book

Collaborative Product Design

by Austin Govella

May 2019

Intermediate to advanced

404 pages

8h 58m

English

O'Reilly Media, Inc.

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Think, Make, Check: What Designers DoDesign’s Four Concerns: Users, Interfaces, Interactions, and Systems
Fidelity Changes What’s Included in the ModelThe Model’s Fidelity Affects IterationThink-Make-Check Means Design Requires Collaboration
Share Understanding, the First Principle of CollaborationInclude Everyone, the Second Principle of CollaborationTrust Everyone, the Most Important Principle of CollaborationCollaboration Is the Key to Better Products
Collaboration Is Its Own ProblemCollaboration Has a Repeatable StructureCollaboration Starts with a FrameFinish Collaboration with a Captured OutcomeFacilitate Collaboration Through Four StepsFormal and Informal CollaborationDesign and Collaboration, All Together Now
Strategy Is About ChangeDrivers Explain Why to ChangeBarriers Explain What Blocks ChangeGoals and Getting to the Future StateInnovating at the Right AltitudeFocus Teams on the Right Goals
How Goal Mapping WorksActivity 1: Generate and Share Everyone’s Project GoalsActivity 2: Group Goals to Find Common ThemesActivity 3: Prioritize Project GoalsIdentify Goals in Casual ConversationsShared, Prioritized Goals Fuel Better Teams
How Future-State Envisioning WorksActivity 1: Generate Issues That Exist in the Current StateActivity 2: Generate Successes That Exist in the Current StateActivity 3: Generate Concrete Visions of What People Do in the Ideal FutureActivity 4: Map Metrics to Future BehaviorsVision Focuses the Team on Success, not Features

Document Goals to Provide Important ContextDocument Vision to Show the Big PictureCheck the Goals and Vision with the TeamTeams Need to Constantly Reference Goals and Vision
Personas vs. Profiles vs. Roles vs. ArchetypesTasks, Contexts, and InfluencersMotivations, Goals, and Jobs-to-Be-DoneProject Goals Reveal the Attributes Your User Model NeedsSelect Research Methods Based on User Attributes and Project GoalsGood User Models Evolve With the Product
How User Identification WorksActivity 1: Generate Direct UsersActivity 2: Generate Indirect UsersActivity 3: Generate Extended UsersBuild the Right Product for the Right User
How the User Profile Canvas WorksActivity 1: Generate Tasks and ContextsActivity 2: Analyze Tasks to Identify the User’s GoalActivity 3: Generate User Pain PointsActivity 4: Generate User GainsExplore User Attributes to Build Better Products
How the Attribute Grid WorksActivity 1: Generate Attributes to Reveal the LandscapeActivity 2: Refine Attributes to Remove NoiseActivity 3: Understand Patterns and Outliers in User BehaviorsActivity 4: Review to Build Shared Vision with Broader Team and StakeholdersThe Attribute Grid Lays the Foundation for Personas
User Models Answer Four Different QuestionsTwo Types of User Models: Rationales and GuidelinesUser Models Come in Three FormatsThree Ways to Communicate User AttributesFive Other Things to Include in User ModelsShow Multiple Users Side-by-SideFocus on a Single User with One-SheetsShare User Models in Other WaysMake User Models in the Format You Will Review ThemUser Models Are Powerful Reference Tools
Three Types of Interaction ModelsTouchpoints Have Four Building BlocksLength, Depth, and Point of ViewPhases and Moments of TruthAs-Is or To-Be, Looking Forward and BackTailor Interaction Models to Project and Team Needs
How Touchpoint Maps WorkActivity 1: Clarify the ScenarioActivity 2: Generate TasksActivity 3: Refine Tasks and SequenceConversations Around Touchpoint DiagramsTouchpoint Maps Reveal Discrete Parts of the Experience
How Journey and Experience Maps WorkActivity 1: Generate TouchpointsActivity 2: Analyze the Journey’s StructureActivity 3: Explore Touchpoints in DetailJourney Maps Reveal Secrets to Better Products
The Four Visible Parts of an InterfaceThe Invisible Parts of an InterfaceThe Invisible Parts of the Interface Are Most Important
How 4-Corners WorksActivity 1: Identify the Interface UserActivity 2: Identify the User’s TaskActivity 3: Identify the Next StepActivity 4: Identify the Previous StepActivity 5: Identify Interface ContentActivity 6: Identify Functionality4-Corners for Wireframes, Mockups, and Prototypes4-Corners for More Than Just Screens4-Corners Creates a Shared, Holistic Vision of the Interface
Activity: Group Sketching to Create a Single, Shared VisionActivity: Individual Sketching to Reveal Competing PerspectivesActivity: 6-8-5 Sketching to Generate Multiple DirectionsAdditional Things to Think About When SketchingTrust Others to Make Interfaces on Their Own
Five Types of Interface Models (and the Actual Product)Five Kinds of Interface FidelityThree Ways to Make Interface ModelsDifferent Models Support Different Interface FidelityUse the Lowest Fidelity Possible to Reduce Iteration TimeAdjust Fidelity for Your Audience
Checks Start with the FinishFrame the CheckFacilitate the CheckTransform Feedback into GoldStick the FinishKeep the Faith

Content preview from Collaborative Product Design

Chapter 1. The Elements of Design: Think-Make-Check and the Four Models

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The Elements of Design: Think-Make-Check and the Four Models

To help your team build better products, they have to design better. Often, when we think about better design, we focus on the things we design. Do they work better, look better, feel better? Unfortunately, those design outcomes aren’t what designers do.

In this chapter, we’ll look at two foundation concepts:

What you do when you design: Think-Make-Check
What you do it to: users, interfaces, interactions, and systems—design’s four models

These two concepts form the foundation for everything else in this book and help your team communicate and collaborate better when they build new products.

Think, Make, Check: What Designers Do

Let’s say you design a fancy coffee mug with a new kind of handle,1 and want to know if the new handle is easy to use. Is it better to ask people if it’s easy to use? Or is it better to watch and see if they have any trouble?

Of course, it’s better to watch what people do than it is to ask them. When you watch people, you see what they do. When you ask them, you hear what they hope to do. Watching people reveals their behavior. Behavior is what you want to affect.

If you ask a designer what they do, they talk about user experience or being user-centered or representing the user or empathy or whatever. That’s what ...