Aligning UX Research with the Product Development Cycle
As the lean-agile mindset dominates the product development world, we continue to experience a need to embed analytics and research into the product lifecycle in order to better inform future releases and overall product success. When adapting a lean-agile approach, teams commit to incremental development and iterative testing with the end goal of creating user-driven products that add genuine value.
In Lean UX, Gothelf and Seiden refer to this as the “benefit hypothesis,” defined as the proposed measurable benefit to the end user or business. Agile methods of design and development help avoid over-engineering, also known as the Big Design Up-front, BDUF (see Fig 1 by SAFe).
By following an iterative discover-deploy approach, we put the user at the core of our design and minimize the possibility of over-engineering. This approach requires a solid understanding of how important testing with users is at every stage of the development. As Nir Eyal mentions in his book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, “Building a habit-forming product is an iterative process and requires user-behavior analysis and continuous experimentation.” Continuous experimentation is especially important as it allows us the opportunity to understand and anticipate user needs, as well as create products that remain competitive.
UX Research Methods by Product Lifecycle
Integration of UX research into the product lifecycle is not an easy task. However, if appropriately deployed, it has the power to bring forth a product that is customer-driven and increase the product adoption once in the marketplace.
Depending on where the product is in the development cycle, there are many research methods that can be utilized to compliment and inform the product roadmap. As a best practice, a research roadmap should show the progression of planned research in tandem with the product cycle. Below is a process diagram that illustrates the suggested UX research methods based on the product cycle. For example, if the product is in the ideation/conception state, utilizing field study research such as contextual or ethnography or analyzing usage data is valuable in understanding customer thoughts toward a potential feature/product.
Considering that continuous deployment may be more limiting in terms of research explorations, companies may benefit from a closer alignment and communication between the UX and product teams to get ahead of the deployment cycle. The team can work together to determine what future releases to focus the UX exploration resources on.
At Kabbage, we are continuously working to sustain our user-centric culture and partner with our customers to design future releases. One of the key components of nurturing this culture is the cross-functional team dynamic that allows us the opportunity to be more agile and minimize the possibility of development in silos. As Eric Ries advises:
“Lean UX literally has no time for heroes. The entire concept of design as a hypothesis immediately dethrones notions of heroism; as a designer, you must expect that many of your ideas will fail in testing. Heroes don’t admit failure. But Lean UX designers embrace it as part of the process.”
The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) flow (Fig 3) perfectly depicts the required level of collaboration to achieve an agile state that supports continuous deployment. SAFe highlights four sub-dimensions of Continuous Exploration, including: hypothesize, collaborate & research, architect, and synthesize.
Scaling research accordingly to support MVP and MMF
Creating a ‘minimum viable product’ (MVP) allows users to interact with the product we are building rather than relying on them to tell us what they would do if a product like that existed. MVP is intended to serve as a reactionary opportunity for the user, with little to no value proposition.
A ‘minimum marketable feature’ (MMF) provides a way to determine between which products/features may deliver the most value to the customer, and prioritizing accordingly.
At Kabbage, we have introduced the concept of a ‘minimum delightful product’ (MDP) as a way of marrying the two concepts. By this thought, we will continue test-iterate-learn, while delivering a value-add proposition and delightful experience to our customers.
Last Words
This agile research process is not perfect (and will likely never be), as we are consistently iterating. Our team aims to continuously refine to identify methodologies that best fit our development cycle and team needs. If you have any suggestions or would like to share your experience, please comment below.
