My process always starts with gaining an understanding of the business drivers behind a product or initiative. For a product that’s being redeveloped I’ll analyse it for how it is performing (analytics data if available); how user friendly, accessible & competitive it is (using heuristics to benchmark it against a range of factors; how functional for vision impaired or other disabled users; SWOT against competitors providing similar content or services). By learning how a business wants this product positioned and seeing how competitive it really is allows me to more accurately recruit the right participants to test. 

Early discovery work for a non-existent product requires gaining in-depth knowledge on how the target users already achieve tasks associated with similar products or services. This allows a hypothesis to be formed surrounding what is required from the product or service with the aim to validate theories through testing. Recruiting prospective users to participate in workshops for the purpose of identifying task based goals and any pain points encountered with existing competitor products is then explored. Depending on the duration and budget of a project a co design workshop may be facilitated to help elicit blue sky functionality for hypothetical dream functionality which is then dialed back within real world constraints (scope, budget, time).

Once the initial research efforts solidify a base to work from, user stories will be written (if working Agile) and from here functionality will be explored in the MVP (low or high fidelity prototypes depending on stage). I find that confluence and JIRA are ideal for tracking workflow into the development cycle as visual reference material can be included to reinforce functionality and ensure a centralised point of knowledge is available to all team members. Acting in an advisory capacity I strive to oversee the entire design and development process to ensure the project vision isn’t diluted or compromised by scope creep or other debilitating factors.

Where insights gained from user research expose gaps for improvement I stand firm that a stringent level of accessibility is essential for any digital product to be deemed truly successful.  At the same time the challenge is to push the boundaries of conventional ideation to the limits of technical capability & avoiding the comfortable limitations imposed by the tried and true. Risk aversion has to be assessed on an individual project-to-project basis, but introducing incremental improvements to an experience should always be prioritised. Tapping into device centric capabilities (such as geo) as well as looking to play off of built environmental touch points (using NFC or RFID) are areas I see as bringing great opportunity for better engaging users who choose to spend more time connected on the go than at home. Of course, I start with research to inform design decisions but my background in creative services ensures I strive for originality and breaking conventions while meeting business needs.