Ask Better Questions, Design Better Solutions — Transcript

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1. 0:00trying to solve the right problem sounds
2. 0:02like asking a lot of questions and
3. 0:05figuring out which question to ask. Do
4. 0:08you have like a mental model or to kind
5. 0:10of approach this? Absolutely. Yeah.
6. 0:13There's one things really separates
7. 0:15amazing designers from good designers
8. 0:17and I think that's being curious. I
9. 0:20think you find that the best people at
10. 0:22like solving problems or understanding
11. 0:25problems are the people are like
12. 0:26constantly questioning and constantly
13. 0:28being curious about things. So if I go
14. 0:30back and thinking of myself when working
15. 0:32like as a founding designer with
16. 0:34startups, I've always been curious about
17. 0:36everything and I see something in
18. 0:38designers and it really makes a
19. 0:39difference. So stakeholder says
20. 0:40something a commercial person or a
21. 0:42marketing person you're asking oh why
22. 0:43tell me more about this like let me
23. 0:45understand this. What have we done in
24. 0:46the past around this? What problems are
25. 0:48you facing in your area? Maybe a
26. 0:50researcher mentioned something. It all
27. 0:52starts from being really curious about
28. 0:54everything you're hearing and not just
29. 0:56taking it at face value. I think that is
30. 0:58number one before we mention any kind of
31. 1:01framework or mental model. I always go
32. 1:04very simple. I always try and ask a
33. 1:06number of questions. What do you think
34. 1:07is the problem? Let's start with that.
35. 1:08Cuz often it's like, oh, we need to do a
36. 1:10redesign of this feature. And you're
37. 1:12like, what is the problem? Right? So, we
38. 1:14start really basic. What do you think
39. 1:16are we solving here? Then what is the
40. 1:17user that is being affected by this and
41. 1:20what are other stakeholders around this?
42. 1:21What data do we have about this problem?
43. 1:23Is this just your assumption or is this
44. 1:26based on something? And by the way, I'm
45. 1:28happy with problems that come from
46. 1:30hunches and assumptions like it is part
47. 1:32of the work that we do and sometimes
48. 1:34understanding how much data you have on
49. 1:36a problem and that data can be quant or
50. 1:38quad data. So have you done any research
51. 1:40on this? Gathering all the data that you
52. 1:43have around a problem is probably one of
53. 1:45the most impactful and essential things
54. 1:47to do and yet it's almost never done
55. 1:49right because we always say we need to
56. 1:51move quickly so let's quickly design a
57. 1:52solution and then there's so much data
58. 1:54that we're leaving behind. There's other
59. 1:56teams in our business that have done
60. 1:58like reports and research and gathered
61. 2:00evidence on this but we're not using it.
62. 2:01So what data do we have? And then if we
63. 2:04go towards kind of like the solution
64. 2:05side of the problem, have we tried
65. 2:07anything in the past to solve this? Have
66. 2:09other businesses tried things? How are
67. 2:11they solving it? Do we have any
68. 2:12suggested solutions? And then extremely
69. 2:15important, what are we hoping to do if
70. 2:17we solve it? So let's say everything
71. 2:18goes right. How do we know if we're
72. 2:20successful? Because obviously you can't
73. 2:22judge something like the success of an
74. 2:24initiative by completed this or we did
75. 2:27some interviews. The success of an
76. 2:29initiative is did it move the business
77. 2:31metric? Did it make us learn something?
78. 2:33And I'll actually stick to the last one
79. 2:35because obviously there's a lot of talk
80. 2:37around measuring impact and making sure
81. 2:40that everything has like a sizable
82. 2:41impact. It's not always about the impact
83. 2:44because not everything you do is
84. 2:45successful, but it's also about the
85. 2:47learning. So sometimes it's also
86. 2:49important to say, well, you know what,
87. 2:51this problem is defined by answering
88. 2:53these questions. Well, one of these
89. 2:54things is what are we going to learn if
90. 2:56we do this? And maybe that is how we're
91. 2:58successful. Maybe we didn't move the
92. 3:00business metric but we're actually very
93. 3:02successful because we actually learned
94. 3:03one two three things that will make our
95. 3:05next initiative um very impactful. So
96. 3:07yeah, that's where I would start like
97. 3:08what is the problem? What is the
98. 3:10evidence that we have? What kind of data
99. 3:11do we have call or quant? What is the
100. 3:13audience that is being affected by this
101. 3:15either directly or indirectly? What are
102. 3:16other companies doing around this or
103. 3:18what have we done in the past? What are
104. 3:20the suggested solutions? How do we
105. 3:21measure success if all goes well? That
106. 3:23was so good. Oh god, it reminds me of
107. 3:26the experience canvas from Alassian
108. 3:29where it's like this real simple one
109. 3:31pager where you basically divide it into
110. 3:33quadrants and problem ideas, value,
111. 3:35stakeholders, team, personas, and test
112. 3:37ideas or data to back it. And that's a
113. 3:40really healthy way to just like can you
114. 3:42brain dump on like a one pager that's
115. 3:44like really easy and quick to share. But
116. 3:47it also sounds like there's so much up
117. 3:50work even deciding and you mentioned
118. 3:52that most of the times we're expected to
119. 3:55run fast. How does this play out in
120. 3:58day-to-day life at work where it's like
121. 4:00there's so much to consider but then at
122. 4:03one point sometimes there could be some
123. 4:04analysis paralysis. How do you kind of
124. 4:06solve for that? I think that's such a
125. 4:08great question. This has been tormenting
126. 4:10me my whole career. I think there's a
127. 4:12couple of things here. The first and
128. 4:14most important thing, especially for
129. 4:15junior or mid-level people that are
130. 4:17listening to this, it's like there's no
131. 4:19perfect process around this. And there's
132. 4:21no perfect expectation of what you need
133. 4:24to get at each step of the process. And
134. 4:26that doesn't just apply with like
135. 4:27defining problems. It applies to every
136. 4:29single thing that you're doing in
137. 4:30design, right? With discovery, with
138. 4:32defining, with ideulating, with design.
139. 4:33So, for starters, you don't need to get
140. 4:35everything right. You just need to make
141. 4:37sure that you're covering some of the
142. 4:38essentials. The second thing that I
143. 4:40would say is it sounds overwhelming at
144. 4:42first, but if you build that curiosity,
145. 4:45this becomes a conversation that you can
146. 4:47have with someone in like 5 to 10
147. 4:49minutes. That's why I stress so much
148. 4:50that you don't have to do this in a
149. 4:52whiteboard. If you make a habit of
150. 4:54asking a PM, a stakeholder, your team of
151. 4:57like the best people that are going to
152. 4:58work on this problem, like those seven
153. 5:00things before you start working on
154. 5:01anything, this becomes second language.
155. 5:03And you build the second language over
156. 5:05years and years and years of trying to
157. 5:07do this again. And the first time you do
158. 5:08it, it feels awkward and it feels
159. 5:10uncomfortable and it might even feel a
160. 5:12bit mechanical. But then the second and
161. 5:13the third and the 10th time you're doing
162. 5:15this, it almost becomes a let me just
163. 5:17take 10 minutes to make sure we'll align
164. 5:19on these things. Now to cover the most
165. 5:21challenging bits, sometimes you don't
166. 5:23have answers to all of these questions.
167. 5:25And that's completely fine. Maybe you
168. 5:26haven't done research on something. It's
169. 5:28okay to say, you know what, I'm getting
170. 5:30answers to three of these seven
171. 5:31questions. And that's better than
172. 5:33getting answers to none of these
173. 5:34questions. So being okay with that
174. 5:36imperfection so that you're able to move
175. 5:38fast is I think something that is really
176. 5:41important for every designer. I think
177. 5:42most designers that I see struggle a lot
178. 5:45with imperfection in the process and
179. 5:47they say oh we haven't answered all of
180. 5:49these things. The truth is there's never
181. 5:52a perfect process and being able to have
182. 5:54that sense of what is really important
183. 5:56for you and for the business and then
184. 5:58moving on and saying that's good enough.
185. 6:00Let's figure out the next thing. I think
186. 6:01this is what's really important. I think
187. 6:03the last thing that I'm going to mention
188. 6:04because obviously you mentioned things
189. 6:06like speed. Who doesn't like speed,
190. 6:08right? And so imagine if you're a
191. 6:10business stakeholder and they're like,
192. 6:12"Hey, we need to really move fast and
193. 6:14build something that works." And the
194. 6:15designer goes like, "Oh, no, no, no.
195. 6:16Hold up. We have a process to follow
196. 6:18here. I need 3 weeks of doing discovery.
197. 6:21We're going to come up with some ideas.
198. 6:22In a month or two months from now, we're
199. 6:24going to have something that's a no-go,
200. 6:26right?" I think being able to say, you
201. 6:28know what, from the 50 things that I've
202. 6:30learned in this boot camp that I did,
203. 6:32actually, there's five or six things
204. 6:33that really make a difference, and those
205. 6:35things are never the same. And so, I'm
206. 6:37going to focus on these things when I'm
207. 6:38pushed for speed. That's what's really
208. 6:40important. And then there's other times
209. 6:42where people might push for speed. And
210. 6:43you might be able to say, hey, if we do
211. 6:45this very, very fast, it's very unlikely
212. 6:48we're going to succeed because it's not
213. 6:49a problem we know enough about. We
214. 6:51haven't done any research. It's a new
215. 6:53problem that we can't really take
216. 6:54inspiration from other businesses. So
217. 6:56actually I think we should take more
218. 6:57time. I think that balance of saying I
219. 6:59need to do this at a very fast pace but
220. 7:02I still have enough to do this so I'm
221. 7:03okay with imperfection versus I don't
222. 7:06have enough time to do this and I need
223. 7:07to spend more time on it because I don't
224. 7:09understand this problem enough that's
225. 7:10really difficult to build. But I would
226. 7:12always say you are the person that
227. 7:14always knows what's important based on
228. 7:16what are the areas you have the most
229. 7:17confidence in. If you're very confident
230. 7:19that this is the right problem, then
231. 7:20yeah, maybe you don't need to redo
232. 7:22interviews or redo surveys, like go
233. 7:24straight into solutionizing. If you
234. 7:26don't, then yeah, take more time to do
235. 7:27this piece of work because otherwise
236. 7:28it's very unlikely you're going to be
237. 7:30successful. When you coach your team and
238. 7:33designers out there, how do you think
239. 7:34about adaptability and how do you
240. 7:36suggest designers on this call kind of
241. 7:38work on? This is a topic I'm very
242. 7:40passionate about. There's a couple of
243. 7:41things to being adaptable. I think
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