Summary of activities we did during the Lean User Experience Intensive weekend at Pivotal NYC July 9-10, 2011.

1. Activities List
LUXi NYC, July 9-10, 2011
User Experience methods suited for agile and lean startup environments are Quick.
Lightweight, Visual, Continuous and Collaborative. During this weekend, we practiced a
series of activities that built on each other to support one complete cycle of THINK-MAKE-
CHECK with a small balanced team of participants with a range of expertise.
In your own work, you will use these techniques in a way that is appropriate for you. You may
choose do these activities for longer periods, or with gaps of hours or days in between. You may
choose different collaborators from your team for different activities. You may skip some of
these activities or add some of your own. The important thing is that your entire team
establishes a SHARED PROBLEM STATEMENT (what is our hypothesis? What result are we
trying to accomplish? For whom?), and that you then work towards the MOST LIGHTWEIGHT
thing you can make to validate that hypothesis.
Those of you who are used to working in a process that involves long cycles and handoffs may
find it a little odd or uncomfortable to work this quickly and make what feel like large decisions
with very skimpy information. It’s easier once you realize that we’re not just doing this once, it’s
an ongoing process of learning and improvement. You’re not building a product specification;
you’re creating an EXPERIMENT that helps you do the right thing WITHOUT WASTE.
Good luck, and please share your stories with us as you explore working this way.
Lane@luxr.co
Josh@luxr.co
http://luxr.posterous.com/
SATURDAY
MEET AND GREET, TEAM FORMATION
Establish balanced teams with a mix of business, product, technical and design expertise.
INTRODUCE PRODUCT BRIEF
The locovore team was given a one-pager that described the product opportunity. The teams
that added new participants brought them up to speed on the situation
ESTABLISH WORKING AREAS
Create work areas and sketchboards. Start working together as a team. Practice self-
organization.
MAKE A SMALL DECISION AS A GROUP
Groups chose a team name to create group identity. A fun activity to get people working
together.
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2. SET INTENTION
The group stood in a circle and answered these questions
“what is your name?” “what do you want to get out of this weekend?”
During this activity, we asked people “how will that be measurable” to help them focus on a
weekend goal we could verify was accomplished. We asked people to write the goal on a sticky
1) to remember it 2) to make make it visual
We then put the stickies on the wall for later reference
LEAN UX OVERVIEW
What is Lean Startup? What is Lean UX? What are w doing this weekend?
Slides available on SlideShare.
<Josh, add address when you post?>
ESTABLISH FOCUS
Reason: generate ideas and collaboratively decide what we’re working on this weekend
Materials: stickes, pens, voting dots, timer
Techniques: diverge/converge, dump and sort, dot voting
GENERATE
“What problems have I observed in (problem domain) that are worth solving?”
This activity helps you shift from FEATURES THINKING to PROBLEM THINKING
Timings: (15 min)
- 5 minutes, Individually generate stickies (supports multiple styles, everyone has a voice)
- lay out stickes, explain what they mean, but don’t discuss in detail
- 10 minutes, generate more stickies as a group
EVALUATE/DECIDE
“How do we decide which of these ideas to pursue?”
- you have enough knowledge to have a hypothesis and make something to validate
- you have access to people who have this problem (on Sunday, with short notice)
Timings (15 min)
- 15 minutes, discuss ideas on table
- decide on number of votes per person and distribute votes
- pick the winning idea
- check in the idea with Josh/Lane for their OK
HYPOTHESIS CREATION
“We believe that <person type x> has <problem y> that can be solved by <solution z> and
measured by <metric q>.”
TEAMS WRITE THEIR HYPOTHESES AND PUT ON SKECHBOARD
PROVISIONAL PERSONAS
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3. Intro to provisional personas
- how do we make sure we’re all talking about the same “user?”
- what’s our starting point until we know some real users?
- how do we make our shared understanding visual?
DRAW THE GRID. Quadrants represent
- upper left - memorable sketch and name
- lower left - their pain points
- upper right - their situation/environment
- lower right - what they need (what we could provide)
PUT THE PERSONAS ON THE SKETCHBOARD
12:30 pm LOCOVORE TEAMS GO TO GREENMARKET/WHOLE FOODS to do some
observations of real people in their problem domain and start thinking about solutions.
STARTUP TEAMS check focus, hypothesis and persona(s) and revise as necessary.
LUNCH
BRAINSTORM APPROACHES (SIX UPS)
Reason: start to think about solutions, but not at too high level of detail. Using the hypothesis
and the persona you created, envision some possible solutions you could provide.
Method: Six-up
Materials: 11x17 paper, pens
Timing: 20 min of individual drawing, 20 minutes of discussion
PUT THE SIX-UPS ON THE SKETCHBOARD
Now that the team has the hypothesis and persona in mind, we want to start exploring the ideas
with visual thinking and developing a shared understanding. Six ups help people move from the
abstract to the specific.
DECIDE
Reason: establish census about best ideas to pursue
Materials: voting dots
Techniques:
- decide how many dots people get (3-5 is good)
- place dots
- discuss
- decide
DESIGN STUDIO
Each person draws one idea to satisfy the approach the team has picked.
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http://www.luxr.co
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4. In discussion, everyone explains their ideas before comment or critique begins.
- When explaining an idea, use the format, “this idea solves the following problem for the
following person in the following way.”
- When providing critique, use the format, “I don’t see how this solves the problem X.”
RETROSPECT
“What did you do today that was new for you?”
“What unanswered questions do you have?
WRITE QUESTIONS ON STICKIES, ADD TO LIST
SUNDAY
INTRO TO CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT
Slides on SlideShare
http://www.slideshare.net/LaneHalley/luxi-nyc-intro-to-customer-development
DEMO of lightweight research and utest methods
SHOW UTEST VIDEO http://youtu.be/fa9DLxDtPtc
DEMO COMBINED INTERVIEW AND UTEST
Discussion: “what did you see?” “what questions do you have for us?”
INTERVIEW PLANNNG
Handout on SlideShare
http://www.slideshare.net/LaneHalley/lu-xr-lean-ux-customer-discovery
SHOW AND TELL
Using their sketchboards, teams describe their hypothesis, and approach
DISCUSSION
“What would be good ways to validate the hypotheses that you heard?”
“What’s the smallest thing we can do to validate this hypothesis?”
CAPTURE IDEAS FOR EACH TEAM ON PAPER, ADD TO SKETCHBOARD
CREATE VALIDATION PLANS
What do you want to learn? What is the most lightweight thing you can make to demonstrate
this? Be explicit about your learning objectives
TEAM TIME TO COMPLETE VALIDATION ACTIVITIES
FEEDBACK AND WRAP
What’s one thing you will take forward after this workshop?
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http://www.luxr.co
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