Top 3 Ways to use your UX Team for Product Owners

TOP 3 WAYS TO USE
YOUR UX TEAM
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT + USER EXPERIENCE = HAPPY CUSTOMERS

Jeremy Johnson
VP of Customer Experience
.com

We have a unique and established methodology for understanding people in
context — we reveal unmet needs — which drives everything we do. This leads
to a crisp, clear understanding of the customer which shapes the design and
development of new solutions and experiences.
With over 14 years perfecting our approach we have the experience, teams,
skills and scale to deliver sophisticated software solutions that improve any
and all touchpoints across the user journey.
We’re driving digital transformations
DRIVING RESULTS
EXPERIENCE DRIVEN &
We’re working with some of the biggest and best organizations in the world,
helping transform their experience and technology:
— conﬁdential —
Mercedes-Benz Financial Services,
Capital One, Samsung Electronics,
The Container Store, Neiman Marcus
and many more ...

• DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
• MOBILE SOLUTIONS
• FLIGHT OPERATION CENTERS
• CALL CENTER IMPROVEMENTS
• RIDE SHARING OPERATIONS
• INTERNET OF THINGS
• E-COMMERCE
• MOBILE RESPONSIVE WEB
• RETAIL POINT-OF-SALE
• AUTOMOTIVE UI
• ANALYTICS DASHBOARDS
• CRM SOLUTIONS
• ERP SYSTEMS
PROJECTS: INDUSTRIES:
• AUTOMOTIVE
• BANKING
• CONSUMER
• EDUCATION
• ELECTRONICS
• ENGINEERING
• ENERGY
• OIL AND GAS
• FASHION
• FINANCIAL (FINTECH)
• FOOD AND BEVERAGE
• GOVERNMENT
• HEALTHCARE
• INSURANCE
• MANUFACTURING
• REAL ESTATE
• RETAIL
• TECHNOLOGY
• TELECOMMUNICATIONS
• TRANSPORTATION

projekt202 is the leader in applying experience strategy and
observational insights to the development of mobile, cloud, web
and workplace software. The company is actively redefining the
user experience (UX) and changing the ways people interact with
technology around the world. Recognized by industry analysts for
setting the standard for the way modern businesses develop
software, projekt202 builds emotionally rich, resonant solutions
that enable customers and end users to fully realize technology’s
potential in today’s connected world. 
Customer Centric
Software Development
Understanding the problem is harder
and takes longer than designing a
solution.”
“
Product Director at
Luke Wroblewski—

Top 3 Ways to use your UX Team for Product Owners

@jeremyjohnson slideshare.com/jeremy jeremyjohnsononline.com

Software development has changed.

And not just from waterfall to Agile…

“ “Agile doesn’t have a brain”
Bill Scott
VP Engineering PayPal
— http://www.jeffgothelf.com/blog/agile-doesnt-have-a-brain/

“89%of companies believes that customer experience
will be their primary basis for competition by
2016, versus 36% four years ago.”

https://issuu.com/anttipitkanen/docs/droi_measurabledesign_2012_issuu_en/1
Additional revenue via better
experience which drive more
customers & sales.
MORE REVENUE
Savings via improved
processes, systems, via
digital transformation.
REDUCED COSTS
Get to market with the right
product or service faster, and
hit the mark the 1st time.
TIME TO MARKET
Identify new concepts and
revenue streams that
leverage your brand in new
services or products.
INNOVATION
DESIGN ADDS BUSINESS VALUE…

When you’re able to build
deep insights about your
customers you can use
design methods to prioritize
experience enhancements
across products.
THE RIGHT BACKLOG,
PRIORITIZED
Technology is a key component
to your overall CX. Your brand is
your app, your site, your call
center. Building engaging, smart
platforms to support your
customers is the fastest way to
improve CX in today’s world.
IMPROVES
OVERALL CX
Companies are looking for
iterative improvements that
have big impact.
Understanding customer
needs across touchpoints
sets the stage to add these
big improvements.
CONSISTENT
INNOVATION PIPELINE
Improving your business
metrics mean adding
additional value for your
customers. Design toolsets
can help understand user
needs and emotions to help
unlock and validate this value.
VALIDATED VALUE
FOR CX & EX
AND SOLVES MANY COMMON CHALLENGES…

INSIGHTS &
IDEAS
VALIDATION
BACKLOGS
DESIGN
VALIDATION DEVELOPMENT
BACKLOG
LIVE TEST
SPRINT
DEVELOPMENT
SPRINT
DEVELOPMENT
Ideas & Insights
(AKA Hypothesis)
Validated Design
Experiments
Validated Development
ExperimentsLaunch

““Understanding the what and why
around your customer’s behavior is
one of the top things you need to do
well to be successful.”

Starting with people to build 
an experience strategy
An experience strategy identifies the most important,
holistic experience for both a business and a
customer. That identification process involves much
more than sending out a survey or conducting an
interview.
You need to spend time with people in their
context, in the places where they live and work, to
observe, to build authentic relationships and to
uncover the real truths that shed light on
understanding a customer's journey with a company.
Mapping Journey Demonstrating Bill Pay
Building Empathy

PROJEKT202 METHODOLOGY
ACROSS THE ORGANIZATION
REVEALING REALITY FOCUSED INNOVATION BUILDING & EVOLVING LAUNCH MEASURE & LEARN
CUSTOMER / USER INSIGHTS
• Validation Tests
• Prototypes
• UX Design
• Usability Tests
• Co-creation
• 404 Testing
• Generative Research
• In-Person Studies
• CX Journey Maps
• Personas
• Diary Studies
• Prioritized Enhancements
• A/B Test
• Iterative Experiments
• Live Testing
• Analytics Tooling
• Agile Development
• DevOps
• Design Systems
• Automated Testing
• Full Stack Development
• NPS / VoC
• Analytics
• Feedback
• Customer Acquisition

1. “Knew” PhotoShop
2. Made things look good
3. Could code CSS
4. Make it look like your brand
1. Deep Design methodology
2. Trained in understanding customer needs
3. Leads teams in building empathy
4. Can help shape product strategy
WHAT DOES A UX DESIGNER DO?
IN THE PAST TODAY

We’re not trying to take your job…

“…as a product leader you are only as good
as your team, and setting them up for
success and giving them the space and air
cover to do their best is ultimately how you
and your product will be successful.”
— http://www.mindtheproduct.com/2017/03/product-managers-not-ceo-anything/
“

HOW MANY PEOPLE
HAVE A UX TEAM?
#1

#1#2
HOW MANY PEOPLE
HAVE A UX TEAM AT THE
TOP OF THEIR GAME?

#1#2
HOW MANY PEOPLE
HAVE A UX TEAM AT THE
TOP OF THEIR GAME?
PROPER RATIOS
LEADING
CUSTOMER
INSIGHTS
PART OF
SENIOR TEAM
HELP DRIVE
DECISIONS
EMBEDDED
GET YOU CLOSER TO
THE CUSTOMER
MORE THAN JUST
“VISUAL DESIGN”
VALIDATING
BACKLOG ITEMS
BUILDING
INTERACTIVE
PROTOTYPES
ABLE TO
MOVE
METRICS
UNDERSTAND
TECHNOLOGYCAN TALK
BUSINESS
VISUALIZING
USER
JOURNEYS
CAN LEAD
DISCUSSIONS
INTERVIEWING
USERS
DESIGN
PROCESS

CREATE
UNDERSTANDING
VISUALIZE AS MUCH
AS POSSIBLE
VALIDATE  
YOUR IDEAS
THREE (OF THE MANY) WAYS YOU CAN
UTILIZE YOUR UX TEAM

User Researcher: “User researchers are the eyes, ears and
conscience of your product manager,” the guide explains.
User researchers provide the knowledge that ensures that
you “build products that delight your customers through a
great user experience.”
“
13 Jobs That Now Matter The Most, From A Digital Perspective

“…learning everything about the customers becomes the most
important focus of creating the product strategy. When
companies talk about features, they are saying, “Look at us. Look
at what we can do.” When companies talk about the problems of
the customers, they are saying, “Look at what you’re dealing
with. Look at how we want to help.””
“
- Bruce McCarthy

“The solution? Exposure hours. The number of hours each
team member is exposed directly to real users interacting
with the team's designs or the team's competitor's designs.
There is a direct correlation between this exposure and the
improvements we see in the designs that team produces.”
““It's the closest thing we've found to a silver bullet…”
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fast-path-great-ux-increased-exposure-hours-jared-spool
Jared Spool

“What’s important to remember is that customer journeys
aren’t created; they’re discovered. When we try to create
journeys, we fall into one of these two traps: we either
hallucinate customer needs or throw away the customer
experience playbook altogether and focus on the needs we
know intimately: our own.”
“
— Jake Sorofman
http://blogs.gartner.com/jake-sorofman/customer-journeys-are-discovered-not-created/

“You know, we have all the data in the world. We know what
our users are doing and have analytics to track and measure
it, but we don’t know why they do it. We don’t have any
frameworks for understanding behavior outside of what we
speculate about inside the building.”
“
—

“Investing in user research is just about the only way to
consistently generate a rich stream of data about customer
needs and behaviors… it informs product managers,
engineers, and just about everyone else. It forms the
foundation of intuitive designs, indispensable products, and
successful companies.”
“
—

“The problem is, no customer experience technology
platform, by itself, can provide deep insights into why
customers do what they do. These systems can track an
infinite number of transactions, but they can't identify the
key actions the company must take to gain more fully
engaged customers.”
“
—
http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/185345/quantitative-customer-experience-metrics-aren-enough.aspx?utm_source=twitterbutton&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=sharing
Quantitative Customer Experience Metrics Aren't Enough

“Understanding the problem is harder and
takes longer than designing a solution.”
“
Product Director at
Luke Wroblewski

What does
“understanding” look like?

Mapping Journey Demonstrating Bill Pay

journey maps
We identify every step in your customer or user journey.

personas
Through observations we develop a deep understanding of  
your users and customers.

product opportunities
Visualizing insights and opportunities highlighted from customer journeys.

co-creation
Working with your users to explore and refine solutions for improved
products and services.

We wrote the book on helping businesses
gain insight from their customers and
users — insights that lead to effective,
successful launches.
Designing Software for People:
Application Development in the Experience Age
experience.projekt202.com

Qualitative Quantitative
Analytics
A/B Testing
Clickstream
404 Testing
Surveys “Voice of Customer”
NPS
Experian
Contextual Inquiries
Personas
Journey Maps
Workﬂow Diagrams
Aﬃnity Diagramming
Validation Testing
Usability Testing

“Observing users in person provides you with data that
surveys and behavioral data simply can’t, just as surveys
and behavioral metrics provide you with data and
reliability that qualitative work can’t. You need both— and
you need to do both well”
“
https://medium.com/@mgallivan/the-case-for-talking-to-users-in-the-age-of-big-data-bca4159e9620
Matt Gallivan

Customer experience (Cx) professionals know that the right step
on the path to delivering good experiences is doing research to
understand their customers. Yet many fail to recognize that it’s
easy to draw false conclusions — and that doing so is even more
dangerous than being ignorant. in this report, we warn Cx pros
about the most common pitfalls and explain how to adapt your
practices and mindset to avoid them — and get the insights you
need to succeed.
Build Real Customer
Understanding
How To Avoid Research Pitfalls And Achieve Insight Instead

Mapping tasks and emotions to
discover deep customer & user
insights via observational methods
Prioritizing those insights into
experience enhancements and
iterating throughout design
Delivering the right technology
solutions, fast — with a focus on
improving your business

we like to translate requirements into experiences

“Developing a product without user research is essentially
one expensive experiment which, according to
aforementioned industry benchmarks, has a 90% chance of
not paying off (at least without modifications post-launch).”
“
—
http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/185345/quantitative-customer-experience-metrics-aren-enough.aspx?utm_source=twitterbutton&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=sharing
Calculating the ROI of Digital Prototyping
Nis Frome

“I’m also hoping very much to see more validation of ideas.
In other words, let’s stop just shipping features, crossing
our fingers, and hoping they work. Let’s figure out how we
can test whether we’re moving in the right direction before
we commit six months and hundreds of thousands of
dollars toward building something.
“
—
Calculating the ROI of Digital Prototyping
Laura Klein
http://blog.wootric.com/product-managers-stop-worrying-about-building-the-wrong-thing-on-schedule-a-qa-with-laura-klein/

“Remember that our higher order objective is to validate our
ideas the fastest, cheapest way possible. Actually building
and launching a product idea is generally the slowest, most
expensive way to validate the idea.”
“
—
Dual-Track Agile
Marty Cagan
http://svpg.com/dual-track-scrum/

“…from $1 invested in UX, you save $10 in fixing issues
during development, and $100 if the product has been
already released.”
“ 1:10:100
http://nearsoft.com/blog/how-to-make-100-for-every-dollar-you-invest-in-ux-3/

“… due to poor
requirements definition”
“…of projects scrapped, or end
up being underwhelming”
“…in developer time spent on
avoidable rework”
“$600 billion spent on digital projects
— with billions wasted…”
30%
UP TO
67%
UP TO
50%
UP TO
[CNBC — Tech spending isn’t all it’s cracked up to be] [usability.gov — Benefits of UCD][IAG — Business Analysis Benchmark Report]
— all avoidable!! —

“You’re not building to build, you’re building to
answer. The prototype is thrown away after a
sprint 99% of the time.”
“
—
Design Sprint
Todd Lombardo
http://www.mindtheproduct.com/author/ctodd-lombardo/

Usability Test Iterative Validation
You have a solution already launched, and you’re
looking for areas that could use improvements.
Testing with actual users in a 1-1 setting with task
based scenarios you’ll capture many of the key issues.
A non-functional prototype is validated with limited
work behind it - to make sure we’re heading in the
right direction early in the process. And WAY before
development starts to build. This is also done in a 1-1
setting, but changes are made on the ﬂy.

https://material.uplabs.com/posts/top-3-of-2016

01 View driver rating
02 Choose car
03 Logo on car
04 Driver info
05 Track driver’s arrival
06 Auto-location/911
07 Rate driver
08 Record driver
09 Stipulate store
10 Browse catalog
11 Type my order
12 Deliver ASAP
13 Scheduled delivery
14 Photo of Item
15/16 ID Badge/Uniform
17 Hand delivery
18 Confirm received
19 Courier
20 Errands
-1.00 -.075 -0.50 -0.25 0 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00
Stacked coeﬃcients based on Kano rankings

small, purchase, and general
merchandise. I organize the
stacks so I can just grab the item
quickly instead of walking back
and worth.
“
”
L
concentrating on how we interpreted the
information ourselves.AFFINITY
WALK
THE RESUL
Over 375 Oppo
arose from the
CORPORATE PAR
Dionne James
Azure Hicks
Leigh-An Kennedy
Mary Brown
Dashboard
Customer History
Daily
Buys products
Compensation commission hourly
Goals
Sales
Store goals
Team Goals
Filters
Daily, weekly, monthly
Region
Transition history
KEY DESIGN
PRINCIPLES
WHAT ARE DESIGN PRINCIPLES?
Experience principles are guidelines for solving
a challenge in dependent of a specific solution.
These principles translate our findings into
design directives based on an understanding  
of the design space and the users.
WHY KEY DESIGN PRINCIPLES?
These principles outline what is necessary to
achieve success, giving designers and
implementers a framework in which to generate
solutions that align with employee needs and
motivations and to serve as guideposts at
decision points.
MAKE EMPLOYEES MOBILE
TECHNOLOGY
5
All employees currently spend a lot of time walking
the store to complete their tasks. By providing the
be able to complete tasks more efficiently, by sear
up information while out on the floor or in the back
processes, making employees faster and less likely
Associated User Personas: 
The Overseer  
The Achiever  
The Orchestrator 
The Warehouse Guard
VERY HIGH PRIORITY
Make Employees Mobile
Codes to Tag Items
VERY HIGH PRIORITY
OPPORTUNITIES
Increase Readability
Tracking Inventory Tool
Pricing Tool
RITY
TIONS
e
lves,
uch
ecific
ed to
ive
REAL TIME UPDATES
With multiple employees working in the system on multiple
devices, in order to maintain consistency the system needs to
update in real time between devices. For example a customer
pays off a loan and takes in a large amount of money, the
system the manager is on in the back room needs to reflect
that immediately in order for them to make decisions with up to
date information.
Associated User Personas: 
TECHNOLOGY
14
CSR
INVENTORY
Hi, I have a
guitar
James comes in to get a loan on a
guitar. Mary inputs the model number
to pull up the suggested price for a
ITEM INTAKE
After giving James his loan, Mary
attaches a pawn ticket to the guitar,
then takes it into the back room and
places it on a shelf. She scans the shelf
and that location is associated with the
guitar in the system.
PLACE IN BACKROOM
The guitar has fallen out of loan, so Mary
pulls it for inventory. She takes the guitar
from the shelf, scans the ticket on it to
identify it, then prints out a price tag. She
PFI
Dennis is interested in purchasing the
guitar. Mary scans it and sees a
description, speciﬁcations, and an image
of the item. She also sees how long it has
been in loan, how long it's been on the
ﬂoor, and how much the store paid for it to
help her negotiate.
ON SALES FLOOR
CSR
GETTING A LOAN ON AN ITEM
CUSTOMER ARRIVES
Customer
arrives Verify customer’s
informationExisting customer
CUSTOMER SHOWS ITEM
New item
Serial number Pull up item via serial/
model number
No serial number
Previously
loaned-on item
Customer
shows item
System suggests
price based on:
Add customer’s
informationNew customer
NEGOTIATE WITH CUSTOMER
Negotiate
with customer
Distribute cash
Search for item
with categories
Item
Condition
Customer pickup stats
Similar items priced
regionally & nationwide
Find item in
customer’s history
Verify item is
same as before
oans Backroom Manager Shift Leads Pawn Brokers Asst Managers Managers
11
2
1

PROPER RATIOS
LEADING
CUSTOMER
INSIGHTS
PART OF
SENIOR TEAM
HELP DRIVE
DECISIONS
EMBEDDED
GET YOU CLOSER TO
THE CUSTOMER
MORE THAN JUST
“VISUAL DESIGN”
VALIDATING
BACKLOG ITEMS
BUILDING
INTERACTIVE
PROTOTYPES
ABLE TO
MOVE
METRICS
UNDERSTAND
TECHNOLOGYCAN TALK
BUSINESS
VISUALIZING
USER
JOURNEYS
CAN LEAD
DISCUSSIONS
INTERVIEWING
USERS
DESIGN
PROCESS

http://blog.invisionapp.com/product-managers-visual-designers/

HAVE THEY
WORKED
FOR BIG
COMPANIES?

ARE THEY
PASSIONATE?
CAN THEY
ARTICULATE?
CAN THEY LEAD,
DIRECT,
COLLABORATE?
DO THEY
UNDERSTAND
THE PURPOSE
OF DESIGN?

VALIDATE  
YOUR IDEAS
VISUALIZE AS MUCH
AS POSSIBLE
CREATE
UNDERSTANDING

BUILD BETTER PRODUCTS:  
A MODERN APPROACH TO
BUILDING SUCCESSFUL USER-
CENTERED PRODUCTS
PRODUCT LEADERSHIP:  
HOW TOP PRODUCT MANAGERS
LAUNCH AWESOME PRODUCTS
AND BUILD SUCCESSFUL TEAMS

Jeremy Johnson
VP of Customer Experience
www.jeremyjohnsononline.com
THANKS!

We wrote the book on helping businesses
gain insight from their customers and
users — insights that lead to effective,
successful launches.
Designing Software for People:
Application Development in the Experience Age
experience.projekt202.com

Top 3 Ways to use your UX Team for Product Owners

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