Maire Cleary

The Challenge

Define and reframe problems from the perspective of the people you're designing for so you know how you can make a positive difference to them.

My Role

User Researcher | Design Strategist | Facilitator

The Process

Step 1: Start from the inside-out

• Tap into existing data sources and gather collective intelligence from across the organisation.
  

Study available data points, whatever is available, including- sales figures, customer surveys and where possible usage analytics including trends. This helps to inform research with internal stakeholders and clients and users.

• Interview key stakeholders
  

Establish what the organisation is trying to achieve, whether that be growing their business, reducing costs and/or exploiting capability. Business objectives are defined by people and are informed by a range of motivations - explicit and implicit, emotional as well as rational. This helps uncover not only what leaders are looking to achieve but also any unconscious or hidden blockers to success.

This is the starting point to establishing objectives and key results (OKRs).

• Observe front-line teams
  

Observe front-line teams in actions. Where possible interview them. Who do they interact with and how? Ask provocative questions to uncover how they think, what do they feel.
Understand what they value, what success looks like for them and how this is measured.

Step 2: Learn from the outside-in

• Learn about users, map their journeys and where possible, observe them in their world; what matters most to them and why (moments of truth), what pain points do they experience and what's the impact?
  

• Uncover anxieties driven by the market; the more anxiety driven by the market the greater the opportunity (and potentially complex the solution)
  

• Explore ideal solutions; what does success look like for them, so they become loyal advocates?
  

Step 3: Bring it all together and frame the problem you are trying to solve

• Define the baseline of where you are now both in term of existing service delivery, capability and experience you deliver to end customers
  
• Establish the gaps to target and quantify the magnitude of the change challenge ahead, based on existing strengths and weaknesses
  
• Bring people together and start to build momentum - explore what problems you want to tackle and how you might achieve your vision.
  

Outputs for this phase

• Personas and their journeys
  
• User problems - defined and/or reframed
  
• Baseline on current status or starting point for the change journey
  
• Objectives and Key Results (or OKRs that indicate success)
  
• Rich insights for innovation