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Follow Up: Lean Startup Lean UX
Focus, Empathy, Clarity
Posted by Ryan Rand
Topic: Technology
7.8.10
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In June, I attended a Lean Startup Meetup, discussing Lean UX with guest speaker Abe Crystal from Morebetterlabs.com/Ruzuku.com. The premise was to understand Abe's take on Agile UX and simplifying the user experience in startup websites. While I enjoy the simplified thinking, I was also there for the free pizza. However, karma takes over in the form of RTP traffic at 5:30pm, and I arrive just before the presentation starts, with only time to grab a few slices of cold pizza and take my seat.
The crowd is lively, with over a dozen people in the room. A few hands raise when Abe asks if people are currently part of or will be engaging in a startup company. Abe begins his presentation with a few quotes and continues with words of wisdom.
The presentation is about Lean UX (User Experience) and your company's website. Abe shows many examples sites with poor UX and sites that have been simplified to facilitate Lean UX. He begins with a contrast of Yodlee.com and Mint.com, remarking that Mint had only 25% of the startup money of Yodlee, but returned 10x times the investment with its sale to Intuit, while Yodlee returns 10% of its startup money annually.
Yodlee's website was confusing and did not focus on its deliverables. The Mint site is clean, shows clear screens, shots of functionality and focuses on what the prospective customers want -- money management. Abe goes on to discuss more examples (mostly airline and travel sites) of poorly designed sites. One observer in the room provides the example of GoDaddy.com. I agree with her.
Abe divides his presentation into three parts: Strategy is about FOCUS, Research is about EMPATHY, and Design is about CLARITY.
Strategy is about FOCUS
Abe discusses coming up with a mantra, not a mission statement. Mission statements tend to be pie-in-the-sky and are forever lost on framed posters in the break room. Instead of a three to four sentence mission statement, come up with a simplified three word mantra that focuses on what your project delivers.
Think about your future, a tangible future. Abe asked us to visualize our product box sitting on a shelf at Best Buy. What will that box look like? What key features will be printed on the front of the box? This is focus.
Research is about EMPATHY
Abe speaks about understanding your customers. Who are they? What do they look like? What are their pain-points? Put yourself in their shoes and understand why they are visiting your site. Many times companies design their sites around their own visions of what they think is most important to their customers without ever speaking to them.
Take the time to get outside of your building and engage your customers. Do not resort to online surveys. Call them, speak to them, have lunch with them, and engage them in user groups. Abe emphasizes that when you get face time with your customers, use that time to understand their needs and wants; do not use that time to talk about you.
Design is about CLARITY
Why are your customers at your site? It's not about the bells and whistles or the abundance of options. They are there to accomplish one or two tasks. You must understand that you are there to deliver a product or service and then, well, deliver it.
Abe uses more airline site examples to show how Lean UX allows customers to quickly access the reason they are there, to buy tickets. One site is comprised of a ton of features -- from news, links and frequent miles to last minute deals, cars, hotels, and cruises. The other site opens with a large window asking what dates you want to fly, where and when.
Abe also speaks about RITE (Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation). Some of you may be familiar with Agile Development. RITE can simplify it even further with paper prototypes. Yes, paper. Instead of designing and coding prototypes, take paper mock-ups to your customers and allow them to interact with your "site". Abe insists your customer will quickly pick up on this cost and time saving concept and I have to agree with him. Abe asks and challenges you to get customer feedback on your project site without ever writing a line of code.
This was a learning experience with a couple of a-ha moments. Sure, I went for the pizza, but I stayed to hear Abe Crystal's take on Lean UX. I'll leave you with this: Keep your website focused on what you deliver, and keep your customer in your design.
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