» Understanding cultural lenses is a must when working across geographical teams
» Financially viable products must earn back multiple times their ongoing costs
» AI may help to solve (or exacerbate) long-standing operating problems
» With digital transformation largely ‘done’ in UK public sector, the next challenge is coherence
» Thinking purely in problems to solve can limit you
» The words you use to describe your proposition are really a test of how well you know your target users’ needs
» Find ways to ‘tilt the umbrella’: small considerate features for your users
» A prototype expresses a product concept far better and quicker than a product requirements document (PRD)
» People good at doing a thing themselves are not always good at building a system to do it
» Work is craft: theoretical knowledge and practical experience combined
» The uncertainty of a problem should influence how we respond to it
» Misdiagnosis of a problem can compound it
» We frame our solutions through the lens of our social predisposition
» Wicked problems can only be addressed by collaboration between different social types
» Take a systematic approach to evaluating multiple solutions to the same opportunity
» ‘Assumption’ is just another word for ‘things we believe’
» When there are many opportunities in contention, assess whether it’s worth solving the problem
» We tend to come up with solutions before defining the problem they solve
» Discovery is about understanding the problem space experienced by people
» When on a tight budget for discovery, mitigate bias where possible and document all the biases you see
» A relaxed participant will open up and be more honest with you
» A discovery can prompt one or more possible solutions, or tell you the problem is not worth pursuing
At best, organisations do a bit of user research up front and no more, then set off on their journey to create the product – they might as well have a blindfold on.
The more closely we examined the problem, the more complicated it became. When this happens to you, it can feel overwhelming. Don’t quit your research too soon.
“Are you seeing any key trends from the user perspective that companies need to be thinking about at the aggregate level?”
I was recently asked this question:
During the problem exploration phase, what kinds of questions should I be asking and how do I go from 1000 problems to the core problems that will unlock the solution?
Read on for my answer:
