Stage 2: User Research
Point of view (POV) - Problem statement & How might we (HMW) questions
This is one of the main stages of Design thinking, which will indicate the problems that your users want you to solve with your design.
A problem statement (POV) is a brief description of the problem (or need) that needs to be solved.
How might we (HMW) are short questions that start the process of generating ideas and solutions.
The purpose of the POV
Identify and articulate the problems you will be solving. Problems should be focused solely on the target audience, their needs, and your insights.
The purpose of the HMW questions
It will help you start generating innovative ideas that solve user problems.
Value for the team
Formulating POV and HMW questions will allow the team to understand what the problems are in the user and how to solve these problems with innovative solutions.
Value for business
The team will identify many problems and needs, and generate innovative solutions that can later be prioritized and implemented in the product.
Duration:
- Preparation: up to 30 minutes
- Main activity: from 8 to 16 hours
Creating process:
Step 1. Unlock all artifacts from previous explorations
Refresh your memories and ask the whole team.
If you have not conducted interviews with real users, have not compiled empathy maps (have not identified insights and needs), then this is very bad since all your further work will be the result of the subjective opinion of the team and stakeholders, which may not reflect the real picture and take you into the wrong direction.
Step 2. Go back to your empathy maps that you were doing
We looked for INSIGHTS in them, and based on them we found NEEDS.
[INSIGHT] Users often look for ways to assess their performance in learning a foreign language themselves, since teachers do not always pay attention to this, and sometimes even skip such conversations, and this greatly affects their motivation
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[NEED] Users should be able to receive reports on the work in a foreign language lesson, as well as on success over a certain period.
Step 3. Write down your POVs according to the formula
[User . . . (descriptive)] needs [Need . . . (verb)] because [Insight . . . (compelling)]
[Marta] [NEEDS] to be able to receive feedback on her work in a foreign language class, as well as a progress report for a certain period [BECAUSE] she often looks for ways to evaluate herself since teachers do not always give her feedback on her progress.
[USER] is our empirical persona (not a proto-persona a.k.a. non-empirical persona) that we create based on previous research.
Step 3. Reformulate the POV problem in the HMW question
In this way, you will prepare HMW questions that will help you find innovative solutions at the Ideation stage, where you can use different techniques with your team: Six thinking hats, Brainstorming, or The Walt Disney Creativity strategy.
Example: How might we help Marta get feedback on her class and progress over some time?
