The Human-centered Design Ambassador’s Guide to Success (within B2B tech startups)
Is this guide for you?
You may have heard about human-centred design (HCD) in a quick workshop or at a startup event. You might even have read a lot about it or taken a course on it. Or you might be an experienced HCD professional trying to apply it in a new context. Whatever description best suits you, if you’re trying to apply HCD in a B2B tech startup, this guide is for you.
I have been in your situation and to understand how to navigate the complexity and self-doubt I was facing, I decided to do my Industry Research Project (part of the Hyper Island MA in Digital Media Management) on this topic and spent 4 months reading, watching and listening about it, talking to people that have done it and organising all this information in a way that could be useful for me and for you. This guide is the first iteration of the final summary of this research project. The full report will be released soon, follow me on Medium or Twitter and get updated when it’s out!
For now, I hope this guide helps. Any feedback is welcome. :)
1. Show the results of HCD, don’t explain what it is
Introducing yet another tool in your team’s process can be challenging and regarded as a distraction.
Take an existing problem and, using the usual team’s language, suggest human-centered activities and tools to find potential solutions. Using examples and analogies that everyone can relate to can help you introduce the human-centered approach without mentioning it.
Some of your colleagues might be very attached to the idea, and this is normal. Show understanding towards the established ways of working and use human-centered principles and activities to fix the problems that arise, instead of replacing the existing framework. This can be a way to ease HCD into the startup’s process.
Example:
Thomas enters the room visibly upset.
Jane: Hey! What’s up? How did the meeting go with that lead?
Thomas: Not well. This negotiation process seems endless, there’s always another person that needs to give input! I wasn’t prepared for this.
Ana, who was working next to Jane, knows she can help.
Ana: That sucks! Why don’t we try to map out all the possibly interested parties, so that next time we’re better prepared and have a value proposition for all of them?
See? Ana saw an opportunity and suggested a stakeholder map and a value proposition canvas without mentioning the tools’ names!
2. Apply HCD in a way that fits the startup’s reality, not the other way around
Fast-paced environment, constant change, a lot happening at the same time, pressure from investors. Does this sound familiar?
Or maybe: late nights and long weekends developing your pet project before you all quit your day jobs, with no pressure except the one that comes from within?
Either way, your human-centered design approach needs to be adapted in a way that can help you in the context you’re in.
In the first scenario, it might be very difficult to stop and start over. In this case, avoid creating big blocks of design work that might create blockers for development. The handover from design to development needs to be as seamless as possible.
When it comes to involving other team members in the HCD activities (user research, workshops, etc) always give them the option to participate and to engage, and make sure it’s not a forceful activity (more on this in the next section).
In the second case, you might have time to stop and reflect. If you do, consider taking a step back and looking at the problem you’re trying to solve with the input of more potential customers before you commit to a lot of development time. This will help you reduce the risk of leaving everything behind — you don’t want to take your idea forward without user validation or a clear picture of what you’re trying to achieve.
Example:
It’s Monday. The whole team is ready to start a new week and a new sprint.
Jane: Hey, Thomas, where are the wireframes for the user stories for this sprint? Can’t find them anywhere.
Thomas: Err… About that… I still need to get some more feedback on them. Last week I was too busy fixing the issues on previous batch of designs. Sorry about that.
Ana: Why don’t we work together to define a system? For example, if the design was always one sprint ahead of development, would it help?
Thomas: I like that idea — not having to rush would make my job a lot easier!
Jane: That would be amazing! Waiting for the designs makes me nervous because we have pressure to deliver.
Ta-da! Problem solved. Find a way to follow the HCD principles in a way that works for your team.
3. Use HCD to create team alignment and empathy towards users and clients
Just because some people might not participate in the activities doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be aware of the insights or results you’re collecting.
Share the results of your conversations with your clients and users with everyone in your team. You can organise an optional weekly meeting (with cake or beer, it works), create posters and put them up in your office or store the information and insights in a place where anyone can find them — be creative and make it fun, not an obligation.
Doing this will have two effects: first, your colleagues will hopefully gain empathy with your product’s users and clients, by listening, watching or reading their pains and gains; second, this empathy will contribute to your team’s alignment and shared goals — it will be easier to understand that you’re building to help the users, not yourselves.
Example:
1) Before Ana started to share the insights from the user research she was conducting…
Thomas: I think we should consider building this feature again! I saw it in another app the other day and thought it was great!
Jane: What?? I hate that! I would never use it, it’s pointless. We should build this feature instead.
Ana: Actually, in the client meetings I’ve been having, most people have mentioned that something like that would bring multiple governance problems.
Jane: Governance problems? Hahaha. They don’t understand that we’re trying to change the way people work!
2) After Ana started to share the insights from the user research she was conducting…
Thomas: I saw this feature on an app the other day. Look. Do you think we should consider it?
Jane: I don’t know. What problem do you think it’s trying to solve? I can’t stop thinking about the way John, one of the potential users Ana interviewed, couldn’t get his IT department to sign off on our product. Why don’t we look at the research insights and see if that will bring him additional problems?
Thomas: Yeah, you’re right. Let’s see what is more important for our users.
Having a common goal helped Jane and Thomas put their egos aside and try to understand what is better for their clients and users.
4. Align your goals with clients so that you can collect feedback without the fear of losing them
Not all clients are willing to use a product in the early stages of development. It’s essential that you find the right partners that will give you the feedback you need. If you have to do it for a reduced price, look at it as an investment and their reward for helping you.
The key is to find clients that want to watch you succeed beyond just delivering a solution. To do this, you need to be transparent about your development stage and progress and involve the clients in the process by keeping them engaged with regular check-ins and feedback loops. Take Slack’s creative example. They created a public roadmap on Trello to describe their platform development plans for the benefit of developers creating tools that interact with their product and to keep them informed about what’s coming next. Check it out!
Watch out: Don’t focus too much on building a solution for one client that the majority of your user base or target customers might not find useful. Make sure you have a strong vision and include more than one client in the feedback loop or have a plan in place to do so as soon as possible.
Example:
1) Before a client meeting, when the team isn’t being transparent with the client.
Thomas: Ok, let’s recap. We can’t tell the client that we still don’t have a solution for the issue that has arisen. We need to sell them the dream, the full product vision! We need this contract signed. We can figure the rest out later.
Jane: Err… Ok, I guess.
2) Before a client meeting, when the team has found a client to partner with.
Thomas: Ok, let’s make sure we have everything we need. Do you have the journey maps we’ve created based on the interviews we carried out with their employees? We need to show the IT manager how that feature she asked us to implement doesn’t make sense to them.
Jane: Yes, I have that and the insights we got from our survey. I thought we could share the opinions of the other clients and users with her?
Thomas: Great idea. She’ll appreciate it.
Find a client that you can look at as a co-worker, not just as a business partner.
5. Use HCD to build relationships with clients and users
You already know that time spent with your clients and users isn’t time wasted. However, in a B2B context, it’s even more important. You’ll need to deeply understand their business needs and build relationships with them to get through the door of the IT department. Use HCD to do so!
Conducting user interviews doesn’t have to be just a research activity, it can be a way to get to know your users better, not only to understand their needs, but also to create relationships.
Watch out: Don’t create false expectations. It’s important to be clear that not all their requests will be implemented.
Example:
Jane: I finally understand how complex this client’s software purchase approval system is! I’m glad I’m comfortable enough with John to ask him to walk me through it.
Ana: That’s great. I guess all the time talking to him on the support chat window paid of?
Jane: Definitely! Got great insights to fine-tune our value proposition to all the stakeholders.
You made it to the end — thank you!
This is not supposed to be an extensive description of all the challenges you might be facing now or that you might face in the future. Instead, with this short summary of my research project, I hoped to give you an extra push that might help you successfully apply HCD in a B2B and tech startup context.
Any comments and feedback to improve this list are welcome. Please leave them below!
Cheers,
Sara
