THE PRODUCT DESIGN PROCESS
The purpose of the human-centered product design process is simple:
Understand the problem to be solved and who you’re solving it for.
Solve the problem in a way that meets the needs of the user and the customer.
Frequently the customer and the user have divergent requirements. Understanding when this is happening and what the implications are is often one of the most difficult parts of the process.
Here’s a step-by-step breakdown. The first two steps address the problem. The second two are about the solution. Since the first half is essentially investigative, I’ve framed these sections as a series of questions. The second half is primarily generative, and so that language is more operational.
DISCOVER
How does this world work? What are the problems in this world? Who are potential customers? Who are the users in this world and how do they behave, broadly speaking? What is their environment, and what are the opportunities inherent in that environment? What are the engineering capabilities of the org that's creating the product, and what are the relevant possibilites?
Typical activities and outputs include:
- Contextual Inquiry
- Review of Available Literature
- Heuristic Analysis
- Conceptual Modeling
- Interviews & Surveys
- Stakeholder/Customer Workshops
DEFINE
What is the problem that we're going to solve? Who are we solving it for? What is their current journey? What are the gaps and opportunities in that journey? What are the aspects of the environment that are relevant to the problem to be solved, and what are the environmental constraints and opportunities? Typical artifacts and activities include:
- Personas
- Journey Maps
- Concept Maps
- Data Models
- Design Briefs
- Service Blueprints
Ideate
Explore solutions to the problem as defined. Identify hypothetical design solutions and sketch what those might look like. Test potential design solutions with customers, users and key stakeholders. Develop an understanding of the conversation between the product and its users, and how that conversation will be managed. Typical activities and outputs include:
- Sketches
- Wireframes
- Visual Designs
- Prototypes
- Information Architecture
- Content Strategy
Deliver
Translate the design into a product that the customers and users can use. Address limitations and opportunities presented by engineering resources, frameworks and capabilities. Test functionality with users and customers as it is delivered. Test the new product against the old one. Benchmark the new product's performance from a user and customer perspective.
- Production Code
- Negotiating Engineering Limitations
- Leveraging Unexpected Opportunities
- Detailed Design
- Beta, A/B & Multivariate testing
- Measuring the Results
The Release Cycle
CYCLES WITHIN CYCLES
Each step consists of artifacts rendered in increasing levels of fidelity, from inkling to insight, from sketch to production, and from prototype to release.
As we zoom out from the most basic elements, we see cycles within cycles within cycles, composed of parallel elements, much in the same way that fractals are structured.
Collectively, they propel a product or service, along with its users, customers and all of its stakeholders, from earliest pilot, through adoption and eventually sunset.
Note how the release cycle repeats itself in the lifecycle of the entire product.
The Product Lifecycle