Customer Experience Cookbook

KUALI:

THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE COOKBOOK

a collection of ingredients and recipes to design delicious customer experiences

Kuali: The Customer Experience Cookbook a collaboration between Somia Customer Experience and Copenhagen Institute of NeuroCreativity prepared and cooked in the magical island of Bali 2014

Kuali: The Customer Experience Cookbook is licensed under a Creative Common Attributions-Non Commercial 4.0 International License

THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE COOKBOOK There’s a certain fulfillment that we get from food experiences, especially if we put effort in creating the dishes. A great food experience stimulates one’s senses and also evoke multiple emotions. In many ways, experience design also aims at the same thing – to create experiences that people love and would love to share. This customer experience cookbook explores various mindsets, beliefs and approaches that support the design process. Think of it as a toolkit that guides you through discovering quality ingredients and preparing palatable dishes, in order to deliver mouth-watering experiences.

There are various aspects making up a perfect dish. It combines the art of selecting quality produce and impeccable preparations. A good design solution relies on the synergy between process, mindset and beliefs. The cookbook guides you through the whole design process, and you can choose to use the recipes that you are comfortable working with, and relevant for the challenge you are working on. Now, go start whipping some mouth-watering experience!

The customer experience cookbook is made through a collaborative effort between Somia Customer Experience and Copenhagen Institute of NeuroCreativity (CINC). We blend our expertise in designing customer experience and nurturing creative confidence in individuals to synthesize the ingredients making up great design solutions.

THE EXPERIENCE DESIGN PROCESS

DISCOVER

DEFINE

DEVELOP

CREATIVITY

DELIVER

APPROACH

OUTPUT

DISCOVER

RESEARCH & OBSERVE

FINDINGS & STORIES

EMPATHY

DIVERGENT

DEFINE

STRATEGY

INSIGHTS & PROBLEMS

ABDUCTIVE

CONVERGENT

DEVELOP

IDEATION & TESTING

PROTOTYPES & CONCEPTS

EXPERIMENT

DIVERGENT

DELIVER

FEASIBILITY & VIABILITY

IMPLEMENTATION PLANS

SATISFICING

CONVERGENT

*Discover, Define, Develop & Deliver: UK Design Council Terminology

MINDSET

MODE

DISCOVER Imagine getting in to a big traditional market. People roaming around from dierent directions, sellers oering various kinds of produce, you let yourself guided by the smell, you find the chaos to be both exciting and challenging. Your aim is to explore and discover.

You would find the discover phase to be as chaotic and dynamic as being in a traditional market . In the discover phase, the aim is to gather as many knowledge as possible on the problem at hand and the people’s life context surrounding the problem. When going through the discover phase, you would find yourself getting familiar with the users and the organizations you design for.

The Mindset

Know your biases

There’s a fun in not knowing. It takes you to explore ways that you might not have thought about before. In the discovery phase, we shall not let our assumptions get in the way of our research. Furthermore, by being aware of our biases, we extend our ability to reflect on the findings.

Capture the root cause, not symptoms A good research approach should capture the underlying reasons behind people’s action/behavior. There are several factors that limit a researcher’s ability to capture the root cause of a problem: (1) people might not be aware of, or have difficulties on articulating the underlying needs, and (2) they might not feel comfortable to open up to you.

Seek for stories

In any conversation, half of the battle lies in establishing rapport and trust. The more people are willing to share, the more opportunities arise to nest great insights. That’s why it’s important to see interviews more like a conversation, where we don’t just aim to capture findings, but be genuinely interested in listening to people’s stories. Stories speak from the heart and the mind, and the key to relevant insight is when we can navigate the space between what people feel, do, and say.

Observe people’s flow of experience The make or break of a design solution often lies in the design and the interaction of various resources supporting the experience. In the discovery phase, it is important to explore people’s flow of experience in interacting with a certain product/service, as well as defining the resources that support the experience we envisions.

Tap into people’s instinctual nature As much as we like to see ourselves as rational beings, truth is we can be an irrational beings, especially when it comes to decision-making. A well-crafted research should be able to tap on the people’s instinctual nature; the gap between what they say and what they do, and their reaction to emotional or visceral experiences. Instead of collecting information through probing and conditioning, it is better for researchers in this case to closely observe the participants and let them take a more active role. By understanding people’s instinctual nature, we can better produce insights for creating relevant experiences that people may not even realize they need.

Identify extreme behaviors Approaching extreme users or assembling various types of users together are useful to harvest unexpected insights, alternative uses, and area for improvements. By approaching these “special” groups, we can collect rich information on various interaction possibilities and issues that may have been overlooked by the “regular” users.

The Tools

Assumption Dumption

A warmup exercise to reveal the assumptions held by the group

easy

15 explore minutes

Preparations: 1. 5 mins: Individually, list down all assumptions that you have about the problem you are working on; the user’s traits, the business needs basically all perception and ideas of the issues at hand.

2. 5 mins: Everyone briefly shares his/her assumptions to the group.

3. 5 mins: Document all the assumptions in themes/clusters.

Try to be aware of the group’s assumptions during fieldwork and avoid building inferences based on our own biases.

Know your biases

Tap into people’s instinctual nature As much as we try to be rational beings, humans are engineered to often be very irrational, especially when it comes to decision-making. A well-crafted research should be able to tap on the people’s instinctual nature; the gap between what they say and what they do, and their reaction to emotional or visceral experiences. Instead of collecting information through probing and conditioning, it is better for researchers in this case to closely observe the participants and let them take a more active role. By understanding people’s instinctual nature, we can better produce insights to create relevant experiences that people might not even be aware that they need it.

Love Thy Respondent

An approach to build a “conversation-like” style in an interview.

medium explore

Ingredients: 1. Be compassionate, by trying to understand the disconnections between what we believe, what people say, and what they do.

2. Be excited as if you’re going on a date! Try to get to know your respondent in a way that you would like to get to know your date.

Extend your love to them as if they are your long-lost friends.

3. Encourage them to say whatever they have in mind. Once you have established trust, they will be much more open to share things.

4. Use judgment as tool to reflect, instead of a way to influence the direction of the interview. Whenever judgment occurs, reflect and think of the gap between your perception/values and theirs.

5. Expose yourself vulnerabilities and show your flaws. That way, people will be able to relate to you more and less reluctant to open up.

Seek for stories

5 why’s

A way to quickly uncover the root cause of the problem by asking 5 consecutive “why..” questions.

easy

10 explore minutes

Preparations: 1. 10 mins: Try to formulate a “why” question, and question the respondent’s answer by asking another “why” question for 5 consecutive times, or until you can no longer get closer to the root cause

Capture root cause, not symptoms

Tap into people’s instinctual nature As much as we try to be rational beings, humans are engineered to often be very irrational, especially when it comes to decision-making. A well-crafted research should be able to tap on the people’s instinctual nature; the gap between what they say and what they do, and their reaction to emotional or visceral experiences. Instead of collecting information through probing and conditioning, it is better for researchers in this case to closely observe the participants and let them take a more active role. By understanding people’s instinctual nature, we can better produce insights to create relevant experiences that people might not even be aware that they need it.

What|How|Why

A way to discover how and why people do things they do.

medium

30 explore minutes

Preparations: 1. 10 mins: ask the respondent to list down things that they usually do when exposed to the problem/challenge.

2. If time permits, spend some time to shadow respondents when they do things on their list. Otherwise ask them how they do it and why.

Capture root cause, not symptoms Source: Stanford d.school bootleg

Expert Interviews

Reaching out to expert in a specific topic to gather large amount of insights in a short time period

medium

1-3 hours

explore

Preparations: 1. Identify the areas on which you need an expert to talk to.

2. Recruit the relevant experts and try to talk to several dierent experts to expand the team’s way of thinking about the issue 3. Get back to the expert for concept testing/feedback. Experts often give richer insights when presented with tangible outputs.

Capture root cause, not symptoms Source: HCD Toolkit

Source: HCD Toolkit

Extreme User Interviews

A way to gather insights from people who are extremely familiar or completely unfamiliar with the product or services. The approach often uncovers key issues of the experience and opportunity for improvement.

diďŹƒcult

1-3 hours

explore

Preparations: 1. Identify users that fall under these categories: (1) extremely familiar, (2) completely unfamiliar, (3) loving fan, (4) utterly hate.

2. Conduct conversation with each user group separately.

Identify Extreme Behaviors

Unfocus Group

A group discussion approach that assembles people from diverse backgrounds (beyond demographic & psychographic profiles).

diďŹƒcult

1-2 hours

explore

Preparations: 1. Identify interest groups that are exposed (to a dierent degree) with the experience being observed/products being tested. Try to think beyond the obvious e.g. a foot-fetishist to discuss fashion sandals.

2. Invite one person from each interest group and form a group of maximum five people.

3. During the discussion, stimulate the group by providing range of materials or other relevant things that they can try on and experiment with.

Identify Extreme Behaviors

Rapid Ethnography

An observation approach where researcher spend significant amount of time with people relevant to the challenge, within a certain budget constraints & time demands.

medium

1-3 days

explore

Ingredients: 1. Keep all assumptions on the back of your head. Your goal is to learn context, habits, rituals, and meanings around the relevant experience being observed.

2. Maintain the balance between planned research e.g. concise field guide & book, and the curiosity for exploration i.e. constantly ask “Why..”

3. Experiments with multiple techniques. This cookbook provides enough tools that you can try out during your fieldwork.

4. Find ways to establish trust in order for you to be able to partake in the respondent’s natural environment.

Capture root cause, not symptoms Source: Stanford d.school bootleg

Source: Stanford d.school bootleg

Show Me How

A walkthrough of the user’s interaction with a particular service or product. “Show me How” often exposes unexpected/alternative uses of a product/service that can be a source of great insight.

medium

30-60 explore minutes validate

Preparations: 1. Ask a respondent to share and show how they usually interact with a product/service.

2. Observe their interaction, and look for gaps between what they initially say and how they really do it.

Observe people’s flow of experience

Card Sorting

A way to expose people’s expected model of an experience. It is also used to reveal expectations and priorities about the experience itself.

easy

30 explore minutes

Preparations: 1. 15 minutes: Prior to the conversation, list possible features, resources, functions or design attributes that can support a certain experience.

Write down each element on individual cards.

2. 10 minutes: Ask respondent to organize the cards in a way that makes the most sense to them.

Observe people’s flow of experience

Camera Journal

A self-conducted notation technique where respondents are asked to keep a written and visual diary of their perceptions and activities related to an experience. It is useful in revealing respondent’s point of view and behavior. easy explore

Preparations: 1. Give respondent a written note for them to jot down thoughts that spark whenever they are exposed to the issue being observed.

2. Ask them to take pictures on their phone of all the things that they think to be relevant to the issue.

3. Get back to them in a couple of days and ask them to explain the notes and pictures they have taken. Look for connections and patterns that can better explain their behavior.

Tap into people’s instinctual nature

Experience Harvesting

A way of collecting insights through stimuli that evoke people’s emotions

medium 2 hours

explore validate

Preparations: 1. Identify aspects of the products/services that people value the most.

2. Create artifacts or narratives that can evoke emotional reactions from people, in order for us to harvest insight on how people perceive the experience.

3. Put the artifacts and narratives in a real-life, non-conditioned setting.

4. Observe people’s reaction when exposed to the message and ask them how they feel about it.

Tips: Think of the most relevant touchpoint to expose the artifacts/narratives.

Tap into people’s instinctual nature

Tap into people’s instinctual nature As much as we try to be rational beings, humans are engineered to often be very irrational, especially when it comes to decision-making. A well-crafted research should be able to tap on the people’s instinctual nature; the gap between what they say and what they do, and their reaction to emotional or visceral experiences. Instead of collecting information through probing and conditioning, it is better for researchers in this case to closely observe the participants and let them take a more active role. By understanding people’s instinctual nature, we can better produce insights to create relevant experiences that people might not even be aware that they need it.

DISCOVER TIPS listen & observe don’t judge be curious be genuinely interested no leading questions be creative with research know when to stop and pull back at the end of the day, debrief to reflect

DEFINE

Roaming the traditional market to find those perfect ingredients can be an exciting, yet challenging experience. How to tell the fresh ingredients from the not-so-fresh? Which produce should you choose to create a palatable dish? To decide, you really need to understand what you are looking for. In the design process, we call this phase define, a process where we try to make sense of all the information we gathered in the discover phase.

In the define process, we aim at defining and interpreting key insights and problems.

Trying to synthesize a significant amount of information into insights and problems that help guide ideation requires a balance between a structured approach and an exploration mindset.

The balance allows for a focused, yet rich and diverse analysis.

The Approach

1

Put things in context

Starting the define process can be quite challenging because its often hard to define the starting point. Organization and structuring of insights is useful to avoid overloading and overcrowding of information. The trick is to keep a holistic/ meta-level structuring, to allow diverse themes to emerge during the synthesis process.

2

Make connections Once we structure the stories and findings, it is easier to start defining insights that can be translated into ideas. To uncover the true nature or the core reasoning on why people do things, it is useful to make connection between various insights that have been gathered so far.

3

..and identify gaps/ disconnections A big part of connection-making involves the exploration of gaps between people’s reality and expectations; between people and the environment they operate in, between different stakeholders, and so on. By understanding the gaps and disconnections that exist in people’s lives, it gives room for designer to create solutions that can address those gaps solutions that are more relevant and useful to people.

4

Formulate a problem statement Often times, poor solutions is a result of the identification of a “wrong problem�. Designers often deal with ill-defined problems, with incomplete information and conflicting values.

Half of the battle in a design process lies in defining the relevant problem to work with.

5

create heuristic outputs to help guide decisions People resort to heuristics, or rule of thumbs, to guide their behavior and decisions. The rule of thumb may not be ideal or reflect the totality of the issue, but it helps people to reach a decision without a great deal of complexity. By resorting to heuristics, we create suďŹƒcient outputs that reflect the key opportunities gathered from the research.

The Tools

The Life Context

Categorization of insights based on the various contexts of people’s lives influenced by the product/service.

medium 1 hour synthesis

Ingredients: Group the stories/findings based on the following life context: • Need: the functional or direct reason why people use the product • Pain: the gap between people’s reality and expectation • Desire: what people wish to happen, the latent need • Habit: how people usually interact with the product • Moment: when and where people usually interact with the product

Put things into context

The Target Group Pattern

A way to synthesize the different target groups who have a certain affinity with the product

easy

1 hour

synthesis

Preparations: 1. Identify spectrums of traits that serve as a base to cluster different target groups.

2. Locate the trait of each target group in each spectrum.

3. Identify target group with similar trait pattern based on its vicinity within the spectrum, and consider to group them together.

Put things into context

Service Ecology

Identification of direct and indirect variables making up a service experience, and the relationship between those variables.

easy

synthesis 30 minutes explore

Preparations: 1. 15 minutes: Based on the research, categorize the insights based on variables that influence the service experience. The variables can be features, stakeholders, spaces, feelings, and objects.

2. 15 minutes: Look for connections between each variable in order to figure out the role of each variable in influencing the service experience.

Put things into context

G.F.E

A way to categorize insights based on people’s goals, fears and expectations.

easy

30 synthesis minutes

Preparations: 1. Group the findings/stories into goals (the objective of using the product/service), fears (their worries that drive them to use the product/service and their worries about the experience itself), and expectations (what people expect to get from the experience).

Tips: Be clear on the difference between goals and expectations e.g. goal is “to have a fair skin” and expectation is “to be desirable.”

Put things into context

Clustering

A way to structure stories and findings in themes

easy

45 synthesis minutes

Preparations: 1. 20 minutes: Write down all insights on post-its – one insight per postit, and color-code the insights based on which context it falls under (see exercises on “put things in context.”)

2. Put all post-it notes on a visible wall-space.

3. 20 minutes: Try to group the insights based on its relevant themes.

Do not aim to make everything perfect – the aim of clustering is just to better make sense of the information clutter.

Make connections

Relationship Map

A way to map the relationship between various stakeholders involved in an experience.

easy

30 - 60 synthesis minutes

Preparations: 1. 10 minutes: Group the users of the experience into primary, secondary, and supporters (groups who influence, but not necessarily use the experience).

2. 15 minutes: Identify the interaction that takes place between various users.

3. 20 minutes: Identify the interaction that has not yet existed, or obviously need improvement. Use those broken interaction as a seed for ideation.

Make connections Source: From Theory to Practice - Designing for Empathy: Artefact Design Resources

Tap into people’s instinctual nature As much as we try to be rational beings, humans are engineered to often be very irrational, especially when it comes to decision-making. A well-crafted research should be able to tap on the people’s instinctual nature; the gap between what they say and what they do, and their reaction to emotional or visceral experiences. Instead of collecting information through probing and conditioning, it is better for researchers in this case to closely observe the participants and let them take a more active role. By understanding people’s instinctual nature, we can better produce insights to create relevant experiences that people might not even be aware that they need it.

2x2 Matrix

An approach for organizing insights using two spectra.

medium

20 - 60 synthesis minutes

Preparations: 1. 5 minutes: Pick two spectra that are relevant for the challenge (e.g. high to low complexity, high to low impact, cheap to expensive). It could be feelings, products, motivations, or anything that can be useful for the process to move forward.

2. 15 minutes: Try to see where the correlation makes most sense for each insight and plot them in the relevant quadrant.

3. Try to experiment with various kinds of spectra to get the one that is most meaningful and informative.

Make connections

Tap into people’s instinctual nature As much as we try to be rational beings, humans are engineered to often be very irrational, especially when it comes to decision-making. A well-crafted research should be able to tap on the people’s instinctual nature; the gap between what they say and what they do, and their reaction to emotional or visceral experiences. Instead of collecting information through probing and conditioning, it is better for researchers in this case to closely observe the participants and let them take a more active role. By understanding people’s instinctual nature, we can better produce insights to create relevant experiences that people might not even be aware that they need it.

A.B.C

A tool to synthesize insights gathered from observational studies, to thoroughly understand events that occur within an experience.

medium

30 synthesis minutes

Preparations: 1. 10 minutes: List down behaviors (“B”) being observed in the research 2. 20 minutes: For every behavior, try to look for antecedent (“A”), or triggers/activities that precedes a problem behavior, and consequences (“C”), or events that immediately follows a behavior.

Make connections Source: Stanford d.school bootleg

Service Failures

Identifying areas throughout a service where providers may not be able to keep its service promise and where disappointments can occur.

medium

60 synthesis minutes

Preparations: 1. 20 minutes: Map the flow of experience that a user undertakes when using the service (based on the research findings).

2. 40 minutes: Identify disconnection between people’s expectation and the actual service (the pain points). Take into consideration people’s expectation on the system, process & environment surrounding the service, as well as how other stakeholder’s action influence the experience.

Identify disconnections

Service Failures

Identifying areas throughout a service where providers may not be able to keep its service promise and where disappointments can occur.

medium

60 synthesis minutes

Preparations: 1. 20 minutes: Map the flow of experience that a user undertakes when using the service (based on the research findings).

2. 40 minutes: Identify disconnection between people’s expectation and the actual service (the pain points). Take into consideration people’s expectation on the system, process & environment surrounding the service, as well as how other stakeholder’s action influence the experience.

Identify disconnections

The Psychopath

An experience in a person’s life is influenced by a lifetime of other experiences. This activity is aimed at finding the “disconnections” between the experiences as an avenue for new design opportunities. medium

20 - 60 synthesis minutes

Preparations: 1. Draw a pie graph with 6 slices: “past”, “future”, beliefs”, “habits”, “systems”, and “places” 2. Spend five minutes to identify experiences on each labels (this is ideally done during the discover phase): How has the user’s past influenced the experience? What does the user consider to be an ideal future? What are the guiding beliefs of the user? What are the relevant habits of the user? What systems currently influence the user’s experience? and What are the environments where the user exist?.

3. Identify the “disconnections” between each label e.g. does the “past” conflict with the current “habit”?

4. Use the disconnects as a seed for the ideation session

Identify disconnections Source: Alisan Atvur - www.alisanatvur.com

Tap into people’s instinctual nature As much as we try to be rational beings, humans are engineered to often be very irrational, especially when it comes to decision-making. A well-crafted research should be able to tap on the people’s instinctual nature; the gap between what they say and what they do, and their reaction to emotional or visceral experiences. Instead of collecting information through probing and conditioning, it is better for researchers in this case to closely observe the participants and let them take a more active role. By understanding people’s instinctual nature, we can better produce insights to create relevant experiences that people might not even be aware that they need it.

Point of View (P.O.V)

An approach to reframe challenges into a workable problem statement(s).

easy

30 - 60 synthesis minutes

Preparations: 1. Unpack the research findings by breaking down variables that might be relevant to synthesis work.

2. Create statements based on the following madlib: [USER] needs to [USER’S NEED] because [RELEVANT INSIGHT] 3. Play with dierent Point of Views to get a rich understanding of the problem.

Formulate the Problem Statement Source: Stanford d.school bootleg

How Might We..

Short questions/problem statements that are used as a seed for ideation.

medium

30 synthesis minutes

Preparations: 1. Based on different point of views, try to create problem statements that begin with “how might we…?” by breaking the larger challenge into smaller actionable pieces 2. Try to frame the statement that strikes the balance between broad and narrow, to allow wide range of possible solutions with helpful constraints.

Tips: Some ways to formulate the question is by elevating the positive parts of the challenge, removing the negative parts, explore opposite options, creating analogy or change a status quo. Be creative in designing your How Might We questions!

Formulate the Problem Statement Source: Stanford d.school bootleg

Insight Platform

A document that describes the overall insights gathered from the research

easy

30 - 60 synthesis minutes

Preparations: 1. During the synthesis process, cluster the insights into themes.

2. Identify several important insights on each theme, and document them.

3. Built a coherent and appealing narratives to showcase the insights and its relevance to the challenge at hand.

Create outputs to guide decisions

Persona

A set of archetypal users of a product/service that represents the needs of a larger group, in terms of values and personal characteristics.

easy

60 synthesis minutes

Preparations: 1. 20 minutes: Based on the research findings, identify behavioral patterns. Use similar and consistent motivations and behaviors to create a persona.

2. 30 minutes: Write persona description, including name and demographic, narrated with his/her behavior, preferences, and a day in life.

3. Share the personas across the organization to create a shared understanding of who you are designing for.

Create outputs to guide decisions

Tap into people’s instinctual nature As much as we try to be rational beings, humans are engineered to often be very irrational, especially when it comes to decision-making. A well-crafted research should be able to tap on the people’s instinctual nature; the gap between what they say and what they do, and their reaction to emotional or visceral experiences. Instead of collecting information through probing and conditioning, it is better for researchers in this case to closely observe the participants and let them take a more active role. By understanding people’s instinctual nature, we can better produce insights to create relevant experiences that people might not even be aware that they need it.

Experience/Design Principles

Set of principles/must-do’s derived from the insights gathered. They help guide a consistent experience throughout the dierent touchpoints

easy

30 - 60 synthesis minutes

Preparations: 1. 20 minutes: Identify the insights that may indicate people’s important considerations on using the product/service 2. 30 minutes: Based on the insights, develop list of principles, or elements that has to be in place in the solution.

Create outputs to guide decisions

SYNTHESIS TIPS Be systematic & seek for patterns Use heuristics (common sense, experience based rules) Follow your intuition SuďŹƒcient, rather than perfect When stuck, sleep on it

DEVELOP Once you have collected all the ingredients you need, it is time to get your hands dirty and create the magic in your kitchen. The first attempt on creating that perfect dish may not turn out as expected, and that’s when you start to experiment with stuff. In the design process, the magic takes place during the ideation session, and when you translate insights into ideas and concepts that are both novel and relevant to people’s lives.

Just like the cooking experience, you need to get your hands dirty and experiment with different aspect of the ideas. Permit yourself to take risk and allow space for early failures, to enable you exploring a wide range of possibilities.

The Mindset

Prototype fast & early

Visual artifacts are useful to articulate concepts. Physical representation of an idea oers an eective way to communicate ideas and contextualize thoughts.

At this stage, the physical representations are used more as an evocative tool, not as a way to suggest the final form of the design solution.

Share your work-in-progress Don’t wait until you are done with the finished product to show it to people!

People’s feedback on a work-in-progress is a valuable source of improvement.

Test your design to people around you and people who might use the product/ service. The key is to make sure that your prototype is comprehensive enough that people can envision the finished output when they try the prototype.

Simulate the experience Simulation is a good way to test the flow of the experience being designed and how people perceive the experience. In addition, people are more likely to experiment in a simulated setting as it bears no or little risk, unlike reality.

Break the experience into parts that sum up the whole As people’s experience is essentially supported by various resources, it is important for us to be able to envision the whole interaction among the resources, and how people interact with the resources themselves. In order to do this, we have to break down each interaction that people may encounter and make sure that the interactions can support the intended outcome.

The Tools

Sketching

Drawing, models, narratives, storyboards that are used to communicate the general context of a concept/idea.

easy

15 - 60 explore minutes synthesis

Preparations: 1. Each individual chooses several ideas that they want to sketch.

2. Spend not more than 5 minutes to sketch the idea in any form you want.

3. Do a sketch for another idea that someone else’s have previously sketch. At the end of the session, the team will have several sketches of an idea.

Prototype Fast & Early

Tap into people’s instinctual nature As much as we try to be rational beings, humans are engineered to often be very irrational, especially when it comes to decision-making. A well-crafted research should be able to tap on the people’s instinctual nature; the gap between what they say and what they do, and their reaction to emotional or visceral experiences. Instead of collecting information through probing and conditioning, it is better for researchers in this case to closely observe the participants and let them take a more active role. By understanding people’s instinctual nature, we can better produce insights to create relevant experiences that people might not even be aware that they need it.

Rapid Prototyping

A way to nurture the culture of making in the ideation process, by creating physical representation of ideas in a rapid manner.

easy

60 explore minutes synthesis

Preparations: 1. 20 minutes: create 20 dierent prototypes in silence. This means 1 prototype every minute!

2. 20 minutes: present the prototypes to the group and look for areas to explore further 3. 20 minutes: each individual chooses one prototype that he/she wants to refine and work on.

Prototype Fast & Early

Tap into people’s instinctual nature As much as we try to be rational beings, humans are engineered to often be very irrational, especially when it comes to decision-making. A well-crafted research should be able to tap on the people’s instinctual nature; the gap between what they say and what they do, and their reaction to emotional or visceral experiences. Instead of collecting information through probing and conditioning, it is better for researchers in this case to closely observe the participants and let them take a more active role. By understanding people’s instinctual nature, we can better produce insights to create relevant experiences that people might not even be aware that they need it.

Minimum Viable Product (M.V.P)

A prototype of a new product/service that allows designers to get maximum amount of validated learnings about user’s interaction, with the least effort.

medium validate difficult explore

Ingredients: - The MVP should describe the problem you are trying to solve and also show the solutions.

- Think of a form of interaction that allows people to share your proposed product/service. This gives indication on whether people would be willing to share your content to others.

- Consider using multiple MVPs - Identify the people you want to test your product/service on.

- Be ready to incorporate people’s feedback into the final version of the product/service.

Share your work-in-progress Source:Eric Ries - The Lean Startup

Pretotyping

A way to test the appeal and preference of a concept immediately after the concept is born but before investment is made in the development

medium validate difficult explore

Preparation: 1. Identify the demand-sensitive questions that must be answered by the pretotype i.e. questions that answer if the concept is the right “it” 2. Select the pretotype model that fits best for the concept: a. A fake medium to assess number of people who are interested enough to respond to the medium e.g. a “contact us if you wanna buy” button b. Artefacts that conveys the basic form and aesthetics of the concept c. Humanifying complex technology e.g. using real people for universal translation device d. Limited edition products e. Minimum Viable Products

Share your work-in-progress

Usability Testing

Testing approach involving users to try the prototype of the product/ services, to identify usability issues and the reason behind the issue.

easy

30 - 60 validate minutes explore

Preparation: 1. Create dierent scenarios of the possible interaction of the concept 2. Prepare a survey that capture the satisfaction level of users in interacting with the product/service.

3. Ask users to try out the prototype by giving them a scenario 4. Ask them to think-aloud what they feel and do while performing the task 5. Ask users to fill the usability survey

Simulate the Experience

Experience Prototyping

A simulation of how the product / service will work and how people can use it. The form of experience prototype can be as simple as paper sketches up to a fully working product / service. medium

validate explore

Preparation: 1. Decide which parts of the experience to be simulated and which touchpoints to include.

2. Create prototypes to represent the touchpoints. Arrange them based on an ideal scenario.

3. Invite target users or other stakeholders to try using the product / service.

4. Observe and record people’s feedback as they are going through the product / service experience.

Simulate the Experience

medium

Wireframe

A visual presentation that illustrates elements and layout in the User Interface (UI).

easy

30 - 90 validate minutes communicate

Preparation: 1. Identify key UIs that need to be visualized, and the relationship among them. A sitemap will be quite helpful.

2. Create a basic UI template, in considerations of the actual platform for implementation.

3. Take each template to represent a key UI, lay down visual elements which may include but not limited to headings, texts, navigation bars, buttons, and image placeholders.

4. Show the relationship between a key UI to another by highlighting the visual elements that link them.

Simulate the Experience

Scenario

A sequential, orchestrated narratives that describes the experience of a user when interacting with the product/services.

medium 3 hours

validate communicate

Preparation: 1. Identify the key features of the envisioned experience, as well as the flow that a user undertakes when interaction with the product or services.

2. Built a story/narrative that describes the key features and the flow of experience. Do not try to fit everything in to the story – the key to good scenario lies in its simplicity.

3. Translate the narratives in sequence of actions. Mediums like storyboards can help.

4. Create a short video based on the storyboard.

Simulate the Experience

Tap into people’s instinctual nature As much as we try to be rational beings, humans are engineered to often be very irrational, especially when it comes to decision-making. A well-crafted research should be able to tap on the people’s instinctual nature; the gap between what they say and what they do, and their reaction to emotional or visceral experiences. Instead of collecting information through probing and conditioning, it is better for researchers in this case to closely observe the participants and let them take a more active role. By understanding people’s instinctual nature, we can better produce insights to create relevant experiences that people might not even be aware that they need it.

User Journey

A story from the user’s point of view about how he/she experiences the product/service, down to the detailed interactions that he/she has with each touchpoint.

easy

1-2 hours

validate explore

Preparation: 1. Figure out the stages that the users go through, starting from when they first become aware of the product / service until they finish using it.

2. In each stage, describe what users do with related touchpoints and how they think / feel.

3. Identify pain points and gaps in the user journey, so the experience can be improved.

Break the experience into parts that sums up the whole

Service Blueprint

An operational tool that describes the nature and the characteristics of the service interaction in enough detail to verify, implement and maintain it.

medium 1 - 3 diďŹƒcult hours

validate explore

Preparation: 1. Outline the main interaction stages along the service experience in a horizontal line.

2. For each stage, extract customer actions and front of stage interactions between the line of interaction. Add relevant touch points and physical evidences.

3. Under the line of visibility, detail out backend interaction and support process that support the designed experiences

Break the experience into parts that sums up the whole

Tap into people’s instinctual nature As much as we try to be rational beings, humans are engineered to often be very irrational, especially when it comes to decision-making. A well-crafted research should be able to tap on the people’s instinctual nature; the gap between what they say and what they do, and their reaction to emotional or visceral experiences. Instead of collecting information through probing and conditioning, it is better for researchers in this case to closely observe the participants and let them take a more active role. By understanding people’s instinctual nature, we can better produce insights to create relevant experiences that people might not even be aware that they need it.

points of reflection Remember! Each artifact created has to be able to answer the three key aspects:

- what it is - why people want to use it - how to use it

Although seems like a common sense, the fun in exploring many dierent routes during the develop phase often lead the concepts to go to directions that are not aligned with the initial insights! So, always reflect back on whether the three aspects embedded in each artifact link back to the insights generated.

DELIVER Once you work your magic in the kitchen and before you present your dish to the guest, it would be useful to reflect a bit and think of ways to make the dining experience memorable.

Think of it as a way to ensure the long-term success of our solutions.

In the design process, the goal of deliver stage is to ensure the feasibility and viability of the concepts. The deliver phase will bring the concepts forward into implementation. This means that not only you need to ensure quality, but also you need to track the progress of the implementation of the solution.

The Tools

Human Centered Design - Deliver

An implementation framework to ensure that solutions are implemented well and sustained over the long term. The framework also includes plans for ongoing learning and iterations.

medium

2-5 hours

evaluate

Preparation: 1. 30 – 45 mins: Develop a sustainable revenue model: a. Identify how each solution will provide values to users b. Identify how much do those values worth for users c. Identify revenue sources and models 2. 30 – 45 mins: Identify capabilities required for delivering solutions: a. Identify all possible actors that can deliver the solution, and list the pros and cons on each delivering possibilities b. List the human, manufacturing, financial, and technical capabilities that will be required for each solution. c. For solutions requiring partnership, create a list of potential partners 3. 30 – 45 mins: create innovation and implementation pipeline: a. Create following matrix: Put down all solutions on post-its and place it in the appropriate quadrant. Discuss with team if they are happy with the distribution of ideas b. Create implementation timeline and champions (person-incharge) for each milestone 4. Consider doing mini pilots & iterations (e.g. using MVP or pretotype) 5. Create a learning plan

Source: HCD Toolkit

Business Model Canvas

A visual tool for describing business models, structured into nine essential components covering the business’ value proposition, stakeholders, activities, and finances.

easy

1-2 hours

evaluate

Preparation: 1. Get a template of business model canvas (see businessmodelgeneration.com) 2. There is no fixed order to fill out the business model canvas, but it is suggested to start from the customers.

3. Customer Segments – for whom are you designing the solution?

4. Value Propositions – what is the solution and what values are incorporated?

5. Channels – how to deliver the solution to the customers?

6. Customer Relationships – how to delight the customers with great experiences?

7. Revenue Streams – how can we gather revenue from the use of the solution?

8. Key Resources – what resources are needed to produce the solution?

9. Key Activities – how to process the resources into the solution?

10.Key Partnerships – whom can we engage in the business process to make it more effective and efficient?

11. Cost Structure – how to manage the cost involved in the business process?

Source: Business Model Canvas

Tap into people’s instinctual nature As much as we try to be rational beings, humans are engineered to often be very irrational, especially when it comes to decision-making. A well-crafted research should be able to tap on the people’s instinctual nature; the gap between what they say and what they do, and their reaction to emotional or visceral experiences. Instead of collecting information through probing and conditioning, it is better for researchers in this case to closely observe the participants and let them take a more active role. By understanding people’s instinctual nature, we can better produce insights to create relevant experiences that people might not even be aware that they need it.

Prioritization

The holistic solution may comprise of a number of features which might not be delivered all at once. To extract the essence of the solution, features are prioritized by the severity of the issues that they are addressing. easy

30 - 60 evaluate minutes

Preparation: 1. For each feature of the solution, relate it back to the user needs as well as the business goals.

2. Identify trade-os and issues that determine the importance Cluster the features based on relevancy to the user needs and business goals. Use visual marks to distinguish the clusters.

3. Present the solution in the order of the most relevant features.

THE CASE FOR CREATIVITY Well-discovered insights are pivotal to creating solutions that are human-centered and add relevant values to people’s lives. However, in a highly cluttered world, great design output requires not only relevant solutions, but also ones that stand out from the crowd. Creativity thus becomes a strong dierentiator in design solutions, and it has the power to turn the logic gathered from insights into magic.

Creativity creates the wow factor, while user-centered insights enable us to design experiences that speak to people’s heart. However, There is a common belief that certain people possess a mystical creative thought process that puts them above others in their skills of producing creative and groundbreaking thought. However, recent researches have proven that creativity is a skill that can be nurtured and trained, thus a skill that can be accessed by everyone.

As creativity is essentially about creating solutions that are both novel/original and useful/appropriate, it takes several ingredients to whip tasty creative outputs.

Be divergent Many creative outputs lie in remote associations, or associations to a certain thing that seemed to be unrelated. To access remote associations, we have to allow divergent thinking exercises to take place during creative brainstorming.

The purpose of divergent exercises is to open up dierent associations/ directions to the challenge on hand. Divergent exercises are most useful during the initial phase of ideation, where concepts/ideas are still fuzzy and allows for wide exploration space.

Convergence turning the novel into useful & meaningful ideas Divergent exercises are useful to expand ideas into many dierent directions, but novelty alone is of little value if not useful. Converging exercises are aimed at synthesizing and making sense of ideas to make them more viable, feasible and relevant. While divergent exercises require more of experimental mindset, convergent exercises mostly utilize analytical mindset.

Managing brainstorm

Creative ideation process often involves significant time for brainstorming.

Two heads are better than one, they say. That is true, but two heads are also more complicated to manage than one. One of the biggest challenges in brainstorming is productivity blocking, where the group environment impacts how individuals behave in the group. Some can freeride, and some can overly dominate. Therefore, in a group brainstorming, there has to be a fair mix between individual and group exercises in order to get the best of both worlds.

Importance of incubation

Creative block is one of creativity’s biggest enemies, and there is no straightforward way to get out of it. When experiencing creative block, it’s not that we are unable to come up with ideas, but we have a very strong association with a certain concept/idea that it inhibits us to think of another idea! We call this phenomenon “fixation.”

When fixated, many of us tend to go on and try to solve the problem. What’s interesting is that our brain does not necessarily agree with that. Sometimes the best way to come up with an idea is by taking some time off thinking about the problem. This process is called incubation. You must encounter at time that you get unexpected ideas on unexpected times; while running, showering, or when you work on other projects. What you do here is actually giving time for your brain to reboot and make itself more flexible in wandering around the realms of associations.

Some incubation tips from our friends!

- Aya does High Impact Training in between work.

- Sulis put a waterproof note in the shower, just to keep all ideas documented.

- Laris use the Sleep Cycle App to make sure that she’s awake at the state where she can still remember all her dreams.

- Bayu likes to change his work environment every now and then.

What Would Chuck Norris Do

Imagining what would a certain public figure or famous brand do when exposed with the challenge.

easy

10 - 15 explore minutes

Preparation: 1. 1 min: each individual in the group has to identify their favorite public figure, dead or alive, fictional or real.

2. 5 mins: Come up with ideas on how the selected figure would solve the challenge. Try to swap figures with others!

3. 1 min: each individual in the group has to identify the brand they hate the most.

4. 5 mins: Come up with ideas on how the selected brands would solve the challenge. Try to swap brands with others!

be divergent

Ask Google Images

Exploring dierent associations to a certain stimuli based on google images search result.

easy

10 explore minutes

Preparation: 1. 3 min: in the group, do google image search using keywords related to the challenge.

2. 5 min: inspired by the images, each individual in the group should come up with ideas on how to solve the problem.

be divergent

Time Machine

Exploring alternative solutions based on what people on a certain time period might do when they are exposed with the problem.

easy

15 explore minutes

Preparation: 1. 5 min: Each individual in the group should come up with ideas/ assumptions on how people in a certain era in the past would approach the problem.

2. 3 min: Share ideas to the group, and add more ideas if applicable.

3. 5 min: Each individual in the group should come up with ideas/ assumptions on how people in far future would solve the problem.

4. 3 min: Share ideas to the group, and add more ideas if applicable.

be divergent

Tap into people’s instinctual nature As much as we try to be rational beings, humans are engineered to often be very irrational, especially when it comes to decision-making. A well-crafted research should be able to tap on the people’s instinctual nature; the gap between what they say and what they do, and their reaction to emotional or visceral experiences. Instead of collecting information through probing and conditioning, it is better for researchers in this case to closely observe the participants and let them take a more active role. By understanding people’s instinctual nature, we can better produce insights to create relevant experiences that people might not even be aware that they need it.

What if..

Imagining solutions to the problem by formulating a “what if…” question e.g. “what if our product is a TV network?” or “what if our service can be accessed by aliens?”

easy

20 explore minutes

Preparation: 1. 5 min: in a group, formulate 5 “what if..” questions.

2. 5 min: Individually, everyone comes up with ideas to answer the what if questions.

3. 10 min: In the group, discuss on how those ideas can be made more relevant to the problem at hand, by modifying some aspects of the ideas.

be divergent

Negative Brainstorm

A brainstorming technique where the group comes up with the worst ideas to solve the problem, and subsequently turn the bad ideas into good ideas.

easy

20 explore minutes

Preparation: 1. 5 mins: individually, think of the worst way to solve the problem.

2. 5 mins: in the group, think of some positive aspects of the bad ideas.

Remember, there is always a positive aspect of any ideas!

3. 10 mins: Individually, create new ideas, incorporating the positive aspects of the bad ideas.

be divergent

Forced Associations

Combine two ideas through by forcing connections between the ideas

easy

20 synthesis minutes explore

Preparation: 1. 10 mins: each individual chooses two or more ideas, and combine those ideas into a more coherent idea.

2. 10 mins: share the combination to the group, and look for patterns that allow for themes/clusters to emerge.

convergence

Power of 10

Reframing technique used for synthesizing ideas, by trying to consider the ideas at a varied magnitude of framing.

medium

20 synthesis minutes explore

Preparation: 1. 1 min: each individual selects one idea that they want to work on 2. 10 mins: in pairs, one individual challenges the idea that the other individual chose, using the power of 10 technique. The constraints should change the magnitude of the idea space e.g. “What if it’s a physical space?”, “How to complete the experience in one minute?

Two hours?”, “What if there’s no money involved?”

3. 10 mins: change turns

convergence Source: Stanford d.school bootleg

R.M.D.L

A way to harvest and cluster ideas based on categories that encourage the group to not narrow down too fast, and hang on to the ideas that might not seem so plausible, yet meaningful.

easy

20 synthesis minutes

Preparation: 1. 5 mins: cluster the ideas based on the four categories: rational, most meaningful, the darling, and the long shot 2. 15 mins: use dierent mixes of exercises to make the darling and the long shot more plausible (e.g. the power of ten or forced associations). Elaborate more on the rational and most meaningful using divergent exercises (e.g. negative brainstorm)

convergence Source: Stanford d.school bootleg

Weighting

A way of converging using set of parameters and scores to determine the overall appeal of the ideas.

easy

20 - 40 synthesis minutes

Preparation: 1. 10 mins: In group, define five of the most important parameters in assessing the successfulness of the project.

2. 5 - 20 mins: Each individual give score (1-10) to each ideas based on each parameters 3. 5 – 10 mins: Calculate the weighted score of all ideas. If there is more time to explore, kill the ideas that get highest and lowest score and refine the mid-score ideas.

convergence

Build

A brainstorming approach where ideas are built based on the previous ideas.

easy

10 - 30 explore minutes synthesis

Preparation: One individual in the group comes up with an idea, and the person next to him/her has to create a new idea inspired by the first idea, hence the “build.” Individuals within the group keep on building on each other’s ideas for 5 minutes. The group can repeat the cycle, building on new ideas, for as long as they want.

managing brainstorm

Tap into people’s instinctual nature As much as we try to be rational beings, humans are engineered to often be very irrational, especially when it comes to decision-making. A well-crafted research should be able to tap on the people’s instinctual nature; the gap between what they say and what they do, and their reaction to emotional or visceral experiences. Instead of collecting information through probing and conditioning, it is better for researchers in this case to closely observe the participants and let them take a more active role. By understanding people’s instinctual nature, we can better produce insights to create relevant experiences that people might not even be aware that they need it.

Brainwalking

The music chair of brainstorming, brainwalking utilizes the group’s collective association to the challenge in an individual ideation-setting.

easy

10 - 20 explore minutes

Preparation: 1. 1 mins: each individual has A3 paper and post-its in front of him/her.

Jot down all associations (words/concepts/perception) that you have on the challenge in a scattered way.

2. 3 mins: not moving the paper, each individual moves to the place of the person’s on his/her right, and think of ideas inspired by the associations written on the paper in front of him/her.

3. 10-15 mins: the session continues with each individual moving to his/ her right every 3 minutes until everyone arrives to his/her initial position.

managing brainstorm

BRAINSTORMING TIPS Defer judgment Stick on the time Put order in midst of chaos Document everything Encourage wild ideas Quantity than quality No hierarchies Have fun

EXAMPLE BRAINSTORM FOR IDEATION LIGHT MEAL

FEAST

2 mins 5 mins 3 mins 10 mins 10 mins

5 mins Warmups 30 mins Individual Divergent Exercises INCUBATION BREAK 10 mins Group Sharing 10 mins Group Divergent Exercises 10 mins Paired Power of 10 INCUBATION BREAK 10 mins Group Clustering 10 mins R.M.D.L and Voting

List down associations Individual Divergent Exercises Group Sharing Individual Divergent Exercises Clustering & Convergence in Group 5 mins Voting

approx. 30 mins

FULL MEAL 5 mins 5 mins 3 mins 10 mins

Assumption Dumption Individual Divergent Exercises Group Sharing Individual Divergent Exercises INCUBATION BREAK 15 mins Group Convergent Exercises 15 mins Share Ideas + Voting

approx. 60 mins

approx. 90 mins

Still Curious?

give us a shout! We will be happy to guide you through in more details on how you can make the most of the cookbook!

Contact us @ www.somiaconsulting.com

Somia Customer Experience is consultancy that helps companies create experiences that people love. We do this through discovering insights about the customers and delivering strategy and design that is relevant, usable, and delightful. Somia is based in Bali and Jakarta, Indonesia.Â

Big Smooches to these guys! through thick and thin, better or worse, they have contributed their parts in making this cookbook possible..

..and the talents captured by the camera: Angga, Laris, Aya, Kasimyn, Asakoo, Runi, Sisie, Nuti, Sanjana, Tirani, and Sulis