Define the problem statement _ Course 2 week 3 (28/6/2022)
This week’s UX design is synthesizing the findings from the discovery phase to create the problem statement, hypothesis statement and value proposition for the product.
Based on previous artifacts like empathy maps, personas, user stories and current-state user journey maps, I have discovered many user pain points in the scenario of not using bookkeeping apps. Will their pain points be solved by competitor bookkeeping apps, like QuickBooks? Will there be other pain points if using bookkeeping apps?
Since none of my users used the bookkeeping apps, I have no solid data to answer these questions. But likely pain points can be predicted in accordance with the general Attitudes and Behavior of the target users, who are:
- Not tech savvy (behavior)
- Sensitive to cost and time (emotion)
- Conservative in management (belief)
- Have little knowledge regarding bookkeeping/accounting (experience)
Problem statement for the fundamentals
Now I have a long list of pain points. How should I frame the problem into a concise statement like GUXDCC’s template: [user name] is a/an [user characteristics] who needs [user needs] because [insights]?
Without much contemplate, I draft the problem statement like this:
[May] is a [full time home baker], who needs [an easy to use bookkeeping app] because [she wants to spend little time on it].
However, it is not a high-level problem statement yet, and it should be up-leveled in five areas:
- Establish goals: spending little time on bookkeeping is not the user’s deep-rooted desire, the true goal for home baker is to build a profitable business while maintaining a good balance between work and life.
- Understand constraints: the current user characteristics don’t reflect all the constraints of home baker: low on funding, busy schedule, conservative in business management and bookkeeping, and not tech savvy.
- Define deliverables: an easy to use bookkeeping app is the baseline, first and foremost, a good product that users want to interact with and use everyday.
- Create benchmarks for success: less time spent the better represents the quantitative efficiency of the product. Additionally, it needs some qualitative metrics such as how satisfactory results the app can produce, and how actively users want to use it.
- Avoid proposing a solution: originally a bookkeeping app was the proposed solution, but the fundamental problem of building a successful home bakery is not just keeping a good bookkeeping but also the good business management. Therefore I decided to leave this specific solution out and allow the problem statement open-up for creativity and innovation.
Here is the improved problem statement:
[May] is a [ beginner home baker with increasing workload and limited resources] who needs [ a mobile app to improve business management and profit] because [she wants to build a prosperous business along with a balanced family life].
Hypothesis statement with innovative solutions
Now I grasped the fundamental problem of my users. It is time to write some hypothesis statements with possible solutions. Bearing in mind, the UX design process is iterative and the hypothesis statement is a tool rather than a checkbox that only needs to tick once. There will always be multiple solutions for the problem and the hypothesis statement needs to be revisited and adjusted as the design proceeds in order to achieve the best design solution.
Brainstorming leverages creativity and problem-solving skills to find possible solutions and sometimes thinking outside-of-the box to achieve innovation. Then what is an innovative solution, and how can I achieve it?
There is a famous quote attributed to Ford: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” As UX designers, we all know the car is the innovative solution compared to the faster horse even before the users asked for that. This innovation came from the breakthrough of technologies at that time. Unfortunately my low-budget product won’t have the technical edge to break into the existing market.
According to Prof. Clayton Christensen(1990), Disruptive Innovations is the process in which a smaller company, usually with fewer resources, is able to challenge an established business (often called an “incumbent”) by entering at the bottom of the market and continuing to move up-market. The key is to design a simple and affordable product initially so that it is usable, accessible and affordable for a larger population (noncustomers) and open up a whole new market.
Inspired by disruptive innovation theory, my hypothesis statement includes these three elements:
- Accessible technology: simple and free mobile app
- Innovative business model: non-consumers of bookkeeping/account apps
- Coherent value network: an ecosystem includes home bakers, suppliers, customers
We believe that [ a simple and free mobile app with business management and bookkeeping as key features] will [help the home bakers to improve their business management and profit].
Determine value proposition
Problem statements and hypothesis statements are the design tools to align the cross-functional team to achieve the design goals. But they are not the tools that the marketing team could use to attract potential users. In the business model canvas, value position is the key to create competition advantage in the market.
We have all seen advertising slogans but none of us will buy it until we check what it offers in terms of features besides prices. A feature is an essential function of the product or service offered while a benefit describes how a product or service can improve or add value to a customer’s life.(Features vs. Benefits: Why the Difference Matters). Value proposition is the unique features and benefits that sets the product apart in the market.
Here is an example of competitor products comparison. While there are some common features like customizable reports, the headings summarize the unique value proposition of each product in a short and clear way, from the user’s perspective.
Following the hypothesis statement, my product’s value proposition will be the features improving business management and profit, which is not offered by any bookkeeping/accounting app in the market. And the simple and easy to use bookkeeping functionality in my product will be the baseline feature rather than the marketing value proposition, since it is offered by other competitors too.
My approach to determine value position is top-to-bottom: from high-level hypothesis statement to creating unique value proposition then to brainstorming features and benefits in the Ideation phase. It is opposite to GUXDCC’s bottom-to-top process as follows:
Step 1. Describe your product’s features and benefits.
Step 2. Explain the value of the product.
Step 3. Connect these features and benefits with the needs of your users.
Step 4. Select the unique value proposition list after comparing with competitor’s features
The reason why I didn’t follow GUXDCC’s process is that creating a feature list based on hypothesis statements requires brainstorming, categorizing then reviewing and selecting. Basically it is a design sprint for creating the value proposition list only. I think it is a redundant step in the Define phase, and should be combined with the Ideation phrase when you explore and evaluate the design solutions with more resources such as time and a diverse team.
Another design approach that I differentiated from GUXDCC is the timing of conducting the competitor audit. I have been researching competitive products from the very beginning of the design process while slowly recruiting participants for user research. GUXDCC will teach competitor audit in next week’s Ideation phase, which in my opinion is a bit late.
Psychology in UX design
Instead of teaching how to do competitor audit in Week 3, GUXDCC introduced the influence of psychology in UX Design, for example, how Von Restorff effect or isolation effect, serial position effect, Hick’s law are used in real cases. The whole collection of psychology influenced design principles can be found in Laws of UX.
Furthermore, the GUXDCC discussion forum has collected lots of students’ experiences on how a particular product’s design provided a good user experience as the course assignment. I read the first 10 pages and gathered that the most popular design principle is still simplicity, my buy-in factor too.
The positive experience from simplicity including:
- few options/functions
- easy navigation
- clear primary CTA
- few steps to achieve goals
- minimalist design and color palette
- reduce dense text, use bullet points or visual info
- autofill
In my assignment I use Zoom as the best UX experience example because of its simplicity in onboarding experience. After I received the first Zoom invitation, I just clicked the link, put in the received password, then went straight into a zoom meeting without any fuss about sign in, sign up, which is very annoying and tedious when you don’t want to give out personal email or remember a 8 digit password. Too many apps or websites demand first-time users to sign up, and those are the ones I will avoid in the first place. Some websites allow Google or Facebook account sign in, which is better but still a bit annoying for a trial. Users should be given the choices to use the product as a guest or sign up if they need extra features, for example creating their own meeting in Zoom.
Simplicity vs complexity
On one hand there are users who prefer simplicity with no-brainer interface to get-the job-done as quickly as possible. But on the other hand, there are tech savvy users who prefer customization with more control or freedom to tinker the interface or results.
The comparison case study for simplicity vs complexity could be Miro vs Adobe Illustrator.
I recently replaced AI with Miro to create diagrams of my GUXDCC blogs for a couple reasons. Firstly, an easy onboarding experience to learn the interface. Secondly a lot of thematic templates to choose from for quick start. Thirdly, although the functionalities and graphical styles are limited, the whole design process is short, clear and fit for purpose. Fourthly it is free for the first three boards and easy online access using Google account. It may become a disruptive innovation if it can secure a large enough user group to challenge the incumbent.
Currently Adobe Illustrator is the incumbent in the graphic design software market, who has the opposite value proposition: the complexity for maximum creative freedom. It may not have an easy onboarding experience like Miro offers, but it has vast learning resources to help new users and a thriving user community to promote sustainable innovation in the software, a coherent value network Miro needs to build.
Both of them are great because they take the load off of users and assist them in making decisions. Complexity and simplicity in features could be great as long as they meet the unique needs from their target user groups.
Takeaways of this week learning:
- Persona needs attitude and behavior metrics to further understand potential pain points in different scenarios
- Stronger summary and takeaway to make impression (Serial Position Effect)
- Simple but fundamental problem statement (Simplicity of Occam’s Razor)
- Create disruptive innovation in hypothesis statement
- Select unique value propositions (Von Restorff Effect)
