To understand users and their problems, I engage directly with them by talking with them, moderating studies, and watching them try to use things.
I also engage with users indirectly by analyzing metrics, conducting surveys, or by listening to service calls.
To help understand the competitive landscape, and to identify possible ways to surpass other services, I conduct comparative analyses.
To help me and my coworkers understand the relationships of different ideas and topics within a solution space, I create concept maps.
To help make sense of observations about users and to help understand their real-world problems, I organize data and insights thematically.
Once I understand users and their problems, I help teams empathize with them by creating contextualized personas or journey maps.
To ensure user needs are the focus of product and service strategy, I conduct or participate in workshops with PMs, POs, developers, stakeholders, and designers.
To make sure designs are useful for all target users, I take a mobile-first, accessible-first approach to design.
I flow or breadboard before I wireframe, so I can focus on problem-solving before getting distracted with visuals.
I focus on low fidelity wireframes before going to high fidelity. This helps me innovate different ideas and get relevant user feedback faster.
Once lower fidelity wireframes are tested with users, I help design, test, or audit higher fidelity wireframes.
I continue to assess user needs through delivery and after release, to continuously improve products and services.
To quantitatively measure design impacts, I conduct structured experiments and statistically test measurements.