why is revolutionizing product management with UX important?

Answer 28

Product managers can hamper a UX effort if they do not support, believe in, or have a cursory understanding of its value and relevance. UX is not antagonistic to Product management. On the contrary, product managers benefit tremendously from user insights, usability test reports and generally having requirements validated outside-in.

Manager to-do item: Empower and require your Product development team to learn about, embrace and work with ISO standard UX process called Human or User-Centered Design. US results should be measured and baked into product management. IF you are hiring product managers, make sure they are not from the old threatened by UX PD school and instead are happy to partner with UX.

Question 29

Why is funding and empowering UX important?

Answer 29

Don’t expect much success without funding your UX efforts properly. UX is a separate focus just like SEO or Accessibility. Each needs its own budget, and its own mandate for success.

Manager to-do item: Allocate 12:15% of your development budget at a minimum per project for UX. This number has been studied as part of the Return on Investment of User Experience.

Question 30

Why is giving UX senior management an ear to the ceo important?

Answer 30

An outside-in design organization needs to be managed, nurtured, and directed. Giving UX equal organizational value as that given to PR & Marketing is critical. UX Managers, directors, and chief experience officers need parity in decision-making and the level of authority a Technology or Marketing Director gets.

Manager to-do item: Set up an internal listening council or UX/CS panel that reports on and decides on current and new UX strategies. This group should direct customer innovation and enhancements and should manage metrics and UX culture building.

To deliver faster development cycles, less rework, and more engaging UX for your users, UX management mustw proactivity inform business engineering and marketing teams work directly with user studies, direct feedback and research.

Question 31

What are examples of Ugly UX Team Performance?

Answer 31

• Fighting over the design or Jealously guarding the design
• Dev vs Marketing turf war
• Business requirements dictated point blank
• Designs are altered to match politics
• Findings Reports are scrubbed of or distorted
• UX designers are inflexible or “Usability Police”

Question 32

What should you do if business requirements are dictated point-blank?

Answer 32

You need to follow the requirements - but bringing in some user balance and bringing in some user advocacy can really help the business analyst see requirements expressed in the UI from a different perspective

Question 33

What personal skills do UX designers need?

Answer 33

Communication, Negotiation, Persuasion, Influence Skills

Question 34

What’s a good question to ask if someone says “no way we’re implementing that”

Answer 34

If you want to take the executive decision not to implement that, that’s up to you but how else might you be able to solve it?

Question 35

How should you work with developers?

Answer 35

Let developers come up with solutions. Involve developers in the early-on meetings so that they can contribute to the solutions and have visibility as to what you’re thinking and what you’re doing.