My Process
A product designer is a problem solver. My goal is to help the rest of the team understand our users' lives and problems clearly and help design solutions that are useful, elegant, simple and enjoyable to use.
What's more, I believe designers are only truly valuable when we approach projects holistically and weigh the impact of our work on the company's objectives.
In order to achieve that, I follow this process:
01.
Kickoff
- Agree on the goals of the project and its value to the company
- Outline our assumptions
- Define the target audience
- Define the problem(s) to be solved
- All stakeholders should be involved
02.
Explore the landscape
- Research the target audience
- Research existing solutions and competitors
03.
Ideation
- Explore, Define & Prototype the ideas the team comes up with
- For each idea, define the main actions users must be able to achieve
04.
Idea Validation
- Use the prototypes and wireframes from the ideation stage to test selected ideas
- Tests should determine the extent to which our ideas can solve the users' problems
05.
Define an MVP
- As our understanding of the problems our users are trying to solve gets clearer and our ideas are tested and refined, an MVP can be defined
- Settle on the core functionality of our product
- Decide the overall structure of our product
06.
Design Exploration
- Experiment with different visual styles
07.
Design Validation
- Tests should determine the usability of our solutions
- Tests should gauge users' reception of the design
08.
Launch & Refinement
- Once the product is launched in the real world, it's important to keep an eye on analytics and support requests to continue to refine it.
- It's also important to continue interviewing users to ensure we meet their needs as best as possible
I'm experienced with working on tight budgets and on short deadlines so I aim to always think about what approach will help us hit our goals within the constraints of the current project. In other words, I won't blindly follow the process above if a different approach makes more sense.
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