Design Methodology: How To Empower New Product Strategy (Part 2)

Integrate Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and Agile Development for Strategy and Product Management Decisions

Design Thinking + Lean Startup + Agile Development

In Part 1 of this series, I made a case for using the function of Design as an extension of Strategy. Design can help Strategy by providing continuous, measurable feedback on the effects of its implementation.

In the previous article, we briefly examined what the “big” three methodologies — Design Thinking, Lean Startup and Agile Development — can do for your Strategy. We also reviewed Gartner’s attempt at integrating them into a single methodology and found some grey areas or gaps.

In my Design Methodology — The Lean Adaptive Product (“LeAP”) Method, I address all the requirements, gaps and challenges of integrating the three. It is tried, tested and refined from learnings through many iterations across diverse projects.

The LeAP Design Methodology

The Lean Adaptive Product Design Methodology integrates Design Thinking, Lean Startup and Agile Development on their core principles (test/measure and learn to improve), objectives (risk management/value optimisation) and mechanics (iteration cycles).

One paradigm flip brings it all together:

Do not make Design a part of the Development Cycle. Make Development a part of the Design Cycle.

The LeAP Method offers a few good things:

1. You maintain control and line of sight on strategic objectives through each iteration or Continuous Improvement cycle.
2. You have clear pathways for strategic decision-making based on specific measures.
3. You can create simple prototypes, tactical MVPs or full-blown products with the same method. You can run short, sharp cycles at the start and longer structured ones after launch.

You get Strategy input and all the benefits and strengths of Design Thinking, Lean Startup and Agile Development.

Let’s look at how this method informs your Strategy and decision-making. I won’t detail the steps or tools of Design Thinking, Lean Startup and Agile here. I’ll discuss these in Part 3 of this series. For now, let’s skip the steps till Measuring and Learning, which will open up decision pathways for you to take.

Market segments, their needs and expectations are dynamic. If you want to retain customers, grow and stay ahead of your competition, you must be adaptive.

Measure for Decision-Making

A strategy’s success depends on the market behaviours that it desires. The product’s objective is to help realise those desired behaviours. Testing your product with users should measure the likelihood of the desired behaviours happening.

Here is a suggestion of how to put it all together. It combines the Conversion/Persuasion Funnel with Behavioural Insights, Design and Assessments. This canvas is extremely helpful in strategy discussions. It will help you understand how the LeAP Method connects Needs to Design to Measures back to Strategy.

Persuasion Funnel

You will achieve your strategic objectives by pulling people within your target segment through a Persuasion Funnel. Your marketing communications and product experience should convince people to move on to the next stage of their user journey.

The Awareness you create should persuade your target to a Consideration of your product by evaluating and comparing it to other options. The assessment of your product should persuade them to Convert by Signing up, Purchasing or Subscribing.

Once they have converted, their experience must persuade them to use it regularly or Adopt it as their own. They should feel like giving it (and you) more of their time, money or effort (think ‘Customer Lifetime Value’). Regular use should please them enough to persuade them to share their experience and Advocate its use to others.

Behavioural Insights

The fulfilment of a need is why they want to engage with your product. Engagement and Persuasion are a process. At each stage, your target will have other related and more Situational Needs and Motivations.

For example, at the Awareness stage - What do they need to read or see to give your product their attention? What is their motivation to look for available options in the market? Is it out of necessity to find a better alternative to their current product? Or are they just motivated to be better informed than their peers?

Situational Needs and Motivations are cognitive and emotional. They are related to the decision-making about how their primary need is fulfilled.

Behavioural Design

Behavioural Design draws on B.J. Fogg’s Behavioural Model. Once you understand the need and the motivation, your product’s design should present the user with the Ability to fulfil that need and a Prompt that triggers action.

For example, at the Consideration stage, you may give them the Ability to compare your product’s features with competing brands and Prompt them with an offer of a free trial or a discounted subscription.

Behavioural Design provides a measurable way to achieve Behavioural Effects. It can also be used to change existing habits or develop new ones.

Behavioural Effects

The strategic objective of your product is to achieve market behaviours. The usage and experience of your product create measurable Behavioural Effects.

The information and feelings during Consideration will create an Expectation of what they’ll get during Conversion.

For example, suppose your product trial is delightful and easy to use. In that case, they’ll expect an Engagement during payment and subscription that offers the same — like an easy payment with Apple or Google Pay without the need to fill in card details and an introductory discount offer.

How well the Engagement meets their Expectation will create an emotional and cognitive Reaction. This Reaction will result in an Action, for example, an immediate subscription payment, add to basket but no payment, payment cancellation or no interest.

Measuring each effect and being aware of the limitations of your measure will give you the insight you need to decide your next move.

Behavioural Indicators

Behavioural Effects measures give you the breakdown of the Indicators your strategic objective translates into.

The Indicators are typically aggregated or consolidated measures, for example, the number of people with recall or accurate awareness of the product’s proposition among those adequately exposed to the messaging. You can then relate this measure to an external benchmark, like typical exposure frequency and reach per recall for the industry/product type, or to an internal objective, like a target number of people with awareness to be achieved following a communication campaign.

Learn and Decide

The whole point of the LeAP method is to make effective decisions. Analysing and interpreting the data from testing and research must help you decide what to do next.

You’ll need your analyst, design leader, design researcher and methodology expert to make sense of the data and inform your decisions. You’ll also need your product development manager and technical lead to estimate time, cost and resource requirements for what you decide to do next.

What you decide to do will fall into the following broad categories:

REFINE

If research shows that your product has the overall impact you’re after, the idea does not need rethinking. A design is rarely perfect in its first iteration. Assuming all the technical bugs are taken care of during the build phase, there might still be optimisations you need to make.

Here’s an example of Design Refinement. Ideally, it shouldn’t take years and added features to realise that users want to see their inbox first. Regardless, users are more likely to appreciate the Refinement.

Refinements don’t change the essence of the requirement but enhance how they are fulfilled. Even if your product’s behavioural effects surpass your expectations, there will be refinements that can expand the set of satisfied users. More happy users generally mean more retained users and more advocacy/free marketing.

If your product underperforms on behavioural measures, how much and how it fails will make you do one of the following.

AUGMENT

Augmentation is not only for addressing underperformance. It’s central to the product’s continuous improvement.

If it measures up, the product is ready to release. With each release cycle, you add to the product’s strategic coverage. You’ll need to be wise with augmentations. Be wary of Feature Bloat.

Here’s an example of Augmentation. Additional capabilities make the product more useful. Perhaps they didn’t have to worry too much about competitive alternatives early on. This is more of a long overdue improvement on their product, which many users will appreciate.

If your product fails to achieve the desired effect but not by too much, consider Augmentation. If the need or requirement has stayed the same, but the expectations of how it’s met still need to be fulfilled, you need to enhance your product.

Ideate further or prioritise differently to ensure the user gets their expected return from using the product.

ADAPT

Adaptation is needed when there is substantive underperformance. If the user problem is not what you thought it was, you must rethink it. You will know this if the proportion of users that connect with the proposition is unexpectedly low or if the connection is weak.

You must redefine the customer problem if you haven’t misunderstood the user but perhaps how they associate with the need.

Here’s an example of how a banking or payment service can be adapted to become a personal finance management superapp. The need to manage your bank account is related to the need to manage all your money. Users will have a stronger connection with the latter need, but it’s a strategic shift (and commitment) for a Bank to offer a superapp along with their account.

Most needs are affected by others. Sometimes, adapting your product is about redefining the customer problem by rearranging the needs it addresses. Other times, a consumer need is an overt expression of another hidden pain or desire.

REPOSITION

You’re less likely to have to reposition your product if any of the above steps work. Repositioning is needed when the target segment is still lucrative, but your proposition isn’t viable.

You’ll need to reposition if you’ve misunderstood the segment or if some new product has shifted the consumption patterns. The latter is rare, but it happens. In either case, you have to approach the consumer with a different proposition.

See how Spotify repositioned itself from music streaming to offering and recommending original audio content like podcasts. They are still targeting a similar audience (maybe more of a subset of the music listener segment) with a different proposition, which requires them to engage with a different segment of content creators than musicians and labels.

Repositioning your product to address a new set of needs will have budgetary and operational implications. Do some more research before committing.

PIVOT

In common parlance, Repositioning and Pivot may be conflated. I look at it differently. To me, a Pivot is a seismic event. It is needed if the segment is no longer viable, even if you adapt or reposition. A Pivot is when you shift your focus to a different target segment and start over.

See how an online fundraising business called The Point pivoted to a coupon/daily deal business called Groupon. It was quite a leap of faith, though it was anchored in a different application of the same Intellectual Property.

You could reuse some of your investments or innovations with a new market segment. You will, however, need to revise your investment plans and returns. You might also need to persuade new stakeholders and pacify old ones.

Conclusion

The LeAP Design Methodology offers a proper integration of Design Thinking, Lean Startup and Agile Development. It provides the best way to get the benefits of all three in one repeatable, customisable and extendable process.

The Behaviour Canvas presents all the critical information you’ll need to make the right decisions, but you can use a different tool that better suits your business.

If you plan how you will measure, learn and decide from the beginning, you’ll have put yourself in the best position to succeed. Even in a worst-case scenario with no possibility of success, this method will tell you when you need to Pivot or cut your losses.

What are your thoughts, reactions or criticisms of this method? I sincerely want to know. If you wish to apply this method, I’d happily share more information and tools.

Part 3 of this article will discuss the steps involved in more detail.