Really, Really Rapid Prototyping: Flash Builds and User-Driven Innovation - NFAIS 2015

REALLY, REALLY RAPID PROTOTYPING: FLASH BUILDS & USER-DRIVEN INNOVATION

February 23, 2015

Alex Humphreys, JSTOR Labs@abhumphreys

NFAIS Annual Conference 2015

JSTOR is a not-for-profit

digital library of academic

journals, books, and primary

sources.

Ithaka S+R is a not-for-profit

research and consulting service

that helps academic, cultural,

and publishing communities

thrive in the digital

environment.

Portico is a not-for-profit

preservation service for digital

publications, including

electronic journals, books, and

historical collections.

ITHAKA is a not-for-profit organization that helps the academic

community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record

and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways.

A new-ish team at ITHAKA

Mission: to seek out new concepts and opportunities, to refine and to validate them through research and experimentation.

Among our methods: Flash Builds*(or a version of them)

* We first heard of Flash Builds from Marty Cagan, describing the work of the Nordstrom Innovation Lab.

CASE STUDY #1: JSTOR SNAP

ONE WEEK IN ANN ARBOR…

https://vimeo.com/120185616

THE FINISHED PROTOTYPE

http://labs.jstor.org/snap

CASE STUDY #2: UNDERSTANDING SHAKESPEARE

PARTNERSHIP W/ FOLGER

Folger Shakespeare Library

• Folger Digital Texts

• Shakespeare Quarterly

• Scholars and students

Objective: demonstrate the value of Folger Digital Texts to scholars and students and demonstrate how it can be cross-referenced with Shakespeare Quarterly.

JSTOR

• The full archive run of SQ

• 2000+ other journals

• A newly-formed Labs team

Objective: validate the value of using a primary text as a portal into secondary literature.

THE FINISHED PROTOTYPE

http://labs.jstor.org/shakespeare

THE INGREDIENTS

• A diverse team with technical, design and business skills

• The best products combine technical, design and business innovations toward a single goal

• Barest expression of that goal = Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

INGREDIENTS

A TEAM

Biz Image source: http://uxtraordinary.com/venn-pie-agram/

• Flexible technology that allows for componentization, and continuous deployment

• Ability to produce, present, augment and query content in a variety of manners (aka data science)

• A safe-space to fail, either through a Labs team, an A/B test or in-person testing

• Comfort with uncertainty

• The time to dedicate to the work – eliminate distractions; timed works

INGREDIENTS

A SPACE TO INNOVATE

Cu

ltu

ral

Te

ch

nic

al

• The ability to show work to users early and often, with the whole team present.

• User-research skills and experience:- Listening deeply- Having multiple tools, fit

for purpose- Knowing what can and

can’t be learned from a user

• Hypothesis-creation skills and the discipline to know what you’re trying to learn when

INGREDIENTS

USERS

• Seeing through a user’s eyes, you see the ecosystem in which your product operates

• That helps show opportunities / challenges that can’t easily be met

• Partners can help to fill those gaps

• Our best partnerships have been open, exploratory collaborations

INGREDIENTS

A PARTNER

INGREDIENTS

A PENCIL

THANK YOU

Alex HumphreysAVP, JSTOR LabsITHAKA

http://labs.jstor.org

@abhumphreys

[email protected]

Further Reading

• Lean Startup, Eric Ries

• Marty Cagan’s Blog: http://svpg.com/articles/

• UX for Lean Startups, Laura Klein

• Lean Analytics, Croll & Yoskovitz

APPENDIX