How to prioritize your hypothesis so you know what to test first.
The Lean UX Canvas
(Lean UX Canvas V2 is now live) In most of my work these days I don't often use an official canvas. I prefer to pick and choose the assumptions that can be found on the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas and others as appropriate for the client, project or initiative I'm working on and weave them together … Continue reading The Lean UX Canvas
There is no such thing as a killer feature
The other night we had reason to celebrate. Something we'd been waiting on for 2 years had finally come through. We'd worked hard and it paid off. My wife suggested we go out to a steak dinner. Forgetting for a second that I don't eat beef (hey, there's always the "surf" half of "surf n … Continue reading There is no such thing as a killer feature
The biggest mistake in product discovery: missing the value
In 2010 we visited Ireland for the first time. My wife and I made Galway our first stop. This was the first time we'd been this far away from the kids so we wanted to make sure our mobile phones worked properly. Sure enough, as these things have a way of working out, we were … Continue reading The biggest mistake in product discovery: missing the value
Agile doesn’t have a brain
My friend Bill Scott once said at a conference, "Agile doesn't have a brain." What he meant by that is due to Agile's software engineering roots many organizations that have adopted Scrum, XP and similar methodologies have done so through their engineering departments. This has led to the creation of amazing software development departments that … Continue reading Agile doesn’t have a brain
Quantity trumps quality (at first)
I found the following excerpt on Derek Siver's blog. It's from a book called Art and Fear: The ceramics teacher announced he was dividing his class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio would begraded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right graded solely on … Continue reading Quantity trumps quality (at first)
Purity vs. Pragmatism
“That’s not Agile!” “We’re not being lean enough.” “We’re not supposed to make deliverables!” Sound familiar? I hear these statements all the time from teams moving towards a more evidence-based approach to product discovery, conception and production. Somewhere, someone made a decision for the teams to now “do Agile & Lean” … Continue reading Purity vs. Pragmatism
Lean Day: West – a conference for innovative product teams
I'm thrilled to announce the next event we, at Neo, are putting on this fall. Lean Day: West will take place September 16-17, 2013 in the gorgeous city of Portland, OR. Building off the momentum of Lean Day: UX, held back on March 1st, 2013 in NYC, this event is expanded to 2 days (we … Continue reading Lean Day: West – a conference for innovative product teams
Announcing Lean Day: UX – A Lean UX conference in New York City
I'm very proud to announce the launch of Lean Day: UX - a one day, single track Lean UX conference taking place on March 1st, 2013 in New York City. Continuing on the success of this year's Agile UX NYC, we've put together a program that dives deeper in to Lean UX tactics and how … Continue reading Announcing Lean Day: UX – A Lean UX conference in New York City
Using personas for executive alignment
A few weeks ago my colleague Michelle Zassenhaus suggested we pitch the executive team on a persona research project. We discussed the need and merit of this project for a while without reaching a clear consensus. Where I was getting stuck was the need for this exercise given how much face time we actually have … Continue reading Using personas for executive alignment