My talk from EuroIA 2012 in Rome. Turning yourself into a human-centered design coach. Shifting from traditional design consultancy to design coaching requires new skills. In this talk, we share some tips & tricks and best practices on coaching clients in human-centered design: * Managing expectations from the start – have a clear understanding on what can be expected from both parties. * Knowing the coached team (and its organization) well before you start. * Organizing design trainings at the start of the project – these will also give the coached team an understanding of what is going to happen. * Finding a good balance between having the people you coach do the actual work, and doing parts of the work yourself. Not all techniques are equal: some are easier to pass on than others. * Working with example deliverables from other projects and ready-to-use templates, to make it easier for the coached team to put a technique into practice and get good results quickly. * Building consensus in the team you are coaching, and avoid getting caught into one of the camps in the team. By sharing some of our experiences, hopefully we can help you become a better design coach.

1. Turning yourself into a HCD coach
euroIA 2012, Rome
Koen Peters
(kp@namahn.com)

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Human-centered design of digital products and services – based in Brussels

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Spirit of sharing

4. Coaching in
human-centered design
Why not offer this as a service?

5. So this will cost Hey, piece of cake…
us less money… they’ll do the bulk of
the work…

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How is it different?
Multiple goals
Deliver a (design) solution + teach coached team how
Raise awareness in the organisation
Process…

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Smaller steps, more iterations

8. It becomes personal!

9. What have I learned?
(HCD coaching best practices)

10. # 1 Educate your sales team, know the “why”
# 2 Make sure there is a match
# 3 Know your coachee and client well
# 4 Start with a reading list and a training on HCD
# 5 Participate in the field study
# 6 Don’t do all the work yourself, delegate
# 7 Communicate, promote, be visible
# 8 Bring along the right tools
# 9 Use 5 winning HCD techniques
# 10 Be a project manager and diplomat

11. #1
Educate your sales team,
know the “why”

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#2
Make sure there is a match

14. Use senior staff for
HCD coaching
Grey hair

15. #3
Know your coachee and client
well before you start

16. Human-centered
HCD
Design

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empathic
user-focused
business knowledge
basic design skills
team player
…
The coachee

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The organisation

19. #4
Start with a reading list and
a one-day training on HCD

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Reading list
Go for the basics, good starters

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Why this training?
Allows the coach to get to know the coached
team better, and create a common language
You are taking the client on a journey with a
beginning and end
The “must do” training topics
Human-centered
Field study – user interviews
Personas
Design skills
Storytelling (and storyboarding)
Ideation
Conceptual design – prototyping

22. #5
Get to know the business, and
participate in the field study

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Don’t let a coachee go in the field alone

24. #6
Don’t do all the work,
delegate

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“Delegation” scale
Paper prototyping
Design thinking
Field study Personas
co-design workshops
Card sorting
Scenarios of use
Collaborative classification
Content inventory
Reporting
Easy Difficult

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Rule of thumb
If you think the coachee can get to 80% of
the quality you’d have when you do it
yourself, than you must delegate it.
(OK, this can be 75% as well)

27. #7
Communicate, promote,
be visible

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Have your work visible on a wall

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#8
Bring along the right tools

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Ready-to-use templates

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a shared online space

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Axure (Axshare)

33. #9
5 winning HCD techniques
that lead to results

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Field study – user interviews

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Personas and scenarios workshop

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IA: card sorting, content inventory

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rapid paper prototyping

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Usability test
Usability testing

39. #10
Be a project manager
and a diplomat

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Political battle between ICT and business

41. # 1 Educate your sales team, know the “why”
# 2 Make sure there is a match
# 3 Know your coachee and client well
# 4 Start with a reading list and a training on HCD
# 5 Participate in the field study
# 6 Don’t do all the work yourself, delegate
# 7 Communicate, promote, be visible
# 8 Bring along the right tools
# 9 Use 5 winning HCD techniques
# 10 Be a project manager and diplomat

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What’s in it for the HCD coach?
Create a common language – be on the same
page with the client
Trust is a better ground for innovative design
You get to work on the more interesting,
more challenging projects
You learn how outsiders see your tools and
techniques

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I get to come to Rome

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A word of thanks to Max…
A word of thanks to Max…

45. Turning yourself into a HCD coach
Koen Peters (kp@namahn.com)