What Would Kellen Henry Do? (WWKHD)
The more Kellen Henry talked to people, the more she noticed the news problems they had in common.
Who is Kellen Henry?
She’s the assistant editor for digital platforms at the New York Times. She is also someone whose advice I took to heart as I approached the news product development process over the last few weeks.
During a Google Hangout session with my news product development class at the University of Arizona School of Journalism, Henry explained how she and her team interviewed NYT’s readers in three states with very different demographics before they re-designed the newspaper’s home page.
The home page hadn’t been redesigned in 10 years, according to Henry.
Before taking on this major endeavor, Henry’s team purposely chose not to do many things that could have negatively influenced the re-design process.
- They didn’t start with what was viable — “the business side” as Henry called it.
- And they definitely didn’t go with the highest paid person’s opinion.
- Her team also avoided letting their decisions and desires influence the redesign of the newspaper’s homepage.
So, what did they do?
“We challenged ourselves to start with a design-thinking approach,” Henry explained.
Henry’s team completely redesigned the home page with NYT’s readers in mind — no one else’s.
This was important to ensuring people truly received an experience that solved their news problems and benefited them. That’s what news product development is all about.
Henry and her purposely small team then went to California, Texas and, of course, ventured around their state of New York to interview readers in their homes.
Interviewing people in their personal environments allowed the team to observe and interact with these readers. They also purposely interviewed them in spaces that wouldn’t cause distractions, such as the NYT’s headquarters.
Henry discovered one reader only had time to read the NYT while cooking his morning breakfast of Steel-cut oatmeal.
She asked this reader and other readers empathy questions. Each answer delivered insights, and soon the team discovered trends. This process of going out in the field and talking to readers played a huge role in the entire redesign process.
Later, I found myself in Henry’s shoes…well not exactly. I haven’t been lucky enough to interview my chosen user group, minority professionals, in their homes.
Instead, I found my user group at events. I emailed them after Google searches. Got recommendations from friends and co-workers. I talked to them over the phone. I’m even visiting some of them at their offices, which is probably as close to interviewing them at home as I will get.
Henry’s experience was one of the first real-life examples I had of what news product development looks like.
Before and during my interviews, I at times had What Would Kellen Henry Do? moments.
I wanted to make sure I asked good empathy questions that uncovered problems and other trends. Also, I wanted to avoid letting my opinions guide my decisions. The hardest part overall was avoiding making snap judgements about how the problem could be solved.
Eventually, I learned that the news problem won’t be solved until I talk to as many people as possible and start seeing clear patterns that will guide me in the right direction.
Whatever I find may not become major news like the NYT’s home page redesign, but I hope it’s something that helps minority professionals.
