Let's get Human Again

Get Human Centric (How to be a Design Researcher)

An IDEAengineering storybook by SeriouslyCreative to help you go beyond customer centric and start winning by becoming a human centered problem solving and fast moving organization.

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How close are you to your consumer? No, really.!

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All organizations say they prioritize their consumers. The customer is boss as the saying goes. But, the way most companies are run in fact creates wide and deep barriers between us and the people we serve. From behind our desks and nice and cozy in our offices we pretend to know what customers want, what they need and what they think about us.

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To assure ourselves we use things like focus groups, U&A studies and a mountain of other reasonable data to inform us on the mind of those that pay for our products or services. And when it comes time to make decisions that affect the customer, from strategy to sales to marketing and pricing, we base what we do next on this data.

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But, in fact, so many “customer centric” companies are blind to their customers reality. Focus groups, internal data and metrics, and surveys don’t tell us enough and we don’t encourage our people to leave the office and spend time with our customers. And those people who do spend face to face time with our customers are not empowered to raise red flags when their is a problem.

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But there is nothing (nothing) that is more important today that to really, deeply and truly know your customer not as someone who buys a product or service, who calls in with issues, who likes you on Facebook but as an individual person with wants, needs, desires and “jobs to be done.” We’ll explain.

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Dana Victor Montenegro

That’s me.

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Stop Treating Consumers Like Lab Rats We’re not saying that your focus group is worthless or your survey meaningless. But they are often the wrong tool for the wrong job. These kinds of tools tell you what people think about what you have done but do little to pull the insights that help create what you are going to do next. They fail in part because they treat consumers like lab rats rather than people. In the sterile environment of an interview room people don’t give you their “stories” those deeper meanings from where insights derive. Design driven research engagers people in their context - on the street, cooking dinner for their family, researching a new product online, taking medications, using a service for the first time. It is this combination of looking beyond statistics and data points and looking instead to draw out stories and engaging people in the context of using or experiencing something that we gain real understanding of people and build insights.

Insights come from empathy.!

Empathy leads us to the “job to be done.”!

The goal is beyond numbers, data points or the typical “37% of men like softer toilet paper.” Design research is seeking empathy. Yes, empathy. That moment when you see the issue from your consumers perspective not as a person who might buy your product or service but as an individual who has specific needs that you might be able to satisfy. Empathy helps us better understand what actions to prioritize, how the consumer experiences us and our brand, what triggers will introduce us to them and what is really important to them. In essence, it gives us the predictiveness into what makes our consumer tick. And it makes what we do more meaningful because we are suddenly highly aware of how what we do affects real people’s lives.

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A great way to focus efforts is through what Harvard professor Clay Christensen calls the “Job to be Done.” Every consumer has needs and wishes. When they go shopping for something it is not always because they need that product and brand. It is that they need to get something done. For example, someone who goes out and buys a Snicker’s chocolate bar is probably not buying it simply to have a chocolate bar but instead to satisfy “I’m hungry and need something on the go because I don’t have time to take a real break.” That Job to be Done is satisfy hunger on the go, not chocolate. When we look at things as Jobs to be Done we start to see consumption, usage and decisions from a human perspective.

That’s what tells you what a consumer really wants.

People don’t want a drill.

They want the hole.

WE ARE ALL EXPLORERS & ANTHROPOLOGIST! Human centric is really in all of us. We innately have the ability to understand our fellow mankind.

But it takes some refining and on boarding of skills to do it like anthropologist. That’s what Design Research is all about. Let’s show you.

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“One should never impose one's views on a problem; one should rather study it, and in time a solution will reveal itself."-- Albert Einstein! ! !

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WHAT

If the end goal is to deliver insights build upon empathy then there are really 3 steps we need to take on the path of human centric design research.

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Path to

Success

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Start by defining your challenge. Ask yourself, what do I really want to know? What is the really issue we need to understand? This is your north star that guides your research. Then collect all the data you already have - studies, online experts, internal information. It’s all about understanding the context of what you will study. This is starting by making sure you know what you already know. Think of this as charting a path and packing supplies for your trip.

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All packed? Ok. Now it’s time to go out and talk with people, observe what they do, take notes, try it out yourself and build up first hand knowledge. This part is all about the people and suspending what you think you know and being open to really listening and understanding it from their perspective. Think of it as going out and living in the village with the tribe you seek to serve.

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Back from the jungle? Great! Now it’s time to look at what you collected - quotes, photos, videos, notes, observations - and make sense of it. It’s time to infer what you understand the consumers “Job to be Done” is and create a point of view about them and their needs. This point of view becomes your jumping off point to create solutions for them through ingenious ideas. Think of this as your presentation back to the National Geographic Society about how you can best serve this tribe.

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Define the Challenge

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Trying to define your challenge? Perfect! Here are three things to help you and guide you as you move forward.

Success Criteria!

(What is the question to be answered? Our ‘itch?”)! !

“What is the experience of a first time visitor to Puerto Rico and how might we improve it?”

Research Focus!

(what do you want to go out and learn and what will be important to understand)! !

“Understand the journey and experience of a first time visitor to Puerto Rico from the time they land at the airport to the time they arrive at their hotel. Identify and barriers or challenges they face within the airport and with ground transportation.”

Questions & Approach!

(What do we need to do in order to go out and learn)! !

What do we already know about first time visitors experience?!

Are there any “experts” we can talk to ahead of time?!

Where can we engage visitors that will give is context into their experience? (arriving, airport stores, baggage claim, arranging ground transportation, en route to hotel, hotel lobby?)!

What questions might we want to have answers to?!

What resources might we need to execute this, document it? (video camera? Payment for people we interview?)! ! !

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Understand Needs

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You can’t understand people’s needs unless you get out of the office and spend time with them. There are 3 ways to gather information.

Listen to people. Ask them questions. Interview them. Get them to write you a journal of their experience. The idea here is to understand from their words what is their perspective.

People can’t always tell you what they think. Sometimes you have to go and see it. Watch how people use a product or service. Take video of their journey through a system. Have them show you how they do something.

Sometimes you need to experience it for yourself to understand it. Use the product or service yourself. Go try it in the same way a customer might.

Pretend you are them and see what happens.

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Redefine the Opportunity

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Sit down and ask yourself: What did I see, hear and experience?

What do I understand from all that I saw, heard and experienced?

Why do I think people did what they did, said what they said?

What are the implications for my product, service or offering? ! !

Now create a point of view statement and develop insights. !

“Visitors are trying to get through the airport as fast as possible to get on with their vacation. They are having issues orienting themselves on where to go and how to get ground transportation because signs are not clear. They need a way to be better orientated to get the services they need.� ! ! ! !

HOW

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Tools & Techniques

That part about going out and understanding needs (the visit the tribe) is the heavy lifting of human centric design research. It’s a little bit more that just talking to people and watching them. And it is definite not the focus group 30 questions kind of thing.

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Here are 7 of the most common yet powerful techniques that will help you gather deeper empathy and design those Job to Be Done insights.

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Consumer Interview Just what you might think it is - an interview with a customer. But unlike surveys these are always one on one, their casual but well controlled conversations around your research focus and the goal isn’t to get things plotted on a scale of 1-10 but to draw out people’s stories. !

Stories tell us how people really feel about something, it allows people a comfortable format to explain complex or personal things to us. And they are the format of deep insights. After all, everyone grows up with this simple format of sharing information starting with things like the story of the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf. !

When we interview we do have questions but also have to stay open to surprise. Questions simple help us make sure we totally explore the issue we are interest in but they are not a check list but rather a guide. !

Some interviews go really great. You get tons of information and insights. Others go bad and you walk away with little to nothing.

And this is totally normal. In a typical project you might interview a total of 15-20 people and 70% of those give you what you need.

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Some rules Don’t pitch people what you are trying to do. “Hey, I creating an app to help you navigate an airport. Wouldn’t you like that?!” No, no, no. You are there to understand their perspective, not get validation for what you already want to do. You can tell them you’re working on better understanding how they get around the airport. Oh, and no cupcake questions like “wouldn’t you love to know exactly how to get around the airport?” - no one would say no to this so why ask it. !

Pull stories out of people rather than pushing them to a conclusion. Ask people questions and then let them do the talking. Maybe you want to create an app for the airport and you keep asking them “so, tell me how you would use an app for this?” Again, bad. Let them guide you there by asking the more open “How would you like to better orient yourself here?” !

Ask people about what they have done rather than what they would do. You usually get better results when you ask people about past behavior (“tell me about the last time you landed at a new airport.”) People tell you the truth when they tell you about real experiences. When you ask them simple what they think or would do they tell you their ideal of themselves which isn’t always the reality. ! ! ! ! !

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…and some techniques “Tell me about the last time you…..” This is a great way to get people to tell you about a real past situation and get a story going. !

“Yes, and…” Give people room to expand on what they are telling you as well as go deeper. Often the first thing someone tells you is only the beginning of the story. By asking “yes, and…” it allows them to keep going. !

The Five Whys This is a great brainstorming game that can also be used in interviews. Keep asking someone “why” like a curious 5 year old. Try to see if you can ask why five times about the same issue. This drives people to push farther and deeper into motivations. “I like to have a map of the place before I get there.” (why”) “Because I like to plot my route ahead of time.” (why?) “Because I like to stop at the bathroom right after landing.” - and so on. !

“Help me understand that better.” Asking people to better define why they do or feel a certain way and what it means to them helps you make sure you are understanding what they are trying to tell you rather than you jumping to conclusions about what it means. Give them the room to define things for you. !

“How are you dealing with that issue now?” People might tell you about the problems they are facing. Asking them how they deal with it gives insights into how it might be improved by you. ! !

Over the Shoulder Observation Interviewing people is great.

But sometimes you also have to watch what or how people do something. Observing people can be a little bit awkward. But with practice it gets better. !

Sometimes your observations are by invitation. You arrange to watch people in the context that is important to you and often interview them at the same time.

You want to know how people do a search on your website?

Sit down and watch them do it.

Need to understand what is important to people when choosing a car? Go with them to the dealer. Other times you might channel your inner stalker and secretly watch people. !

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A great framework for your observations is WHAT, HOW and WHY.

HOW!

WHAT! !

Watch what people do and start by taking notes on what they are doing - just the facts.

Then take notes on how they are doing it - they look confused, annoyed, happy.

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They are using an automated information kiosk to find a car service.

They keep going back to the start and are frowning. They seem confused and lost.

WHY! Finally, use your intuition and decide why you think they are doing it that way. ! !

They are frustrated because they expected it to be easier. !

Journey Mapping Follow the full experience of people using a service is a great way to find where it works, doesn’t or could be improved. This can be as simple as watching a single transaction at a single place like people getting coffee at Starbucks where you observe them from the time they walk in, get in line, look at the menu to decide what to get (or do they), pull out their money and pay, wait and receive their drink, add anything they want in it and sit down and enjoy it.

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It can also be a much more complex journey. Think about someone who is trying to get their cable TV repaired.

They try to figure it out themselves, they call a service line and maybe go through 5 auto responses before they talk to someone. Then they wait for a repair person. And that’s maybe a successful interaction.

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Either way, these are observation done on a timeline that allow us to see the consumers full experience. Want to try it? Make a journey over something you do. Order a pizza? Make an online purchase? Travel on vacation?

Keep a detailed journal. (by the way, this is great for practicing what it’s like to a consumer diary study too - which is what is next.)

TIP! A great way to use this is to draw a timeline of this journey on large piece of paper. Map why people did, when the interaction was positive or negative, who they interacted with, etc. By seeing it on a timeline it makes more sense.

Diary Study Sometimes you just can’t follow a person over an experience that might take a day or even a weeks. Imagine someone getting medical treatment over a few months. Or someone experiencing what it is like to be a new student on a university campus over their first month at school.

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There is a solution. Have them keep a diary of their experience. This can be a blog, private tweets, text messages to you, keeping a video journal, photos sent by SMS. You can view them over time and learn what is important enough to them to record.

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Create Personas Ok, so this one is less of a research technique as much as a way to compile your learnings in a way that people can react to. Instead of the bar charts and graphs of a survey human centric design research often delivers Personas. These are archetypes or simulated people made up from patterns you observed in your interviews, observations and other collection of information. We often produce posters that have a photo of this proto-consumers, we give them a name, attribute a quote to them and write out a day in the life biography that is relevant to our research interest. We might even add in information about what product them use, how they use their time, what comfort level them have with technology or any other item that is relevant to what we are interest in.

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A fun way to do this is to create a fake Facebook profile of your consumer complete with likes, posts, photos, etc.

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The best thing about Personas is that they keep you honest when it comes time to make decisions relevant to consumers. It is a power point of view to have to look at your poster and justify why what you are going to do is in the best interest of this person looking back at you.

The Ho HELP ME: Make a fast, nutritions dinner so I can spend time with the kids.

Tech: Primarily FB and Pinterest

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uses phone to check status on the run. Laptop is used after kids go to bed.

“My kids grades are important and i need to b to manage their homework. I end up jumping between dinner, homework and bath time.”

PAINS feels she is doing a lot but nothing well

wonders if her kids are getting her full atte isn’t cooking the meals her mother served

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NEEDS Way to assure nutritious meal that can be min for family of 4

Better time management of after school e Way to better understand and manage he

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Insights

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Follows HomeworkHelper.com to learn how to manage assignmen Often turns to microwavable dinners but feels they lack intimacy kids.

Likes to bake but feels that is a weekend activity not a dinner nece Her kids are picky eater and totally avoid the veggies.

Motivators/Triggers

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Cooking shows that do entire me Input from her mother in law on c Her husband’s childhood stories

There are at least 100 other ways to gather human centric information but these are some of the most straight forward and are “go to� tools for developing insights.

NEXT

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Getting Started

Now you know the three steps you need to take as well as seven techniques to gather insights. Now to using it to your benefit and the benefit of your organization (and your consumer!).

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The best thing you can do is to choose a low hanging challenge maybe something internal or even personal - and apply what you have learned to develop human centric insights. Be assured, it will always take a little bit more time to do the research and unpack the learning that you think it will take. But, on the upside it will speed you to better decisions and make your organization more agile.

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Once you’re ready to do this with others then commit yourself to pulling together a multidisciplinary and diverse teams. By creating a team of people who think differently and see challenges differently you increate your changes of understand the challenges in their entirety rather than from one department or one functions focus.

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You also need to be ready for the reality that doing this means you will have to be iterative. That means that at times you might have to take a step back and do extra research to better understand something you discovered in your first interviews. This is hard to accept in a business world where only forward progress is valued and any stepping back is seen as a failure. But in the rest of the world this is called learning and is the best way to make sure that what you decide to do in the end is grounded in real human values and needs. After all, it is those values and needs that lead to how we make money and champion change.

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What about participates?

Oh yeah, the people you interview and observe. Recruiting people is one of your first jobs. Of course it all depends on what you are trying to learn but often family and friends is a good start. We know you wouldn’t do that for a focus group because you want to avoid bias but in design research we are not so interested in surface opinions that can be easily influenced but instead in deeper stories and observable behaviors that anyone would showcase to you. So start with your Facebook feed.

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You can also put out adds on social media, in the newspaper or even get a professional recruiter. Remember, your not looking for hundreds of people by maybe 10-20 max.

Get your organization human again.

Leading, fast moving and innovation organizations are winning every day by being more human, by going beyond customer centric and looking at what jobs people are looking to have done and understanding their needs. From P&G to SAP, Mayo Clinic to Virgin, the world of business is being transformed by our ability to look at things like real people again.

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If you want to get this going in your organization it means valuing new things and stopping business as usual.

And you can get it going by doing simply things like making time for people to get out of the oďŹƒce and spend time with consumers (P&G marketing and product development sta spend an average of 20 hours a month with consumers), by asking people for quotes and experiences rather than just the numbers, by posting pictures of consumers and personas in every meeting room to remind us who we really work for and by starting every challenge or new project with an investigation of the consumers perspective.

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Is it easy. No. People resist and gravitate to the old ways. But once people get a taste of working like this the realize that this is the way we were always supposed to work and think about consumers. Like humans. Just like us.

Get out there and be human.

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We are a design driven innovation and creative facilitation firm that accelerates growth, change and ideas of clients.! www.seriouslycreative.com! dana@seriouslycreative.com! angie@seriouslycreative.com!

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