Cindy Alvarez - Embracing hypothesis driven design (From Business to Buttons 2015)

Embracing Hypothesis-Driven

Design

@cindyalvarez

We have gotten faster. Have we gotten better?

Being right is a temporary condition.

So how does hypothesis-driven design

work?

Form a hypothesis (a guess)

UX people form UX hypotheses

We believe that customers have problem/lack knowledge/behave in this way which leads to consequence and that if we tried solution it would lead to improvement/results

Take actions (try to invalidate)

Hypotheses require action

•  Write it down •  Share it •  Test it (Identify how to measure) •  Revisit and update (write it down again) •  Build off it

Share the knowledge (tell stories)

I’ll give you an example (it’s working)

People weren’t searching

We believe that customers don’t realize they can search in Yammer which leads to customers not finding info they need (so they’ll use Yammer less) and that if we tried making search more noticeable it would lead to customers searching and finding the info they need (so they’ll use Yammer more)

More visible search

Search

So what happened?•  Customers searched more. But only a tiny

bit more. •  Customers who searched more, didn’t

use the product more.

So what did we learn?•  People aren't searching because they don't

notice search: false •  If people searched more, they'd find our

product more valuable: false •  We should invest more effort in improving

the search experience: false •  We don’t know why people don't want to

search: true

Why don’t people want to search?

Research formed a new hypothesisWe believe that customers don’t feel comfortable working openly beyond their trusted team which leads to choosing collaboration tools that feel more “private” and that if we tried focusing on small teams vs. entire companies it would lead to customers feeling comfortable enough to post and share actively (and use Yammer more)

Guiding the overall product direction…

I hope that you’ll find a hypothesis to form today.

I’m always happy to answer questions! @cindyalvarez or [email protected]