- How are you going to show that your crazy idea
to start doing design thinking was worthwhile?
The only way is to track what you did
and then to show how your actions
directly impacted customer satisfaction and revenue.
I suggest you start with an empty presentation deck
and just keep adding to it as the project progresses.
Show photos of the early sketches and prototypes,
then screenshots of the first alpha build
and the first release.
People love following the story
of how the interface matured.
And with a design thinking approach,
they should be able to trace the visuals
in the release product all the way back
to those initial sketches.
Then you can make it clear to them
how the sketches were based on user research
and how that was the central reason
for the product's success.
You can also show how consistent user feedback
shaped the design and kept you on the right path.
You can demonstrate how much cheaper it was
to do frequent check-ins with representative users
than it would have been to make a design mistake
and then have to fix it later.
The two forms of data that you want to collect
are quantitative and qualitative.
or numbers and words.
The numbers should be metrics
that show how successful your project is,
customer acquisition, retention,
or satisfaction, for instance.
There are also costs savings
and things like reduced support costs
if the product works the way people expect.
Often you'll have to estimate or extrapolate these figures,
especially in the early days
when you're testing pre-released code,
but you can still give numbers.
Each of these numbers can be converted into dollar amounts.
Executives seem to only really care about dollar figures.
On the other hand, they also love quotes
from real customers.
These quotes often tell a really rich story
about the product.
You can gather quotes from usability testing
and other customer feedback opportunities
to really help bolster your case.
And don't forget to gather metrics and quotes
from the various groups you work with
inside the organization.
How much easier was it for other groups
to work with your team?
Can they tell you how much time or money that saved?
Can you get an estimate of how much rework was avoided?
How many hours of unnecessary meetings
did your early planning wipe out?
All of these things are valid measures of success.
As the project progresses and gets closer to shipping,
so will your presentation change.
Your numbers will get firmer.
Your quotes will get even more impressive.
You may start to downplay some of the earlier work
as the interface gets closer to its final version
But people love a good story,
so it's always worth reminding them
of how you started with some initial user research,
ideation, and paper prototyping.
It's a great way to sell design thinking
through the rest of your organization.