HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN
THOUGHT PROVOKERS
Thank you for getting a quote with us First name!
That was the subject line of an email I've just received from an insurance company.
Clearly they're not walking in their customer's shoes.
Start the conversation
Gen Z must be the most misunderstood demographic in history. They're either creative geniuses or specious snowflakes ...depending on who you ask.
Well if you're endeavouring to meet their needs, maybe the ones you should be asking are them.
As Stefani Okamoto shares in the Leading Up podcast (S07E05): "First and foremost, the thing that I do is I have the conversation, right? I feel like the one thing managers tend to do the most is they avoid. That's going to be too hard, or I don't want to say the wrong thing, or I don't want to do the wrong thing, or I'm uncomfortable so I'm going to avoid it. And the reality is, what you need to do is have the courage to lean in and start the conversation. You might not get it right, but it's better than not saying anything at all."
I consider this excellent advice – and not just for Gen Z. Because if you asked me, I'd say regardless of their date of birth, you'll discover that humans are more similar than they are different.
When the data and the anecdotes disagree
Data is game changing, but are you measuring the right thing?
Jeff Bezos famously demonstrated the disconnect by calling the Amazon contact center during a business meeting!
Who else has the guts (or the smarts) to experience their own customer service?
Holiday reading guide
As the year winds down – and many of us start thinking about buying gifts! – I'd like to draw your attention to three of my favorite HCD-related books:
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The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage - The business case for Design Thinking.
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Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days - What I like about this book is the conviction that solving your customer's problems needn't be overly laborious or time consuming.
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Solve Problems That Matter: Design, Build & Launch Your Social Enterprise Idea - Use HCD for good.
A super skill in the age of AI
In my line of work, I'm often asked whether robots will replace jobs. My honest answer is that while I think jobs will be impacted, the future remains human.
"Regardless of how advanced the technology becomes … it's also important to recognize that we'll always serve customers, whether they're internal or external to the organization. That means the future remains human, and those humans will continue to have goals, wants, needs, and expectations. Sure, the software can crunch numbers in a heartbeat, and an agent can automate manual processes, but are they crunching the right numbers and automating the right processes? To answer this question, we need to ensure the technology is solving the right things and solving them right. And that is the premise of Human Centered Design."
Source: eLearning Industry
People use apps
I watched The Internship again last night, and while it's cheesy and oh so predictable, I appreciated it much more the second time around.
The movie depicts a team of interns at Google competing against their peers to create an app. After fruitless brainstorming in a room, they decide to take a break and go out on the town. The ensuing escapade sparks a winning idea.
The corollary is you might invent a genius product in isolation, but that's a million-to-one shot. By empathizing with your prospective customers instead, you can recognize their pain points and design solutions to match.
As Vince Vaughn's worldly character says, "Needles and categories… they don't use apps. People use apps."
From order-takers to problem-solvers
HCD is a skill that's transferable across roles, industries, and sectors.
If you're a Learning & Development professional like me, you'll probably be interested in my podcast appearance in which I promote the concept of a "Learner Experience Designer".
And even if you're not a Learning & Development professional, I urge you to listen to it anyway, and draw the parallels to your own situation.
Is your team caught in the solution fixation trap?
Low-performing teams jump into possible solutions, when they should be gathering and analyzing information to arrive at a good solution.
Source: Is Your Team Caught in the Solution Fixation Trap?
Remember… the first two D’s of the Double Diamond are "Discover " and "Define".
Top of mind
According to CIO Magazine, both Customer Experience and Employee Experience are top of mind for IT leaders today.
In other words, the best tech skills in the world are wasted if they don't meet the needs of your end user.
The Knowing-Doing Gap
Someone asked me recently if the foundational principles of HCD have always been around. I replied yes. Focusing on the customer and meeting their needs is hardly new, and everyone knows that it's important.
However, whether you actually *do* it or not is a different matter. That's where the Double Diamond comes in. It's a simple framework to keep you honest.
The Horse/Duck Conundrum
Someone on social media asked me:
"Would you rather fight 1 horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses?"
I replied: "It depends on the problem statement" ;)
Using VR to simulate a patient's experience
A wonderful example of using technology to walk in the customer's shoes:
"You will experience a part of the life of an elderly patient with dementia. You will hear the patient's thoughts as if they are your own."
Source: Using VR to change medical students’ attitudes towards older patients