User Stories Must Die

I knew the traditional Agile user story was lifeless and disconnected from the real world long before I could articulate why. Then I came across Alan Klement’s post on replacing user stories with Job Stories, which builds on top of the Jobs-to-be-Done framework.

Instead of the usual “As a / I want / so that” structure, a Job Story looks like this:

• When [I’m in a certain situation]
• I want to [take some action]
• so I can [achieve some outcome].

I’m in the middle of synthesizing a pile of customer research right now, and I’m kind of amazed how well the Job Story lets me encapsulate what I’ve learned in literally one sentence. Traditional design methodologies offer other ways to capture and share these insights, but boiling it down that much is very compelling.

Another benefit I’m seeing is knowing how much more research is needed. That is, if you can’t write the Job Story to explain a behavior, you’re not done interviewing.

Scenarios Are More Than Use Cases

It’s not uncommon for a designer to join a project in which “the use cases are already written.” This documentation attempts to describe in words how a user will complete a particular task within the system.

Scenarios take this further and include the context around the action to form a complete story of a person in the real world using the product to create a positive outcome. In the example shown here (Square’s credit card reader), I’ve intentionally de-emphasized the steps around charging the card to highlight the surrounding context. Reviewing the full story helps the team identify additional functionality the product needs to serve this customer:

• The charge needs to be authorized in less than 5 seconds. (Count it out and imagine being the buyer, waiting and drumming your fingers.)

• The seller needs an easy way to cancel or refund the charge. (Someone will hit the wrong button in the chaos of the trade show floor.)

• A simple way to keep/decrement inventory would be a value-add for the seller.

Imagine if this team stopped at simply “meeting the requirement” that the seller swipe the card and the buyer signs with their finger. That notion is abstract beyond the point of helping the team know if they can serve this customer. Instead ask how your product will help a specific person get through a specific situation.

Prioritizing Features with Cards

Amberlight Partners created an innovative, visually-oriented way to engage users in prioritizing future product ideas. First, they create a “card” for each idea featuring an illustration of the concept. This way, the user understands the gist of the idea without getting hung up on the potential UI.

Then, the user places the card in one of three categories:

1. Really important

2. Nice to have

3. I wouldn’t use this

Finally, the person running the activity asks the user what led to their decisions.

Tip: Don’t over-explain the possible features and bias the users. After all, it’s likely they will get little to no explanation in the real world.

User Research at Pixar

To add more realism to the bow and arrow scenes in the movie Brave, some Pixar employees took an archery class to familiarize themselves with the fine details. If you’ve seen the film, you know the pivotal scene this yielded.

Pixar President Ed Catmull shares this and many other details about what made their company great in his new book. If you want to build innovation and creativity into your culture, read this book immediately.

Take the Leap and Talk to Customers

The leap of faith scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade struck me as a good metaphor for doing customer interviews: just do it and you’ll be fine.

But after thinking more about it, I realize it’s deeper than that. There is no actual danger—only the illusion of danger created by the perspective you have on the situation. When you look at it differently, you see there’s nothing to be afraid of.

Best of all, when you figure out the “secret” and get through it, you make the path clear for others.

Wearing the Empathy Suit

Chrysler’s empathy suit

Let’s go out on a limb and say most minivan buyers have multiple children, and many of those have at least one child that needs a car seat. If your family is still growing, what’s it like to actually use a minivan?

Chrysler’s new Test of Ownership ad campaign focuses on the daily user experience of their minivan, and shows how their team uses a pregnancy-simulating “empathy suit” to test the van’s features.

Often times, the team designing and building a product is not part of the target audience. It’s easy to forget this simple fact and miss your customer’s mark by a wide margin. Be prepared to go out of your way to test that your product works for people.