Collaborating with P&G, my team and I conducted in-depth user research to explore new market space.
Procter
&
Gamble
WHAT
P&G Product Development
WHEN
Sep 2018 - Dec 2018
ROLE
Design Research Manager
SKILLS GAINED
Design Research
In Home Ethnography
Synthesis & Framework Dev.
Lo-Fi Prototyping
User Testing
Storytelling
In collaboration with Procter and Gamble (P&G), my team developed a product, service, and branding for an emerging market, backed by in-depth user research. We performed interviews, synthesis, prototyping and testings to discover user tensions and insights that lead us to our final design direction. This project is under NDA and thus detailed information about the project will remain confidential.
Process
1. In-Home Ethnography
We conducted 8 in-home visits to understand our target users' experiences. We explored user behaviors through asking neutral and open-ended questions as well as having them demonstrate tasks in their bathrooms.
3. Ideation & Evalution
We explored diverse emotion-evoking concepts and even played with conceptual models from other industry. Then, we organized our ideas into themes and developed 24 concepts in 2 runs that will ask the crucial questions we had in mind.
5. Solutions
After 2nd testing, we established emotional and functional requirements for our solution. Based on the requirements, we develop our final solutions through 4 iterations. Solutions include a Minimum Viable Product, a service abranding
2. Synthesis
After in-home visits, we mapped out user behaviors, tensions, and emotions by utilizing various frameworks, from journey maps to Venn diagrams, in order to discover underlying insights and opportunity areas.
4. Prototyping & Testing & Synthesis
We created and tested 24 low-fidelity prototypes on 11 women across 2 runs using various activities. After each testing, we broke down users' behaviors and synthesize it to create design directions.
6. Presentation
Since our final solution aims to provide users with confident and empowerment, we storyboarded our presentation to convey this energy effectively to P&G. We opened with a stand-up comedy setting and ended with a bold video.
Deliverables
MVP (mid-fidelity)
Branding & Service
User Behavior Model
Consumer Pitch Video
Executive Summary
* Details on the deliverable are under NDA.
Takeaways
Interview
Tips
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Start easy:
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Nail the first line
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Start with tangible questions
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Ask naive questions
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"Tell me more." "Why?"
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No leading questions/responses
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Be neutral to their responses
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Don't finish their sentences
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Use their language
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Parrot back
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Awkward pauses make people spill the beans
Match Fidelity to Your Questions
When planing for user testing, we learned about the different levels of questions we can ask. It became important for us to identify which level of questions can best help us build on our current understanding. For example, asking about users' values is at basic level while asking about the tone of a concept is at higher level. Once we identify that , we matched our prototypes' fidelity to our levels of questions.
Strong Opinion Loosely Held
Strong-opinion-loosely-held works on both personal and team level. I learned to not only present my ideas confidently but also encourage my teammates to break down my ideas. This strategy helps concepts to be constructed collaboratively with more holistic reasoning. Similar strategy prove to be helpful in team's design reviews. As a team, we presented with strong reasoning and we sought for others' perspectives.