Gift Giving and Product Development

Last October my nephew, Iveagh, celebrated his first birthday.  Because we’ve noticed that he seems to get really animated around music, I (Aunt Heather) decided to get him one of those baby pianos.  (Ok, maybe it was more for me than it was for him, but gosh, it was cute).  Since then, while he definitely gravitates toward the percussion family of instruments, he actually seems more enamored with the drum than he does with  the piano. 

In reflecting on the purchase, though, I realized that gift giving is so much like product development. We don’t just “give gifts”. We give gifts to a person. We give gifts to a particular person.   Likewise, we don’t just develop a product.  We develop a product for a person. We develop a product for a particular type of person/customer.

Knowing my nephew’s size & personality, I matched the piano to his size, his level of interaction with things, and what I knew about his level of engagement, i.e. I knew that he liked to do things the way adults do them.  When he came to my house, he wanted to sit on the piano bench next to me. I knew it had to be sturdy because he likes to climb on things and would probably try to do something with or on the piano.

But I also knew his parents were part of the “customer” or user as they would have the pleasure of listening to the piano as much as he played it and that they might have requirements about the sound and volume of the piano. So I talked with them about what they felt might work the best, not be a nuisance etc…

To break this down further, take a look at the similarities grid below to view-side by side-how the customer, constraints, tasks and requirements of gift giving are similar to the customer, constraints, tasks and requirements of any product we develop: Similarities Grid.

Truth be told, though we are rarely conscious of it, we are all engaged in user-centered gift giving. We do it naturally.  It’s instinct. Because, when we get right down to it, we want the person to be satisfied-DELIGHTED-with the gift, right? 

Likewise, we instinctively want to create product that matches our customers as well. User-centered design just gives us tools to do that in a more conscious and intentional fashion. The tools of user-centered design help us to collect, process, and then construct or revise product based on what we are learning. Further, it helps us to understand more holistically, not just WHAT our customers are teaching, but HOW they are teaching, the process they are using and the steps and the path they are taking to reach their goal.

When we understand the path our customers are taking, we can be sure to develop and structure the content to reflect that path, design the interior to visually convey that path and market and sell the points on that path that our products address.

Click on the link below to see a short clip of Iveagh on his pint size piano.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i53Y6tebkzo&feature=BFa&list=PLDD9B851971BD1C65&lf=mh_lolz

Surprised By Discovery

One of my favorite books of all time is C.S. Lewis' Surprised by Joy. I read it for a paper in college but its storyline has stayed with me. I think the part of the story that has stayed with me is that Lewis--as the title suggests --was surprised by the joy.

Surprise is one of those emotions that always reminds me that I am human, that life is a mystery, and that no matter how much I try to understand something or might think I have a handle on it, there is always something more to discover and to understand.

I've just recently (as of 8 months ago) become a regular practitioner of user-centered design principles. I've probably used these principles now in the development of about 15 projects, but I am still surprised by discovery. I'm still surprised by the insight I glean through some of these simple processes; insights, which, are often those moments of "Why didn't we think of that?" or "Yikes! That seems like it would be common sense!"

But these moments have also reinforced for me the value of observing or shadowing customers, the importance of taking the time to sit with them as they walk through specific tasks so that I understand the process they are going through and the information they need in order to carry out each task.

Case Study: Giving Customers Access to the Online Learning Environment
I was sitting in my colleague, Candy's office one day in June as she and I continued our work connected with the creation of an administration site for our customer care & sales teams. This new site would be the interface that our teams would use to control customer access to our online learning environment.

Those of us working on the project had asked a number of the "users" about the tasks they would have to complete with the system we were creating for them. Now, we wanted to OBSERVE these customers in the process of trying to carry out those tasks.  Our purpose, at this stage, was to identify any additional tasks that might be involved or other specific requirements that might be needed in the design of the system that hadn’t yet been identified.

So, I asked Candy to walk me through an actual order with one of her customers and we talked about what she was doing, what information she was using, and what else she was expecting to see.

What stunned me is that immediately it became apparent that, in order to carry out the tasks she would be completing in the system, the interface would need to accommodate two additional pieces of information, two pieces of information that hadn't yet been discovered in the previous 5 people we had walked through processes with. It turned out she needed further identifying information of the book based on how her customers ordered-because her customers were a little bit different than other customers we served.

The first piece of information we were missing was some sort of "E" designation for each particular product so that (when she printed the document and matched it with the invoice) it would clearly show her customers that they were in fact purchasing an electronic version.

Item Number 1141       became       Item Number E1141

The second piece of information needed was the ISBN because her customers purchase by this number instead of the shorter item number as is the case with many of our customers.

I was so elated by this discovery I said to her, "Isn't this amazing" with excitement comparable to a kid on Christmas morning. Because she knows me, she smiled and responded, "Yeah, Heather, that's----great".

The extraordinary lesson in this example was realizing AGAIN that having a customer explain a path and observing them walking the path often yields different results.

I remember a few months ago I was chatting with a friend who plans the music at our church. She was explaining that she thought she had worked out all the music for the mass (who would lead particular songs, what instruments would play etc.) until, in rehearsal, when she actually tried to forge a path through it--she realized there were still pieces she needed to address. I kid you not--she even used those words "forging a path through it.....”.

What surprised me about that conversation was that she and I have never spoken about the work I am currently doing. I have never used that terminology around her, but out of the blue, she used that language. All I could think was---unbelievable ----this applies to music as well.

But, the truth is, this type of experience--of recalling steps one way and then seeing the steps differently while carrying out the same process--happens everywhere, everyday.  A great corporate example that I came across recently is from the company Argos. Argos sells "general merchandise for the home throughout the UK and the Republic of Ireland"  (http://www.argos.com/).

Listen as the design manager shares what they discovered when they enter into the discovery process with their customers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG1VChFbIBs

"What are you trying to do?"

Ben Nagel....many of you remember working with him.  I've heard his name mentioned so many times since he moved on.

For those of you who didn't know him, Ben was great to work with. He had an incredibly positive and infectious spirit and had a genuine graciousness in his work with others that I deeply appreciated. Not only was he analytical but he had a great passion for people, for understanding them and for supporting them.

I came to appreciate Ben in new ways in 2005 when we first began working with one of my favorite acronyms- RFM. RFM is a strategy we learned at that time for segmenting our customers based, basically, on their behavior--how Recently they ordered, how Frequently they ordered, and how much (or the Monetary value of what) they were spending. It was a way to direct our marketing efforts more effectively.

As we were learning this strategy and weeding our way through new ways (well, new for me) of viewing this type of customer behavior through pivot tables, I began to hear Ben asking me the same question. I would go to him asking for some data to be pulled a certain way and he would often come back with, "OK, Heather, what are you trying to do?"

After I got over being perplexed or frustrated that he would often answer my question with a question (because I have NEVER done that), I realized that he wasn't just interested in what I was saying I needed, but he was interested in discovering what I was trying to do, what the actual task was I was trying to carry out.

His question always led to uncovering the reality of what my need was, whether or not I had articulated that need clearly up front.

And so it is with understanding our customers.  Unless we realize what our customers are trying to achieve, what tasks they are trying to carry out, our understanding of them will always be limited to one angle of their experience, what they've shared.

Since we've begun learning about user-centered design, we’re realizing how much more we can do for the customer when we understand what our customers are trying to do (either through interview or observation) and what they require in order to carry out their tasks.  This principle and this process is taking the phrase understanding people to a whole new level. It is taking customer service and more importantly, customer CARE to a whole new level.

And it begins with that small little question from Ben that seemed to always come back to me (like the puck on an air hockey rink that seems to come right back after you send it over to the other side).

The official "What are you trying to do, Heather" Air Hockey Table


The truth and power of this question continues to grow for me and actually has become the starting point for understanding the needs of others that I work with now. I've realized that one element at the heart of product usability and ultimately guides a user-centered design process is making it possible to answer the age-old question: "What are you (or your customers) trying to do?"


Thank you Ben Nagel-