Question Driven Design by jaini shah

QUESTION DRIVEN DESIGN a toolkit to designing solutions based on answering questions

WELCOME! Question Driven Design, a decision making process that applies the natural logic of asking questions to solve problems.

Are you ready?

CONTENTS HOW CAN THIS TOOLKIT BE MOST EFFECTIVE?

IS EVERYONE ON THE SAME PAGE?

WHO ARE THE STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVED?

WHO IS THE TARGET PERSONA?

WHAT IS THEIR CURRENT STATE JOURNEY?

WHAT QUESTIONS DO THEY NEED ANSWERED?

WHAT COMES NEXT?

HOW CAN THIS TOOLKIT BE MOST EFFECTIVE? what to keep in mind in order to run a successful question driven design process

It is easy to get lost in the nitty gritty of work - any work. While being heads down is important for using this toolkit, it is equally critical to look up, to reflect on how things are going, to place yourself in othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; shoes, ask yourself (and others) important questions and, most importantly, be uninhibited.

4 THINGS YOU NEED TO KEEP IN MIND (because 3 is not enough and 5 is too much)

1. Prepare yourself as a facilitator: know what you want to

ask, practice multiple times, and allow yourself to adapt and be flexible

2. Respect the voices, perspectives, and ideas of the process

3. Keep design and human experience at the forefront. And lastly, the purpose of this toolkit methodology,

4. Communicate with questions. Ask them, answer them,

design with them. Embody your inner Hercule Poirot or Sherlock and think like a detective, be inquisitive about experiences, decisions, processes and create rational and logical flows that follow natural human thought.

IS EVERYONE ON THE SAME PAGE?

successful meetings and processes must start with a shared understanding of values and goals

To best prepare yourself and your participants with the right frame of mind and mindset for Question Driven Design, consider the following questions upfront in your planning: Does everyone have the same understanding of â&#x20AC;&#x153;design?â&#x20AC;?

Is everyone comfortable with thinking uninhibited?

Are the right stakeholders and participants involved?

Does everyone have the right mindset for innovation?

Do you have any non-believers of the process?

Do we have access to the right people at the right time?

Have individuals participated in similar processes before?

Do we have appropriate stakeholder buy-in?

Are the objectives and process steps clear?

Does my timeline account for flexibility and adaptability?

It is imperative to have everyone be on the same page on what is design and believe in the process to create truly impactful solutions

WHO ARE THE STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVED?

consider all of the people that might touch/impact/influence your design solution.

STEPS 1. Participants jot down all stakeholders that

are affiliated with the design solution. Should be one stakeholder per sticky note. Place sticky notes visibly on a wall

2. Discuss as a group to consolidate, remove, or add stakeholders

3. Once all stakeholders have been identified, place the

stakeholders on the below circular map based on degrees of influence to the end solution

QUESTIONS TO DRIVE THIS SECTION: Who are they key users of your solutions?

What value is created for stakeholders?

Who is impacted by the design solution?

Who are stakeholders directly related to the business?

Who will benefit from the business?

Who are stakeholders indirectly related to the business?

Who needs to provide feedback during your process?

Who will need to influence the process?

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND The facilitator can separate stakeholders into two groups: (1) those with interest and (2) those with power Make sure to know the roles, goals, hopes and fears of your stakeholders Making relations between stakeholders can serve to be useful

IDEAL SET UP: Logistics:

-in-person meeting -30 to 45 min activity

Roles:

-lead by experienced facilitator -industry expert present

Materials:

-white board/large template -sticky notes -markers

WHO IS THE TARGET PERSONA?

from the core stakeholders, identify the set of personas that should drive the solution design

STEPS 1. From the list of core stakeholders, identify the target persona -

answer the “questions to drive this section” to narrow down on the right persona

2. Once identified, describe the persona in a few words -

adjectives based on their personality, work ethic, motivations and priorities

3. Start populating the template below to document the persona’s end goals and challenges, related to the business PERSONAL DETAILS

JOB DESCRIPTION

GOALS

CHALLENGES

QUESTIONS TO DRIVE THIS SECTION: What matters most to the persona?

What are the persona’s needs and main concerns?

Why is the persona interested in what you’re offering?

What are the persona’s challenges?

What is the persona’s perspective of the problem?

What is the persona motivated by?

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND Keep in mind consumer demographic, influence background, lifestyle and behavioral practices. Myers Briggs test to gain a better understanding of the personality. Tiers indicate levels of engagement users have with your product, or where they fall on the adoption curve. Turning that list of characteristics into a story so it presents the persona in a real life scenario.

IDEAL SET UP: Logistics:

-in-person meeting or interview setting -30 to 45 min per persona

Roles:

-facilitator -scribe/note taker -persona is present or “shoe filler”

Materials:

-white board/large template/notes template

WHAT IS THEIR CURRENT STATE JOURNEY? represent the identified personas interaction with your design solution.

STEPS 1. Start with considering all factors that influence the persona’s behavior

2. Using the template below, document high level steps and activities of the current problem or process

3. Continue recording technologies and people tied to each step 4. Discuss the persona’s experience by highlighting pain points and opportunity areas.

STEP 1

STEP 2

STEP 3

STEP 4

ACTIVITIES:

TECHNOLOGY:

PEOPLE:

EXPERIENCE:

QUESTIONS TO DRIVE THIS SECTION: What is the personas current journey with the problem?

How do different stakeholders and technologies play a role?

What changes the persona’s behavior?

What value is the persona looking for during the journey?

Where are the pain points specific to the persona?

Where are there opportunities to alleviate pain?

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND Are the pain points discovered throughout the coversation or once you finished all components in the journey? Determine if you want an “as you go” experience of pain or a reflective experience. What are the underlying reasons for influecing the persona’s behavior? Be sure to tackle whether there are multiple or just one. Solve for the greater problem, not just a symptom or a subset of issues. Did you focus on function over form?

IDEAL SET UP: Logistics:

-in-person meeting -30 to 45 min activity

Roles:

-lead by experienced facilitator -persona is present

Materials:

-white board/large template -sticky notes -markers

WHAT QUESTIONS DO THEY NEED ANSWERED? design a solution that answers the most important questions that the persona asks

STEPS 1.

Once the current state journey is complete, reframe the problem at hand by asking your participants to think about the ideal future solution and the questions they would want the solution to answer(one question per sticky note)

As a group, discuss questions and group them by themes that emerge Finally, take the questions and plot them on the visual below by assessing the impact of their answers and the feasibility of getting the answers. The questions with high impact answers and high feasibility of getting answered should be prioritized in the solution

PRIORITIZED FOCUS AREA IMPACT

FEASIBILITY

QUESTIONS TO DRIVE THIS SECTION: What is the first question that the persona wants answered?

Are there sub-questions that help answer a question?

How possible is it to receive an answer to a question?

Will the answer help make a decision or difference?

Who else will be asking these questions?

Who has the answer to the question?

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND Leverage an already existing natural process of thinking (question and answer) to help analyze and solve complex problems Framing the conversation in a simple question and answer format allows for easy consumption and communication. By using this process, consensus around what questions should be asked is reached more efficiently. Impactful and feasible answers should be prioritized as key solution outputs for the persona.

IDEAL SET UP: Logistics:

-In person meeting -45 to 60 min activity

Roles:

-Lead by experienced facilitator -persona is present

Materials:

-white board/large template -sticky notes -markers

WHAT COMES NEXT?

follow-up the input from your question driven design session with next steps

Now that you have finished the tactical toolkit, your next steps continue with, as you can imagine... asking more questions! Reflect on your toolkit findings and answer:

1. What are the insights you observedďź&#x; 2. What are the obstacles of the interviews conducted? 3. What are the ways to solve the problem? 4. How do we start this? Draw out your ideas (get

visual)/design a prototype/gather what you have learned and iterate/evaluate your process/create a pitch

Communicate with questions. Ask them, answer them, design with them

Established December 2017, New York Parsons School of Design, The New School Strategic Design and Management Karl Fadel, Silky Kadakia, Jaini Shah, Chloe Zheng