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5 Myths of Lean UX

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Susan Weinschenk
Susan Weinschenk

Lean UX (User Experience) is an integral part of the Lean Startup process. But there are misconceptions about what it is and how it is different from "regular" UX. Interested in more info? Check out our one day workshop on Lean UX: www.theteamw.com/#courses

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5  Myths  Of  Lean  UX Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D.! Aka “The Brain Lady”! @thebrainlady! susan@theteamw.com @thebrainlady! susan@theteamw.com   Facebook:  The  Team  W   Website:  www.theteamw.com
Myth #1: ! ! Lean UX = Minimal UX! ! (UX is User Experience)!
Myth #1: ! ! Lean UX = Minimal UX! The term “Lean” comes from “Lean Startup”. Lean in this context doesn’t mean least or minimal. Doing Lean UX doesn’t mean doing the least amount of user experience work you can get away with.
Lean Startup Concepts! Experiments! MVP! Pivot! Uncertainty To understand Lean UX you have to understand Lean Startup. Based on a book by Eric Ries, Lean Startup is a philosophy and process of developing new products and/or services.
Lean Startup Concepts! Experiments! MVP! Pivot! Uncertainty Describing the Lean Startup idea thoroughly would take more than I can cover in this slide deck, but I’ll touch on a few of the basic concepts.
Lean Startup Concepts! Experiments! MVP! Pivot! Uncertainty Instead of having an idea for a product, service, or feature and then designing and implementing it, you think up “experiments” to test out… Is Idea X a good idea? Will people want it? Is there a market?
Lean Startup Concepts! Experiments! MVP! Pivot! Uncertainty Once you have thought of an experiment to conduct then you create a minimal viable product (MVP) — the smallest viable product you can create that will let you test your idea.
You come up with an idea, you create a minimal product to test it, and you collect data on the idea.
In Lean Startup your 3 main activities are to Build something to test your hypothesis, then Measure the success, and then Learn from the experiment and decide what to do next — what experiment to run next. You cycle over and over until you know you have a success.
Lean Startup Concepts! Experiments! MVP! Pivot! Uncertainty Once you are done with your experiment then you decide whether to change course (pivot) or continue on with the same idea.
Lean Startup Concepts! Experiments! MVP! Pivot! Uncertainty Lean Startup is designed to work with uncertainty. If you aren’t sure what product or service people really want, if you aren’t sure what will be successful. It works not just for startups, but any business or organization facing uncertainty.
Myth #2: ! ! Lean UX = UX + Agile!
Myth #2: ! ! Lean UX = UX + Agile! Agile is a development methodology for programming that breaks large projects into small manageable chunks. Lots of people have written about adapting UX to an Agile environment. However, UX in an Agile environment is NOT Lean UX.Two different things.
Myth #3: ! ! Lean UX minimizes up front research!
Myth #3: ! ! Lean UX minimizes up front research!
There’s an acronym in Lean Startup: GOOTB. It stands for “Get Out Of The Building”. In Lean Startup doing research upfront about your customers/users is critical. BUT you do just enough to answer the experiment at hand.
Myth #4: ! ! “Regular” UX is a waterfall!
Myth #4: ! ! “Regular” UX is a waterfall! There are a few Lean UX books published and they all describe “regular” (i.e. NOT Lean) UX as being this long laborious time consuming expensive process. I don’t think this is necessarily true. I’ve been doing efficient, collaborative UX for many years.
Myth #5: ! ! Lean UX is all new!
Myth #5: ! ! Lean UX is all new! Sometimes people writing about Lean UX as though the UX ideas that are used in a Lean Startup process are brand new.They aren’t. Lean UX uses the same techniques and tools that UX people have been using for decades.
! NOT A Myth:! ! Lean UX puts UX front and center. It’s the vehicle for implementing businesses, products, and services. ! In Lean Startup UX is not just something you do if you have time. It’s a CRITICAL piece of the whole Lean Startup process.Without UX you can’t do the Lean Startup process.
` Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D.! Aka “The Brain Lady”! @thebrainlady! susan@theteamw.com   Facebook:  The  Team  W   Website:  www.theteamw.com

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5 Myths of Lean UX

  • 1. 5  Myths  Of  Lean  UX Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D.! Aka “The Brain Lady”! @thebrainlady! susan@theteamw.com @thebrainlady! susan@theteamw.com   Facebook:  The  Team  W   Website:  www.theteamw.com
  • 2. Myth #1: ! ! Lean UX = Minimal UX! ! (UX is User Experience)!
  • 3. Myth #1: ! ! Lean UX = Minimal UX! The term “Lean” comes from “Lean Startup”. Lean in this context doesn’t mean least or minimal. Doing Lean UX doesn’t mean doing the least amount of user experience work you can get away with.
  • 4. Lean Startup Concepts! Experiments! MVP! Pivot! Uncertainty To understand Lean UX you have to understand Lean Startup. Based on a book by Eric Ries, Lean Startup is a philosophy and process of developing new products and/or services.
  • 5. Lean Startup Concepts! Experiments! MVP! Pivot! Uncertainty Describing the Lean Startup idea thoroughly would take more than I can cover in this slide deck, but I’ll touch on a few of the basic concepts.
  • 6. Lean Startup Concepts! Experiments! MVP! Pivot! Uncertainty Instead of having an idea for a product, service, or feature and then designing and implementing it, you think up “experiments” to test out… Is Idea X a good idea? Will people want it? Is there a market?
  • 7. Lean Startup Concepts! Experiments! MVP! Pivot! Uncertainty Once you have thought of an experiment to conduct then you create a minimal viable product (MVP) — the smallest viable product you can create that will let you test your idea.
  • 8. You come up with an idea, you create a minimal product to test it, and you collect data on the idea.
  • 9. In Lean Startup your 3 main activities are to Build something to test your hypothesis, then Measure the success, and then Learn from the experiment and decide what to do next — what experiment to run next. You cycle over and over until you know you have a success.
  • 10. Lean Startup Concepts! Experiments! MVP! Pivot! Uncertainty Once you are done with your experiment then you decide whether to change course (pivot) or continue on with the same idea.
  • 11. Lean Startup Concepts! Experiments! MVP! Pivot! Uncertainty Lean Startup is designed to work with uncertainty. If you aren’t sure what product or service people really want, if you aren’t sure what will be successful. It works not just for startups, but any business or organization facing uncertainty.
  • 12. Myth #2: ! ! Lean UX = UX + Agile!
  • 13. Myth #2: ! ! Lean UX = UX + Agile! Agile is a development methodology for programming that breaks large projects into small manageable chunks. Lots of people have written about adapting UX to an Agile environment. However, UX in an Agile environment is NOT Lean UX.Two different things.
  • 14. Myth #3: ! ! Lean UX minimizes up front research!
  • 15. Myth #3: ! ! Lean UX minimizes up front research!
  • 16. There’s an acronym in Lean Startup: GOOTB. It stands for “Get Out Of The Building”. In Lean Startup doing research upfront about your customers/users is critical. BUT you do just enough to answer the experiment at hand.
  • 17. Myth #4: ! ! “Regular” UX is a waterfall!
  • 18. Myth #4: ! ! “Regular” UX is a waterfall! There are a few Lean UX books published and they all describe “regular” (i.e. NOT Lean) UX as being this long laborious time consuming expensive process. I don’t think this is necessarily true. I’ve been doing efficient, collaborative UX for many years.
  • 19. Myth #5: ! ! Lean UX is all new!
  • 20. Myth #5: ! ! Lean UX is all new! Sometimes people writing about Lean UX as though the UX ideas that are used in a Lean Startup process are brand new.They aren’t. Lean UX uses the same techniques and tools that UX people have been using for decades.
  • 21. ! NOT A Myth:! ! Lean UX puts UX front and center. It’s the vehicle for implementing businesses, products, and services. ! In Lean Startup UX is not just something you do if you have time. It’s a CRITICAL piece of the whole Lean Startup process.Without UX you can’t do the Lean Startup process.
  • 22. ` Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D.! Aka “The Brain Lady”! @thebrainlady! susan@theteamw.com   Facebook:  The  Team  W   Website:  www.theteamw.com