Catalyz - An Innovation and Design Research Firm

"The New UX Is About Making Movies, Not Moments" "The next frontier isn't about perfecting individual screens or workflows — it's about?orchestrating complete customer journeys?that span months, channels, and technologies" I was reading through a thought provoking article about the future of UX that Jeroen Bet just shared and these two quotes caught my eye. Amidst the turmoil present today in the UX/Innovation/Insights field, I continue to see sparks of hope for a path forward- reframing research from designing moments to designing cohesive journeys, and helping teams think bigger about strategic opportunities and new territories. We have been seeing this with teams lately- one of the challenges leaders frequently bring to us is a request to "help my team think bigger". Rather than starting with "How Might We" questions focused on improving customer journeys, we have been facilitating "Think Big" workshops where we start by asking bold, provocative "what if" questions that go beyond existing products and experiences and imagine completely new strategic territories. Curious what others think- what do the next few years hold for design research and strategy?

Does your team have "use it or lose it" budget remaining for 2024 for training, team development or strategy/research support? Catalyz has had a number of people reach out asking if they can "pre-book" us for 2025 while using their remaining 2024 budget- the answer is YES! If your team could use support in any of the following for next year, drop me a DM to discuss how we might be able to help! 1) Building team skills in human-centered design, problem framing, 21st century leadership, and effective team collaboration and communication 2) Support in facilitating team strategy workshops, leadership offsites or roadmap planning sessions 3) Support in conducting user research/developing personas, or support in facilitating design sprints to help your team think bigger and develop customer-centric concepts for your upcoming roadmap

A few years ago, Catalyz developed a toolkit for leaders of organizations going through mergers or developing new partnerships. We've been sharing some of these tools lately, and have realized they are often just as useful for new leadership teams who are trying to establish their culture, ways of working and team rituals. A few tools that have been resonating lately include: Know your Culture: Use the Schein culture pyramid to identify your teams core beliefs, values, and artifacts that bring the first two to life Team Friction Diagnostic: A diagnostic tool for assessing where two teams that are partnering are experiencing friction or have conflicting approaches What is our approach to decision making?: Discuss 4 distinct types of decision making and which ones are appropriate for different types of decisions that your team is responsible for Where do we standardize/Centralize vs stay unique? For global teams, or merging teams, there are likely some processes, rituals or ways of working that should be standard across all teams. However, there are also likely to be unique rituals that teams have developed that uniquely serve their staff/customers for a particular region or role that are key to their culture- these should be identified and retained if possible. Link to toolkit in the comments! And if your team is looking for facilitation support around any of these tools or topics, drop me a line to discuss!

One of the topics that has been coming up with clients lately is the importance of focusing on both "Mysteries" AND "Puzzles" when it comes to setting strategy. Puzzles are what we define as "known" problems to solve- there is a clear and known customer problem or need (sign-up experience is broken, or experience needs to be faster, etc) and there is also likely a known solution/approach to solving them. This doesn't necessarily mean they are easy problems to solve, but your team probably knows what they need to do to begin executing on them. As illustrated in Dev's great article below, these are often the easy problems for executive teams to focus and spend time on. However, solving these puzzles are rarely the key to unlocking the next chapter of growth. Instead, these future strategy questions often start as "mysteries"- unknown, or non-obvious opportunities, with no single clear or obvious solution for how to approach it. Solving mysteries requires a very different approach that likely involves lots of counter-intuitive thinking, questioning core assumptions, and co-creating with your customers. In the case of Netflix that Dev uses, it required them to challenge and blow up their core business model of DVDs through the mail, to see the opportunity around the corner for streaming content platforms. What is your leadership team doing to balance solving the "Puzzles" of today with exploring the "Mysteries" of tomorrow?

This year Catalyz has been working with a number of leadership teams to help design and facilitate more effective strategy sessions/leadership offsites/quarterly business reviews. One of the recurring challenges that teams bring to us is around decision making- teams often have a tendency to "violently agree" with each other, in which someone makes a proposal, and then everyone else spends 15 minutes saying why they agree with that decision. (sound familiar?). Not only does this eat up valuable time, but amidst everyone making sure their voice is heard, teams often struggle to remember the original decision that was suggested. In previous posts I have introduced the "Decider Protocol" as a shared tool teams can use to get to decisions more quickly, but recently discovered a similar tool that allows for a bit more nuance- its called "Fist to Five". When someone proposes a decision, everyone else holds up from 1-5 fingers that represent the degree to which they support (or are opposed) to the decision. This allows the team to focus on hearing from anyone who voted a "1" or a "2" (opposed) to understand their concerns or objections. In another scenario, if you notice that your entire team has voted "3" (middle of the road, not enthusiastic but will go along), this might also be an indicator that your decision has lukewarm support and is likely to encounter opposition later. In this case, taking the time to understand what it would take to get people to a "4" or "5" may be worth additional time. Finally, if all of the votes are a "4" or a "5", there is no need to continue discussing the proposal- document it and move on to the next topic! Interested in more tips on effective facilitation and team/leadership development? Follow me here or schedule a connect to learn how we can help your team! https://lnkd.in/gmJStnHn

Are you talking to your customers wrong? (Or are you talking to them at all?) Here is a helpful article for Product teams who are looking to roll up their sleeves and conduct customer research. A few headlined tips include: 1. Be intentional about WHO you are talking to. While "friends and family" research can be quick and scrappy, you run the risk of interviewing people in your network who are more likely to be similar to you or share your perspective/biases. As Judd mentions in the article, if you are a bank CEO chatting with friends at your BBQ, they are more likely to be high net work individuals than your typical bank customers, and thus likely have a very different experience and perspective. Consider looking for Reddit forums, facebook groups, or other places where your target customers gather and talk unfiltered, and try to recruit from there. 2. Avoid the trap of confirmation bias by actively listening for what customer's don't like/appreciate about your solutions, listen for whats not being said, and approaching research with a set of assumptions/questions that you are looking to answer, rather than hypotheses you want to confirm. (Side note and shameless plug- the Know/Assume/Question exercise that Catalyz uses can be a great way to identify these questions and assumptions prior to research). 3. Listen for insights, examples of existing behavior, and dig into understanding the "why" behind responses. Coming back with a list of pain points to fix is usually not as helpful as understanding the motivations/desired jobs to be done that your customers have. A pain point to solve might give you one backlog item to work on, while a deep insight around what is driving their motivation/behavior might unlock an entirely new product opportunity. One tangible framework we often use during synthesis is to break out research themes into 2 columns: "What we heard" and "What it might mean for our brand/product". The first is a chance to capture verbatim the themes or quotes you heard from customers, while the 2nd lets your team put on your synthesis hats and look for the meaning/opportunities that customers might be feeling but not know how to articulate. Interviewing customers is hard, but incredibly rewarding! At Catalyz, we believe in the power of products teams directly engaging with customers- as design strategists we often work side by side with teams to help them design good research protocols and discussion guides, conduct interviews and make sense of the synthesis afterwards. Because at the end of the day, what we've observed is that an insight from a slide deck someone presented tends to be internalized less and resonate less deeply than an insight you were a part of creating.

Is your team experiencing changes? (Better question: Is any team NOT experiencing rapid/significant change these days?) Do you find yourself or the team members you support struggling to articulate exactly WHY the change feels significant, scary or undesirable? One of Catalyz's favorite phrases when talking with leaders guiding their teams through change is that "People don't fear change, they fear loss". By identifying the specific type of loss people may be experiencing, it becomes easier to diagnose and brainstorm next steps. These might include brainstorming ways to mitigate the loss (see example below) or if its not something that can be easily replaced, making time and space to grieve and process. I once had a team member who expressed anxiety when our team stopped reporting to an SVP as our reporting structure was evolving. In our 1:1, the team member shared that they had really valued the perspective and context they received from our bi-weekly standups with the SVP- these had helped to provide confidence we were working on the right things and up to date on organizational contexts or shifts. Once we had named the specific "loss" he was feeling, we were able to brainstorm other ways our team might be able to gain organizational context and updates. Another example came when Catalyz was researching mergers in the non-profit space. We saw over and and over the example of smaller agencies merging with a larger organization, and the leaders from the smaller agency dealing with a loss of visibility, authority and control that came with shifting from being a 25 person organization to a part of a 1000 person organization. NOBL has a great post articulating 5 unique types of loss people may feel during a change: Loss of Control Loss of Pride Loss of Familiarity and Expertise Loss of Narrative Loss of Time Have you experienced any of these? Have you checked in your team lately on whether they are experience any losses in your current change efforts? Later this week we'll share a template/activity we often use to help communicate changes to a team through this lens- stay tuned!

Smart leaders at excellent companies are focusing on the wrong things every day. Fixing the Now is fine. But not at the expense of creating the Next. Whether it’s because they need to hit performance targets or please stakeholders quickly, leaders tend to focus on solutions to immediate growth problems and ignore the long-term. And as they solve them, they feel like they’re nailing it. But in hindsight, they were really just rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. In my latest Forbes article, I talk about the importance of companies and teams setting aside adequate time to focus on the scary challenges that the future holds. Our brains are wired to solve the easier problems right in front of us. That’s why it takes discipline and self-questioning to continue thinking about the future and how to solve the problems that aren’t right at our feet yet. Even when the challenges of the future are daunting and we have no idea what the answers might be, it’s essential we try to tackle them now to prevent our future selves from being blindsided. https://lnkd.in/gUpp78AH

Why is it important to surround yourself with people that challenge you? 1?? They’ll speak truths others only say behind your back 2?? They force you to grow *quickly* Check out this email string from Peter Thiel to Mark Zuckerberg at the end of 2019/beginning of 2020. Thiel pushes Mark to remember he is the spokesman for Millennials, that Meta’s messaging needs to have a “Millennial-tilt”, Mark’s commencement speech at Harvard was a missed opportunity, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is a “me too” version of the Gates Foundation, and Mark is the only Millennial on Meta’s Board. Damn! A few things Mark’s done since this email: ?? Added Millennials Drew Houston (Dropbox CEO) and Tony Xu (DoorDash CEO and Millennial) to Meta’s Board ?? Began training and competing in jiu jitsu ?? Became a regular ring-side attendee at UFC main events ?? Wakesurfed in a tuxedo while drinking a beer and holding an American flag on 4th of July I used to view Mark as a Harvard elite that was more robot than human. Now? I want to have a beer with him!

Looking for ways to help your meetings become more efficient and effective?Sharing a tool that I've been introducing to a number of teams lately- the Decider protocol. #Facilitation #MeetingDesign #Leadership #Communication