design ethnography

DESIGN ETHNO-GRAPHY FOR LEAN TEAMS

DESIGN ETHNO-GRAPHY FOR LEAN TEAMS

DESIGN ETHNO-GRAPHY FOR LEAN TEAMS

DESIGN ETHNO-GRAPHY FOR LEAN TEAMS

DESIGN ETHNO-GRAPHY FOR LEAN TEAMS

DESIGN ETHNO-GRAPHY FOR LEAN TEAMS

DESIGN ETHNO-GRAPHY FOR LEAN TEAMS

RULESRULESRULESRULESRULESRULESRULES

1. I talk really fast, get used to it2. Stop thinking and listen3. Live tweet if it helps you remember4. Write your questions down, ask them later

Wifi: User: Alley NYC Guest, PW: beawesome

Hashtag: #LeanUX

Drinking Game word: CONTEXT

Next meetup: Jabe Bloom presents "Lean Team Experience Design"

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“A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product

or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty.”

–ERIC REIS

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The most striking truth of this curve is thatzero users give zero insights

12

oInsights

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a lot

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The tendency to believe that everyone uses technology

exactly like you do.

Designing based on your own pain with no customer research

is like buying a lottery ticket.

Lean Startup (and LeanUX) is a risk mitigation strategy.

A DIRTY SECRETA DIRTY SECRETA DIRTY SECRETA DIRTY SECRETA DIRTY SECRETA DIRTY SECRETA DIRTY SECRET

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DON’T USEPROXIES

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Ethnography offers a way to make sense of this complexity. It lets us see beyond our preconceptions and immerse ourselves in the world of others. Most importantly, it allows us to see patterns of behavior in a real world context – patterns that we can

understand both rationally and intuitively.

“If you want to understand what motivates a girl to pick up a skateboard, you could bring her into a sterile laboratory and

interrogate her… or you could spend a week in a skatepark observing her interacting

with her friends, practicing new skills and having fun.”

+ETHNOGRAPHY

DESIGN

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DESIGN

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DESIGN

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LEAN ETHNOGRAPHY? LEAN ETHNOGRAPHY? LEAN ETHNOGRAPHY? LEAN ETHNOGRAPHY? LEAN ETHNOGRAPHY? LEAN ETHNOGRAPHY? LEAN ETHNOGRAPHY?

“We don’t see things as they are,we see them as we are.”

–ANAIS NIN

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WITHLEAN

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Most teams practicing Lean Startup don't start with a customer hypothesis; they work backwards from a solution hypothesis

Because teams start with a solution hypothesis, it's almost impossible

for them to generate multiple hypotheses for testing

If GOOB is not conducted in the appropriate context, it almost never yields useful behavioral data

GOOB relies far too heavily on self-reporting, which is almost useless.

GOOB, when done poorly, is particularly prone to confirmation bias

Most teams have a very hard time formulating assumptions as hypotheses

Designing reliable experiments is a skill that takes time to learn

People new to customer research are really bad at listening for weak signals

When a customer interview is guided, it almost never provides opportunity for serendipitous insights to emerge

WHY ETHNOGRAPHYWHY ETHNOGRAPHYWHY ETHNOGRAPHY

DESIGN RESEARCH

SYSTEMATIC APPROACH

DESIGN RESEARCH

SYSTEMATIC APPROACH

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SYSTEMATIC APPROACH

DESIGN RESEARCH

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DESIGN RESEARCH

SYSTEMATIC APPROACH

DESIGN RESEARCH

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DESIGNETHNOGRAPHYALLOWSUS TO

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1. Discover the semantics of living

2. Decode signifiers of cultural practice

3. Understand the language people use

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SELF-REPORTING MOSTLY SHIT

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EIGHTSTEPS INETHNOGRAPHICRESEARCH

EIGHTSTEPS INETHNOGRAPHICRESEARCH

EIGHTSTEPS INETHNOGRAPHICRESEARCH

EIGHTSTEPS INETHNOGRAPHICRESEARCH

EIGHTSTEPS INETHNOGRAPHICRESEARCH

EIGHTSTEPS INETHNOGRAPHICRESEARCH

EIGHTSTEPS INETHNOGRAPHICRESEARCH

1. Define your customer hypothesis

2. Identify the people and validate they exist

3. Plan your approach

4. Conduct Paired Research

#SHOEUPBITCHES

5. Become a "habit-farmer"

6. Search for Patterns & Themes

7. Co-Generate & Share Insights

8. Perform your narrative

KEYSTO GOODETHNOGRAPHY

KEYSTO GOODETHNOGRAPHY

KEYSTO GOODETHNOGRAPHY

KEYSTO GOODETHNOGRAPHY

KEYSTO GOODETHNOGRAPHY

KEYSTO GOODETHNOGRAPHY

KEYSTO GOODETHNOGRAPHY

Delve deeply into the context, lives, cultures, and rituals of a few people rather than study a

large number of people superficially.

Holistically study people’s behaviors and experiences in daily life. You

won't find this in a lab, focus group, or 5 minute interview on the street.

Learn to ask probing, open questions, gathering as much data as possible to

inform your understanding.

Practice “active seeing,” and “active listening.” Record every minutiae of

daily existence, and encode on post-its.

Use digital tools for asynchronous data gathering: tumblr, facebook, twitter, instagram

Use collaborative sense-making activities like the Cynefin framework and

affinity diagramming for active sensemaking.

Map the stories from insights back to the original problem.

Did it validate or invalidate the customer hypothesis?

NOW YOU CAN THINK ABOUT YOUR SOLUTION HYPOTHESIS

Did the new insights provide potentially richer opportunities to solve?

@SemanticWill

W I L L E V A N SDIRECTOR OF DESIGN

THANKSTHANKSTHANKSTHANKSTHANKSTHANKSTHANKS