Yes you can!
This article is not just about design and in-depth interviews, its about frameworks, planning and logistics. In the early TCUX’s days, when we started doing Business and UX design, we used to struggle a lot on this kind of projects, not only about the UX mapping itself, but about getting the insights. We used to spend 2–4 weeks on appointments and interviews. Some of the problems were:
Appointments: Its true that the interviewees profile should be curated, sometimes doing that process consumes a lot of time. To arrange an interview and set the time could be a never ending “pencil in” process in the calendar, this is the main reason the projects get eternal.
Transcripts: In this specific point, we consider transcripts as a rework. The design team waste a lot of time writing again what the user said during the interview, a 40 min interview could consume an hour of just transcribing main ideas/concepts.
Rotten insights: After two weeks of appointments/interviews the design team starts to iterate. Only if that is your only project and you have been reviewing the stories often you will have fresh insights, otherwise, the findings will be rotten, the manifestation of this is “Do you remember why she said this?”and you will waste time discussing -again- stories and reviewing the transcripts.
Timing: Too much timing is bad for you and ultimately worst for your client, don’t loose the freshness of your design coolness!
The TCUX way:
After doing several mappings, we designed and curated methods for an accelerated UX mapping based on the workshop format used on Future search, Opens Space and Design thinking here its our guide we share :)
- Planning and logistics (Before workshop): This is the most important part since this ensure the logistics and methods for an accelerated and well done UX map, We suggest to define three things: 1. The user/segment you need to map: The design team needs to define this, otherwise you will not know who to interview. 2. The process/channel you want to map: What process/channel you need to map/learn?, if you don’t pick a process or channel your mapping difficult will increase. 3. The amount of interviewers you need to have: In order to allow the team to interview the users simultaneously, we recommend one interviewer per two users. 4. Appointments: Each member of the design team needs to bring two users to the workshop that meet the research criteria, com’on! just two!
- Research agenda (First part of the workshop): (60 mins) In the first hour of your workshop you will create an agenda based on Open Space method. This means that each member of the design team will brainstorm questions or issues they need/want to understand from the user, then the team will cluster the issues and vote for the most important, that will become your topical guide or research agenda. Our suggestion is to narrow down the topics to 5. You will need a decision maker to allow to design team to move.
- Guides and formats (30 min): Once you have the research agenda, you will print the guide, one guide per interviewer, and a timeline format as shown at the resources at the end of this article.
- From interviews to debriefing (Users arrive): (40-60 min) Here comes the hack, once the whole system is in the room -Design team and users- You will split in groups of 3, two users and one interviewer. The design team will interview all the users simultaneously. Once the interviewer do the icebreaking part, ask the users to map their own experience in the timeline framework in post it notes, in other words, the user does the transcript. Once the timeline is done, its time to get deeper by debriefing using as a guide your research agenda.
- Discussion: (20–30 min) Now each design team member have fresh insights of no more than 2 users, its time to share experiences, do that in the next 20–30 min. By this time probably its lunch time, have a lunch discussion to save time after everyone share their stories, try to find which users are alike or share insights.
- Mapping 1.0: (90min) AKA T-120 min… To map quickly we suggest to start like a puzzle, by the corners, first you need to set the journey phases (Example: Need, First call, Purchase, Feedback) After you have that, focus just only on the first phase, and bring the post its from your timeline to the collaborative UX map -Did I said you need a board to work? well… you need to- Since everyone have fresh insights mapping will flow easily once you have the first phase pattern.
- Synthesis 2.0: (30 min) Final sprint, its time to do synthesis, the team will split either into phases or stories -in other words, managing the map in vertical or horizontal-, to re-write each cluster of post it notes into UX language. You can use the TCUX insight notes that help designers to articulate thoughts and feelings for empathy mapping at the resources of this article.
TCUX method and resources:
We hope you find this useful :)
AO.- TCUX founder
