Discovery

Get fully immersed in a client’s business and brand. Define the problem or opportunity. Understand the business goals and help define hypotheses, outcomes and high-level features. Align on success metrics and KPIs.

Common activities and deliverables:
Stakeholder interviews, metrics analysis, digital maturity assessment, heuristic evaluation, competitive landscape survey and analysis, UX audit / expert review, definition of assumptions, hypotheses, outcomes and high-level features

Research

Identify the users. Understand their behaviors, wants, needs and pain points. Empathize with them. Determine where user needs and business needs come together.

Common activities and deliverables:
User interviews and observation, qualitative user testing, metrics analysis, implementation and monitoring of data gathering tools (screen recording, heat maps, scroll maps, click maps, form analytics, micro-surveys), trend and cultural landscape research, persona development, journey mapping, feature definition

Design

Design and redesign. Collaborate and iterate. Prototype and experiment. Include voices from disparate teams in order to capitalize on collective intelligence.

Common activities and deliverables:
Collaborative design workshops & brainstorming, sitemaps & taxonomy studies, user flow diagrams, low- and high-fidelity design and prototyping, qualitative user testing and design validation

Optimization

Once live, implement a program of ongoing testing, optimization and enhancement.

Common activities and deliverables:
Metrics analysis, implementation (if not already in place) and monitoring of data gathering tools, quantitative user testing (A/B testing), qualitative user testing, enhancement prioritization & roadmapping (backlog management)