How I came up with a last-minute interactive UX design presentation

I was asked at the last minute to cobble together an interactive session for an offsite that would fit seamlessly into our design team’s overall presentation. Oh, and I was given less than a day to come up with and prepare something while also attending a full conference.

Our presentation theme was to ensure we keep using and finding value in our design process. We need to understand the dangers of what might happen if we don’t follow our methodology, including the importance of customer-focussed design in a corporation.

The audience was made up of very experienced product people and we were scheduled to go at 15:30 on day 2. That’s the last slot on the last day. Ok, great, a large room full of tired and distracted folks.

So it needed to be fun, engaging and easy, and fit in with the theme of the overall presentation.

I decided to focus on the power of iteration and the need to listen to our customers. While I was in and out of other presentations I was scribbling ideas down and bouncing them off my co-presenters. Then I think I started to get a germ of an idea.

I love drawing, always have, always will. It’s one of my favourite things and one of my favourite ways to communicate. So I thought, let’s try and get this room drawing and hopefully having some fun.

I split the session into 4 parts. In each part I shared an insight which would describe something we all have experience with - something we all know and recognise. I wanted each insight to describe it a little more, to build a picture. If you focussed on only one insight you’d probably not be able to deliver what your customers need.

The tricky part was deciding what this item/product/thing should be!? I went through several ideas. Bicycle, washing machine, iPhone, sandwich, hovercraft! It was incredibly hard to come up with something everyone would know, that wouldn’t be given away with the first or second insight. Then something popped into my head!

The Rules

I kicked off describing how the session would work and some very loose rules.

1. We’re going to design something based on a collection of insights. This thing is something we’re all familiar with, we all know it and have experience with it!
2. Sitting in groups, you will have 1 minute to sketch a design that answers a specific insight. Don’t get too bogged down in the detail, just try and capture the essence.
3. After the minute each group will have a few moments to confer and select the sketch they feel best answers the insight. Stick it on the wall.

Play along, and see if you can work out what our ‘customers’ need.

The Session

Insight number 01: I need somewhere I can live and protect my family.

To add a bit of tension, we played the Countdown music on our sound system (comprised of a mobile phone, YouTube and a microphone - basic but effective!). After the minute, each table conferred and selected the best one they felt met the insight. As you might expect most people had drawn a house. Apart from our head of product who drew a tank. Not sure what that indicates and if we should worry…

Insight number 02: I want it to be able to grow food.

The Countdown music played again and this time the general theme that emerged was a house with a garden. Each table picked their favourite and we put that on the wall.

Insight number 03: I want it to be exciting, scary, safe and exhilarating!

I wanted this insight to be more about the feelings and emotions our mystery product/thing might trigger in people. Pretty much every table produced some kind of house/garden/roller coaster combo which was really cool but did it answer all the insights?

Insight number 04: I need it to sustain me, my family… and 7 billion other people!

The final insight came up on screen. At this point the penny dropped and every table produced pretty awesome pictures of our Earth.

We then went back and picked out a couple of earlier drawings to see if they met our customers needs. Without exception, they didn’t.

This session was supposed to be a fun activity purely highlighting the importance of listening to our customers and having the appetite and ability to iterate. It highlighted the importance of the discovery and defining process and making sure we are clear in what we are creating and delivering.

Pitfalls

Some would argue that this general design approach goes against lean principles and delivering just enough, just in time (ie, deliver a house, see if works, if not, iterate). I completely get that but I really wanted this exercise to focus on the discovery and define stage. Just putting in a little more effort at that point can lead to better results and less pain later on. In that context, I think this session was successful.

Improvements

Because of the short time to prepare something there’s a few things I would’ve liked to have done differently. One improvement would have been to leave each previous insight on screen when a new one came up. Sounds simple but would have helped. Also, I think it would have been a good idea to ask each table to give a brief explanation as to why they chose each drawing.

That night I started reading the brilliant Deviate by Beau Lotto and in it there was a brilliant quote where he refers to an old science joke. It would have fitted perfectly and made a killer conclusion to the session:

Walking home one night I see a man on his hands and knees under the one single street light in the road. I walk over and ask the man what he is doing. He tells me he has lost his keys so I get down and help him search. I then ask him where he dropped them and points his hand and says way over there. Perplexed I asked him then why on earth was he searching here for? And he replied that this was the only place he could see.

If we only look in the place we can ‘see’ (not listen to our customers and consider all insights) then we may never find the key to the correct solution.

Feedback

We got really good feedback after the session. The general consensus was that it was fun and engaging. People were sagging at the end of two full days so it was a tough gig but they enjoyed it and it was a good way to close off the offsite.

I would like to use this session again but am keen to improve it. Please share your feedback and also feel free to run this session yourself. Let me know how it goes!

If you like this, please give me 50 claps and I’ll write some more.