How to Successfully Identify Problems Worth Solving

A comparison of Design sprints, Surveys, and Alignment diagram.

Product design is continuous experimentation. Design techniques evolve to supports the goals and objectives of the economic systems they find themselves within. The methods, such as design sprint, alignment diagrams, and product research, share some objectives. However, when put into comparison, the three design techniques have a relatively different context, audience, and outcome.

The rise of digital products is changing the way we communicate and consume information. Hundreds of new apps released to the virtual world every single day! Therefore speed-to-market and aligning our resources behind the right ideas are the most significant challenge product teams face today.

Design sprint, for example, is an accelerated design process that optimizes team chances to deliver a valuable product quickly. Moreover, a design sprint is a collaborative five phases process that lasts for one week. The phases are: Understand, Diverge, Converge, Prototype, and Test. As the team progresses each step, members will gain the vision and values of the problem they are trying to solve. Finally, in only five days, the team can build an entire prototype and validate its assumptions against potential customer's feedback.

“Building a digital product is relatively cheap and quick. But building the right product to win in the marketplace is as hard and grueling as ever. This is because the key components to digital products are not pixels and code, but rather people, time, and process. And people are always going to be complicated”. (Banfield et al. 2015)

Indeed, there are more reasons to think that design sprint is useful as Banfield et al. (2015) states in his ‘Design Sprint,’ product hypothesis and assumptions can be validated or invalidated when a user interacts with a mockup. Mainly when a user interacts with a prototype, he gives natural and honest feedback. It can be a smile alone or an uncertain facial expression. We can interpret the user feedbacks as indicators. In some circumstances, they will flash a red flag and guide us to stop and validate our design. In other words, they will turn green, reinforce us to move forward with our plan. That is to say, feedback will determine the success or failure designs.

“Your users (or customers) are the ones who will give you the best feedback possible. This is where you get to see their pupils dilate, their smiles widen, and voices rise in reaction to your prototype. It is also when you can be greatly disappointed”. (Banfield et al. 2015: Chapter 9)

Even more, Banfield et al. (2015) states in his ‘Design Sprint,’ that easy access to design sprint can lead a diverse team into a high-performance and flow-bonded aligned team.

Different people perceive the same thing differently because of varying conditioning of their minds. As we challenged a group of people with a problem they should solve together, it will make the participant bond with each other. Also, the design sprint is time-limited; as a result, productivity increases, and individuals enforced to break their routine and permanent habits to imagine alternatives. In conclusion, speed and collaboration are the critical success factors of the design sprint.

“A design sprint is a highly collaborative process designed to enable each participant’s voice to be heard. Structured individual work, planned group discussions, and a clear diverge and converge process will guide a team to get on the same page around the artifacts it produces together.” (Banfield et al. 2015: Chapter 2)

Some may think that design sprint is a good fit only for startups, however, Banfield et al. (2015) states in his ‘Design Sprint,’ that design sprint is not only for startups. It is an excellent tool for teams who understand the importance of rapid iterations.

While startups are notoriously fast-moving environments that value speed to market over almost everything else, enterprises have well-established processes and continuously search for ways to accelerate their product design and development. In short, both startups and enterprises may gain to embed design sprint, a cost-effective process, which will accelerate the product design cycle. Richard Banfield bases his theory on the fact that technology is rapidly growing, and speed-to-market is crucial to all industries. (Banfield et al. 2015)

“A flexible product design framework that serves to maximize the chances of making something people want. It is an intense effort conducted by a small team where the results will set the direction for a product or service.” (Banfield et al. 2015: Chapter 1)

In that manner, Tomer Sharon (2016) has some compelling argument in his ‘Validating Product Ideas’; what makes a product successful? This question is especially crucial during today’s tumultuous technology growth.

The world these days is overflowing with new ideas, and It is difficult even to identify which problems are crucial for solving. That is why most organizations develop products nobody needs and do not solve a real problem, or even worse; these products solve problems users do not care enough about (Sharon 2016). However, we can validate product ideas with a user research technique. Any question we might ask during a product development phase will get an answer. When we perform product research correctly, it may identify problems worth solving. Even more, when we observe human behavior and ask the right questions, we uncover human's specific pain. In conclusion, when we discover real human pain, finally, a problem worth solving is identified.

“Usability of a product, or whether its audience can use it effectively and efficiently with high satisfaction is a critical quality attribute. That said, far too many startup founders and product managers choose not to answer this question with user research. They consider themselves to be the representative users, and consequently, feel they can intuitively identify and fix usability issues”. (Sharon. 2016: Chapter 7)

Moreover, what will happen if we ask the wrong questions? or ask the right questions, but not at the right time? As Sharon (2016) states in his ‘Validating Product Ideas,’ a lack of basic customer knowledge can cause a closure of the business.

To demonstrate, a study conducted by over two hundred project manager and entrepreneurs show a dramatic result. In this study, surveyed participants were asked (Figure 1) to state the questions; they ask themselves while validates an idea or a problem. Research showed that most of the questionnaires did contain the right questions and the correct order. However, answers uncovered a different concern; most of the responses were invalid, unreliable, and biased. Therefore, we cannot conclude from those questionnaires.

Figure 1: The top questions product development practitioners, startup founders, and venture capitalists ask themselves. (Tomer Sharon: Validating Product Ideas, 2016)

Next, what do people need?

As Tomer Sharon (2016) states in his ‘Validating Product Ideas,’ this question is the most critical question we should ask while we build a new product or service.

The business aspect of this question is evident; we should intend to build products to meet people’s needs. Nevertheless, there is another motivation to ask this question; it is an ethical principle. To explain; all those project managers and entrepreneurs whose job is to create new products and services, they are responsible for the investor’s money or people savings. Also, they are responsible for the entire team’s reputation. In other words, they must ask the right questions.

“What do people need? is a critical question to ask when you build products. Wasting your life’s savings and your investors’ money, risking your reputation, making false promises to employees and potential partners, and trashing months of work you can never get back is a shame”. (Sharon. 2016: Chapter 2)

Next, our ability to understand people and their needs is crucial to validate whether people will want to use our product. (Sharon, 2016)

Tomer Sharon (2016) states in his ‘Validating Product Ideas’; that it is essential to develop empathy towards our participants’ study if we want to gain research credibility. To clarify, to build empathy is not merely to participate in the same event, as other people have involved. Empathy is the ability to learn from the other about his needs, his behavior, and his particular difficulties. Hence when we learn, we advance to solve actual and critical problems through a product or service.

“The question “Do people want the product?” is important for understanding and learning about the state of mind of your target audience after it is exposed to the product or some kind of communication about it. Answering this question is key to making you more aware of the current pain points of your audience”. (Sharon. 2016: Chapter 6)

Similarly, James Kalbach has some interesting theories about; why companies build a product that nobody needs. (Kalbach, 2016)

There is a problem with syncing the customer experience across the organization. As Kalbach (2016) states in his ‘Mapping Experience,’ the lack of synchronization is why some of the companies are busy developing products with no market need. Moreover, it seems that teams and their solutions have tended to be shortsighted. That is to say, discussions increasingly focus on technology, opposite to focus on the customer experience. It is common to see how slightly large companies know about their actual customer experience.

“It’s not just a matter of money. I’ve worked with plenty of companies that simply avoid in-depth investigations of the customer experience. Uncovering deep emotional connections to products and services is a messy endeavor. Instead, they focus on things like operational efficiency and short-term gains”. (James Kalbach. 2016: Chapter 5)

Next, how can empathy solve the lack of synchronization?

Empathy is an awareness of the feelings and emotions of other people. Alignment diagrams are a tool to develop this empathy. (Kalbach 2016)

Alignment diagrams such as service blueprint (Figure 2) shed some light on the actual business conditions, and the consumer journey, by doing so, it increases awareness and develops empathy across the organization.

Figure 2: An example of a service blueprint for a conference attendee. (James Kalbach: Mapping Experience, 2016)

However, spreading the customer journey is not enough. Members of the organization should thoroughly care about their customer's perspectives and experiences. Altogether, members should first develop customer empathy and then share it with their colleagues.

“Alignment diagrams serve as a shared reference, helping to build consensus. In this sense, alignment diagrams are strategic tools: they influence decision making at all levels and lead to consistency in actions.” (James Kalbach. 2016: Chapter 1)

Alignment diagrams are not the goal; it is only the means to achieve the desired result. (Kalbach, 2016)

In brief, an alignment diagram is a stage to discuss and reflect. Visualize the customer journey, and its touch-points is a method to increase focus and to provide consistency among decision-makers. Furthermore, consistent customer experience is essential for any product or service, and it is a principle of interaction design.

To conclude, alignment diagrams have many potential benefits. These include; reduce service complexity, and discover business opportunities. However, the meaning of a successful process goes with the ability to share and engage it with others.

“Alignment diagrams are no panacea. They do not provide immediate answers outright. Instead, they are compelling visualizations that draw others into important conversations about creating value. Your ultimate goal is creating an inclusive dialog within the organization, not creating the diagram itself”. (James Kalbach. 2016: Chapter 2)

The digital era is known for its significant trend of disruptions by technology.

Organizations are frequently confronted with new challenges, encourage their employee’s creativity in fear of not to be left behind. Furthermore, the necessity to save money and resource continuously rise, which lead organizations to stretch their imagination and eliminate boundaries.

Techniques like Design-sprint, Surveys, and Alignment-diagrams can bring people closer, discuss the problems, and share their knowledge across the organization. As a result, this will encourage a customer-centered design and will better guide us to solve actual and critical human problems. Sooner or later, we can expect the rise of new methods and processes, which will help us solve our modern consumer and organizational issues.

Let’s better design products that drive the change. We need to redesign the design process.

Reference

Banfield, R., Lombardo, T., Wax, T. (2015) Design Sprint. O’Reilly Media, Inc. Available at: https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/design-sprint/9781491923160/ [Accessed 5 July 2018]

Kalbach, J. (2016) Mapping Experience. O’Reilly Media, Inc. Available at: https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/mapping-experiences/9781491923528/ [Accessed 1 June 2018]

Sharon, T. (2016) Validating Product Ideas. Rosenfeld Media. Available at: https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/validating-product-ideas/9781457190803/ [Accessed 2 July 2018]