<\/aside>\nOur client is in the financial space and is very special to me because they were one of my first clients under my Motivate Design brand. My first project for them was doing a few rounds of usability testing, but even during these early sessions, I was pushing them to do more during their time with customers. We ended up discovering a lot more about the customer\u2019s drivers, motivations, and barriers than you would find through typical usability testing. The results led us to working with this client on everything from conducting a mobile diary study; to doing a hybrid of focus groups and in-depth interviews (IDIs)\u2014for example, running a focus group on a topic, then picking a person to do a deep-dive interview on that topic\u2014to conducting online moderated and unmoderated research.<\/p>\n
However, the common thread through all of these projects was that they hired us, as a UX agency, to do the work, while they oversaw the projects. They approved the screener and script, attended the research sessions, and commented on the reports and the resulting insights. While they were happy with the work, I wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
I started realizing that I had internalized more of their customers\u2019 issues because I was sitting with<\/em> them on the other side of the two-way mirror\u2014looking into their eyes and hearing their voices tremble as they talked about the state of their finances\u2014rather than sitting with the client looking through the mirror, as shown in Figure 1.<\/p>\nWhile we were hearing roughly the same themes across these research projects, these themes weren\u2019t yet being addressed in the user experience. For example, people are overwhelmed when it comes to managing their money. Thus, a strategy that nearly every financial institution is tackling is how to simplify managing finances while still giving people a feeling of being in control.<\/p>\n
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Figure 1<\/span>\u2014Looking through the two-way mirror:<\/h4>\n[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/motivate-research.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/InsightsEvent_DarkSideof2WayMirror_reduced.jpg” align=”center” _builder_version=”3.19.12″ align_last_edited=”on|desktop” align_tablet=”center”]<\/p>\n
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What If There Were No Two-way Mirrors?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n
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<\/aside>\nSo we altered our approach, working with the client to craft an\u00a0Insights Event<\/em>.\u00a0Insights<\/em>\u00a0because we aren\u2019t really doing research, we\u2019re digging for ideas and inspiration.\u00a0Event<\/em>\u00a0because this isn\u2019t your typical project. It\u2019s really an event\u2014complete with an official invitation and RSVP, orientation meetings, the nearly perfect execution of a full experience whose goal is to provide a good user experience\u2014and let\u2019s not forget the goody \/ snack bags.<\/p>\nWe started the week with friendship group innovation sessions. We invited people who we think of as thought leaders to the sessions and asked them to bring other thought leaders along. These people operate on another level, and I\u2019ve never taken notes so fast in my life. The Motivate Design team served as the event and table moderators, and members of the client team paired with the thought leaders to complete the design-thinking activities together. We did a few rounds of these activities with debriefs in between. The following are descriptions a few of the activities that are part of a friendship group innovation session:<\/p>\n
\nAct It Out<\/span>\u2014Be the design. Feel the design. Think the design. We encourage each participant to become the design, acting out what they would expect the design to do. This activity uncovers insights into participants\u2019 emotions regarding the way the design would intersect with people\u2019s lives and allows researchers to cross-check how the design flows, behaves, and handles each participant\u2019s context.<\/li>\nDeconstruct \/ Reconstruct<\/span>\u2014We use this activity to capture participants\u2019 initial, honest reactions to commonplace, overused, and sometimes meaningless words in user interfaces. We prepare for this activity by putting each problematic word that we\u2019ve identified during an earlier design review on a cue card. Then we pair up participants and ask them to take turns placing a card over their forehead and asking their partner to give them clues to help them guess the word on the card. This activity identifies over-used words that have lost their wow-factor, as well as contextual discrepancies between form, function, and overall meaning.<\/li>\nDot to Dot<\/span>\u2014Using a brand as a metaphor\u2014for example,\u00a0What if a grocery store was like Uber?<\/em>\u2014we encourage participants to attribute its brand characteristics and promises to another experience. Participants sketch their brand experience and a new experience, making connections at each touchpoint and identifying important brand and experience elements. This gives participants the ability to see traditional experiences from fresh, new perspectives.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nWe started the next day by conducting a class on today\u2019s social trends, then sent the client associates out on field trips, giving them the opportunity to experience these trends firsthand. For example, one of the trends that we identified was\u00a0Back to Basics,<\/em>\u00a0people wanting to create, make, and explore with their hands. We sent pairs of participants to locations in Boston where they could see this trend in action, including the Makerbot store.<\/p>\nIt was rewarding to hear the feedback that the planning around who went to what store mattered. During the experience debriefs, we were able to point out parallels to what our client\u2019s customers experience with their brand. For example, the people on the client team felt that they were in the \u201couter circle\u201d at Makerbot because they didn\u2019t quite understand what their target market is or exactly what they sold. Think of financial institutions: Do you understand how your bank works? What it sells? How they make money off you?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/aside>\nThe evening work consisted of a mixology class\u2014yes, it was work!\u2014where we encouraged the client associates to experiment, create, and disrupt. Again, part of our goal for this project was to move the client out of the back room in the research lab\u2014the dark side of the mirror\u2014and into the play space, where they would feel that they were responsible for coming up with solutions to their customers\u2019 problems. Solving problems requires experimentation and a willingness to fail and try again, as well as some creativity. Mixology offers all of this and more! The evening ended with a shared meal, which gave the group an opportunity for bonding and more discussion that explored the day\u2019s events and looked for parallels that would help us to create great customer experiences.<\/p>\n
During the last day of the Insights Event, we formed teams comprising a member of the thought leadership\u2013friendship group, a Motivate Design UX researcher, and a client associate to conduct a 3-hour ethnography session during which they could dive deeper into how each person manages his or her personal finances.<\/p>\n
Next week, we\u2019ll work together on the analysis of our findings and identify next steps. We\u2019ll also edit the video that we recorded throughout the entire event to showcase the approach and present some of our findings for those who were unable to attend.<\/p>\n
Wrapping Up<\/h2>\n<\/aside>\nDuring the Insights Event, we spent a great, inspiring week with our client. This morning, as I was leaving, a senior member of the client team said, \u201cI don\u2019t know how you guys do this,\u201d indicating not only an appreciation for good research, but also an understanding of how much work they need to do to truly start solving their customers\u2019 problems.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s UX agency is evolving from having relationships with clients who hire us to do projects\u00a0for<\/em>\u00a0them to having clients hire us to educate, inspire, and help them to invent new ways to conduct the projects that we do\u00a0with<\/em>\u00a0them. For us, the days of starting a UX research project with a kickoff meeting, then going away for a week to come back with insights are fading fast.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Related Posts” module_id=”recent-posts” _builder_version=”3.19.12″ text_font=”Montserrat||||||||” header_font_size=”20px” max_width=”800px” module_alignment=”center” custom_padding=”100px||100px|” global_module=”20731″ text_orientation=”left”]<\/p>\n\n
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