There was a time (I’m told) when the content that publishers created, libraries purchased, and researchers read fit into neat and predefined packages. These packages -- widgets, we’ll call them, although we might also call them books or journals -- came with a clear set of expectations regarding how they would work and how they might be sold. This common set of expectations made it relatively easy for all parties: publishers and authors could focus on making the content within the widget as good as it could possibly be; librarians and researchers would choose between these widgets based on their needs. But the days of this clarity are fading, if they haven’t already passed. The scholarly communication ecosystem is changing rapidly: how to keep up when the rules keep changing? JSTOR’s approach has been to adopt many of the tools and techniques of the capital-D disruptors in order to rise to the challenge they represent, while creating services that are more aligned with our users’ needs and our mission. Among these techniques are the adoption of new methodologies geared at discovering and building the best products possible. Design thinking and lean startup methodologies have helped us to get away from “merely” producing widgets and instead create new kinds of products and services. In this presentation, I’ll describe how JSTOR Labs, an experimental platform developmental team at JSTOR, uses design thinking to find new ways to provide value to our partners and users. I’ll explain how we combine user research with rapid, iterative development to create new kinds of user experiences, quickly.

1. GETTING AWAY
FROM WIDGETS
DESIGN THINKING
AS A SURVIVAL TOOL
@abhumphreys
Alex Humphreys, JSTOR Labs
NISO Webinar: Creating the New Information Product
March 15, 2017

2. ITHAKA is a not-for-profit organization that helps the academic
community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record
and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit
digital library of academic
journals, books, and
primary sources.
Ithaka S+R is a not-for-profit
research and consulting
service that helps academic,
cultural, and publishing
communities thrive in the
digital environment.
Portico is a not-for-profit
preservation service for
digital publications, including
electronic journals, books,
and historical collections.
Artstor provides 2+ million
high-quality images and
digital asset management
software to enhance
scholarship and teaching.

3. JSTOR Labs works with partner publishers, libraries and
labs to create tools for researchers, teachers and students
that are immediately useful – and a little bit magical.

4. THE TROUBLE
WITH WIDGETS

5. The word widget is a placeholder
name for an object or, more
specifically, a mechanical or other
manufactured device. It is an abstract
unit of production.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widget_(economics)

6. WIDGETS
OF CONTENT
• Neat, pre-defined packages of content
ex. books, journals
• Publishers competed and
libraries/users selected based on what
was IN packages
• But it’s not so easy any more…

8. Great
articles!

9. Great
articles!
The contents
of the
containers
are still
important!

10. Great
articles!
But pay
attention here
too, now:
Article
Processing
Charges

11. Great
articles!
And here:
The Big
Deal

12. YOU’RE NOT THE
ONES SETTING
YOUR USERS’
EXPECTATIONS

13. THESE
MAMMOTHS
AREN’T *JUST*
SETTING USERS’
EXPECTATIONS

14. WHAT’S A
[YOUR NAME HERE]
TO DO?

15. HORIZONS OF INNOVATION
Horizon 1 Horizons 2 & 3
• Horizon 1 = core business
• Innovation usually seeks
operational efficiencies
• You know the market, the
product, etc.
• You can make reasonable
predictions about both
cost to develop and how
market will react
• Horizons 2 & 3 = new
products, new markets &
new businesses
• “If you build it, they will
come.”
• You don’t even know
what “it” is
• Or who “they” are
Horizons framework:
http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/enduring-ideas-the-three-horizons-of-growth
http://blog.hypeinnovation.com/using-the-three-horizons-framework-for-innovation

16. Q: If H2 and H3 are so uncertain,
how do you find your way to a
sustainable new product or business?
The Design Squiggle, by Damien Newman:
http://cargocollective.com/central/The-Design-Squiggle/

17. A: Lots of short iterations + lots of
user feedback = speeding up the
learning cycle
Innovation isn’t one big “Eureka,”
it’s a thousand little ones.

18. REIMAGINING THE
MONOGRAPH
Can we improve the experience
and value of long-form
scholarship?
Aug-Sep: User Research
Oct: Workshop
Nov: Build Prototype
Dec: Release Paper/Prototype

19. USER RESEARCH

20. WORKSHOP

21. PROTOTYPING

22. labs.jstor.org/topicgraph
TOPICGRAPH
Understand at a glance the topics covered in a book.
Jump straight to pages about topics you’re researching.

23. REIMAGINING THE MONOGRAPH
White paper describing the project, process and principles released as a
draft for comment
labs.jstor.org/monograph

24. www.jstor.org/analyze
AND ONE FOR GOOD MEASURE:
Text Analyzer:
Use your own document to search for articles and books.

25. Thank you
Alex Humphreys
Director, JSTOR Labs
ITHAKA
http://labs.jstor.org
@abhumphreys
alex.humphreys@ithaka.org
Further Reading
• The Lean Startup, Eric Ries
• Business Model Generation & Value
Proposition Design,
Osterwalder et al.
• Marty Cagan’s Blog: svpg.com/articles
• Running Lean & Scaling Lean, Ash
Maurya
• Sprint, Knapp, Zeratsky, & Kowitz

26. APPENDIX
(OPEN IN CASE OF NO
INTERNET CONNECTION)