Super Lean UX Strategy

As UX practitioner it’s not uncommon for stakeholders to ask how we’re going to perform our research and why. The request isn’t unreasonable as they want to know what to expect. The problem is if we go through this effort to create a detailed UX strategy, 3 issues may occur.

First, it isn’t read in-depth and thus constant Q&A results. Secondly, if it is read, they not only don’t understand but worst misunderstand it, which can cause issues later. Finally, someone is super detailed oriented and wants to know granular details with justification for everything, which would be counterproductive to document and your responses will have an endless barrage of challenges.

Situational UX

A UX strategy is situational. Meaning at every step in our process we must re-evaluate our plan and often pivot, likely more than once. That is due to unexpected findings in initiatives, creating implications which must be accounted for before commencing the next initiative.

A UX strategy is our best-guess given currently known facts & assumptions, along with professional experience. The likelihood we can predict the future and provide the actual UX strategy we end up following is almost nil.

So we must convey to stakeholders it is not “the” path forward but our plan at this point in the process. We must also convey they will need to accept there will be pivots and alterations. This is a necessity to stay on-track to reach a successful conclusion in the research campaign.

UX team

The Super lean UX strategy is not mean to be a replacement plan for the strategy the UX team will follow but it can be used to ensure there is a high-level understanding on how we plan to move forward with the campaign.

As a UX practitioner you know there are many more steps to a UX strategy than what I include, and we as practitioners will drill-down into the steps as we progress, but there is no need to share every detailed aspect of our work to a granular level. To do so would end up defeating the purpose and wouldn’t be lean.

My approach

I create a “Super lean UX strategy”, which can easily be read by non-UX stakeholders with the hopes it can be understood by all; I was recently told “it reads like a UX poem…”

It follows the syntax, “We need artefact, to outcome”.

Given one step in the research process is typically used to inform the next, or a future step in the process, the “outcome” of said step is used in the following step as the “artefact”. This process repeats, step-to-step, to convey how a milestone might be reached and/or deliverable provided. It helps stakeholders understand the value of each step and how we use the outcome of each step to feed into a future step.

An example

Here’s a recent UX strategy I provided:

1. We need kick-off meeting, to establish project understanding;
2. We need project understanding, to create UX strategy;
3. We need UX strategy, to inform stakeholder understanding;
4. We need stakeholder understanding, to begin user interviews;
5. We need user interviews, to establish assumptions;
6. We need assumptions, to craft survey;
7. We need survey, to surface knowledge;
8. We need knowledge; to surface problems;
9. We need problems, to outline prioritised problems;
10. We need prioritised problems, to develop hypothesis statements;
11. We need hypothesis statements, to propose solutions;
12. We need solutions, to ascertain solution viability;
13. We need solution viability, to justify solution designs;
14. We need solution designs, to perform usability testing;
15. We need usability testing, to justify concept development;
16. We need concept development, to continue usability testing;
17. We need usability testing, to build product confidence;
18. We need product confidence, to launch finished product.

What’s missing

If you’re a UX practitioner I’m sure you’ve noticed the lack of meat on the bone (For vegetarians, fruit on the vine???). There is no mention of methodologies used, only a few techniques e.g. User interviews, survey, usability testing. That’s because it’s meant to be “Super lean” and again, there is no certainty the campaign will actually include workshops, JTBD, contextual inquiry, persona development, creation of Kano model, etc. We will decide what is and isn’t as the steps’ progress.

Those details may be loosely outlined amongst the UX practitioners but may not be revealed to all stakeholders until deemed needed. Like, before scheduling when their participation is needed in contextual inquiry or as observers during usability testing. Ensuring they are always given plenty of time to… make time.

As you learn

The UX strategy may expand as more is learned to add more detail. It might start to include details like:

9. We need JTBD, to surface jobs;

10. We need jobs, to develop scenarios;

11. We need scenarios, to…

And so on. Whatever your process is, add it if the teams feels it is justified but I suggest only adding what is in the near future. Maybe a sprint or two to give non-UX teams’ time to plan and adjust their schedule as needed.

Unless stakeholders are involved in more granular steps, there is no need to include them e.g. Affinity mapping workshops, JTBD job card creation, knowledge matrix, etc.

Final point

Post the UX strategy in an easily accessible location for all stakeholders e.g. Network drive, knowledge sharing tool, etc. Don’t eMail an artefact to them, instead share a link to it. Then edit the artefact online so they can go back to it whenever they like and always see the latest version.