Research & Strategy
In a massive organization tackling many different initiatives, my initial projects focused on sharing potential product design approaches (i.e. UX strategies) with product teams.
By introducing the constituent elements of successful UX Design initiatives, and how we could use them in different combinations to achieve specific strategic approaches, the teams could move forward confidently no matter the business realities they faced or the potential limitations those realities introduced.
From formal research efforts to simple chats with stakeholders, strategies for feasible product development were agreed upon and used to deliver on pressing business needs.
Deliverables Included:
- Experience Maps.
- Story Maps.
- Personas & Project Requirements.
- Educational Resources & Collaborative Infosessions.
Experience Mapping - For more complex projects that included multiple user-roles and touchpoints, broader Experience Maps were used to highlight the strengths, weaknesses, and potential opportunities within a problem space.
User-Story Mapping - To understand and account for requirements in a complex project, detailed Story Maps were collaboratively created by the UX Team and verified with stakeholders; this created clear priorities for design and development, and fostered project planning, co-operation, and interdisciplinary accountability.
Education & Collaboration - As UX Strategy was a new concept to most project teams at AstraZeneca, collaborative education sessions were created and leveraged to foster process improvement across the entire organization.
Collaborative Design & UX Team Leadership
As any initial research and planning efforts were nearing completion, I would facilitate discussions between involved UX Team members and members of the project team so that we could begin enacting our desired approach.
Requirements were reviewed, quickly sketched out, and pressure-tested against the technologies they would be built with, which enabled us to leverage all of the expertise within the broader project team.
By using as open and collaborative a process as possible, potential challenges, changes, and complications could be swiftly addressed, ensuring that we could deliver on project goals within established timelines and resources.
Deliverables Included:
- UX Team Recruitment & Skills Development.
- User-Flows & Initial Concept Sketches.
- Detailed Product Mockups.
- High-Fidelity Prototypes.
UX Recruitment & Skills Development - As demand for the UX Team's involvement grew, I was tasked with helping to recruit new team members; once new teammates were brought on board, they were included in a broad array of activities to bolster their skillsets and gain valuable experience.
User-Flows & Concept Sketches - As a first pass at individual screen layouts, these allowed for rapid refinement of requirements through broader project team input and feedback; this provided initial "stress testing" of a product quickly, inexpensively, and with broad team buy-in.
Product Mockups - After initial concept sketches were pressure tested, refined mockups were created; these could be used directly for development work, or further refined into prototypes for additional usability-testing.
High-Fidelity Prototypes - To ensure that users were getting the best experience possible, high-fidelity prototypes were exhaustively tested, demonstrated, and refined with that audience.
Testing, Validation, & Deployment
Wherever possible, our UX prototypes were stress-tested with users in order to validate and refine our work. Ranging from formal efforts to hallway “guerilla-style” testing, this essential function was introduced across several product teams to ensure top-quality results.
Non-UX team members from each project were encouraged to join, observe, and participate in these efforts. By including as many teammates as possible, more usability-testing could be completed in a shorter time, ensuring the best results possible with limited resources.
Deliverables Included:
- Collaborative Process Improvements.
- Product Refinement Requirements & Prioritization.
Heuristic Analysis - For existing products that needed optimization, a detailed Heuristic Analysis was used to prioritize efforts and the resources they would require.
Usability-Testing - Being able to clearly demonstrate how a digital product would work was often crucial for encouraging stakeholder confidence, and subsequently securing funding for further project development.