Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
The Problem Space
Summary
Over 3 decades of software design and development, we have seen the creation and proliferation of tools that help our teams be great at the solution space - diagramming, sketching, prototyping, tracking, measuring. How might we make ourselves better at working in the problem space? In this videoconference, we brainstorm and explore the topic, and maybe even inspire someone to build that perfect tool.
Key Insights
-
•
There is a wide variety of prototyping tools, but tooling for early problem space research is underdeveloped.
-
•
UX researchers spend significant time manual coding and synthesizing interview transcripts without much tool automation.
-
•
Language mapping using natural language processing could help extract user narratives and keywords to better understand user thinking.
-
•
Data repositories across organizations often fail due to tool complexity and lack of cross-disciplinary accessibility.
-
•
Collaborative tools like Mural facilitate real-time brainstorming and affinity mapping in remote teams.
-
•
Hypothesis definition is a largely social and iterative process, reliant on team communication rather than technical tooling.
-
•
Mapping assumptions from user and business outcomes supports prioritizing testable prototypes early.
-
•
Tooling that connects research questions, assumptions, tests, and outcomes could provide critical ‘glue’ for the research process.
-
•
Research approaches differ greatly depending on context, from startups to established enterprises requiring flexible tooling.
-
•
Remote work increases reliance on digital collaborative tools but also surfaces challenges in managing distributed inputs and synthesis.
Notable Quotes
"We have eight million prototyping tools but not many tools that help us spend more time in the problem space."
"I suspect there are specific tasks we could support more effectively with dedicated tools."
"Langauge is what shapes us, and extracting keywords helps us create narratives to understand how people think."
"Data repositories often fail because of the complexity in cataloging and who can access the information."
"We still do a lot of coding transcripts by hand, and I’m not sure where the ideal digital intersection is."
"The hardest thing with hypotheses is looking for the disconfirming evidence, not just the confirmatory."
"I’d love a tool that combines research questions, assumptions, tests, and outcomes all in one place."
"Different organizations need different approaches; it’s hard to generalize research tooling needs."
"Tools like Mural are great for remote real-time sticky note brainstorming and affinity mapping."
"Once you have a testable prototype, you can validate and iterate quickly, which makes a broad early approach useful."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"The difference between the way people talk about how things are done and how they are actually done reveals unconscious assumptions."
Carl TurnerYou Can Do This: Understand and Solve Organizational Problems to Jumpstart a Dead Project
March 28, 2023
"Consumers are clamoring for payment to be embedded in their devices because payment can be a pain point in digital commerce."
Karen PascoeDeveloping Experience Teams and Talent in the Enterprise
June 8, 2016
"We couldn’t find just one word to describe our third value so we made one up: humbladent—humble and confident together."
Jilanna WilsonDistributed Design Operations Management
October 23, 2019
"We have over 30 contracting teams spread across roughly 10 vendors all working on parts of the veteran experience landscape."
Shawna Hein Kevin HoffmanCreate a Cohesive Civic Design Practice Across Agency, Vendors, and Contracts
November 17, 2022
"Regulations aren’t obstacles to dismiss but tools to respect and embrace that help us protect grandma."
Barb SpantonDoing Work That Matters: A Look Beyond The Idealistic Notion of 'Doing Meaningful Work'
June 10, 2022
"Dana is a reliable, solutions-oriented designer who prefers honest feedback but needs clear expectations."
Briana ThomasThe Quiet Force: Uncovering Hidden Leadership in High-Impact Design Teams
September 24, 2024
"Service designers connect the dots, which represent elements, teams, processes, policies, and customer needs that all must align."
Gina MendoliaTherapists, Coaches, and Grandmas: Techniques for Service Design in Complex Systems
December 3, 2024
"UX researchers should learn Python or R and how to leverage AI APIs to process unstructured data."
Lija Hogan Milan Mijatovic Sam Proulx Louis RosenfeldThree Years Out: Perspectives on the Near-Term Future of User Research
March 15, 2024
"Design ops is always swinging wildly between priorities, making partners wonder why invest if you’re always going this way or that."
John Calhoun Rachel PosmanTwo Sides of the DesignOps Coin: Teams Ops and Product Ops
January 8, 2024
