© 2015 All rights Reserved Design by Committee Customer Summit 2015 © 2015 All rights Reserved Making Design by Committee Work James A Rosen

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Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved James A Rosen I’m James A Rosen. The “A” is important. James Rosen is a Fox News contributor. I’m not. Sometimes I have a beard, or a mustache, or a pig-nose. Sometimes my avatar is my cat, Whiskey. I’m “jamesarosen” pretty much everywhere on the Internet.

© 2015 All rights Reserved Design by Committee I work for Fastly, where I help make the Internet faster.

© 2015 All rights Reserved Design by Committee I used to work for Zendesk, where I helped turn this interface…

© 2015 All rights Reserved Design by Committee into this one. Our engineering team worked side-by-side with the product managers to figure out what wasn’t working for our growing customer base. We went out on customer visits, prototyped, and built an entire new UI. We ended up shipping one of the first production Ember.js applications. Today I’ll be telling you what I’ve learned about doing design work in groups from this and other experiences like it.

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved What You’ll Learn Starting  with  Empathy  for  the  User   The  Importance  of  Emotional  Intelligence   Mental  Biases  in  Groups   Parallel  Thinking   Tips  to  Boost  your  Creative  Team

Empathy for the User When people think of “Design by Committee,” they often think of “Featuritis.” Teams will cram every feature in in an effort to appease every possible customer.

© 2015 All rights Reserved Design by Committee The Pontiac Aztec has earned a spot on many “worst cars of all-time” lists. But why? It’s pretty practical. It was never plagued with mechanical problems or recalls. Critics thought it was priced too high, but that alone doesn’t make for a “worst car.” No, it was poor design process that made this beast a non-seller. GM used committees and focus groups to design the Aztec.

© 2015 All rights Reserved Design by Committee The focus-groups said it should have cooler for a center-console, so it does.

© 2015 All rights Reserved Design by Committee They said the back should fold out into a tent, so it does.

© 2015 All rights Reserved Design by Committee When I think of software featurits, I think of Microsoft word and its 5 toolbars.

© 2015 All rights Reserved Design by Committee or 28 toolbars

© 2015 All rights Reserved Design by Committee I also think of Eloqua. It’s chock-full features a marketing team might want. But the app follows few standard patterns, which makes it unintuitive. It doesn’t teach you how to use it as you go.

© 2015 All rights Reserved Design by Committee Us Them Custom  Templates ✓ ✕ SSL  /  TLS ✓ ✓ Audit  Log ✓ ✕ De-­‐Widgetizer  Widget ✓ ✕ Frobulators Unlimited 0 Cat  Tuesdays ✓ ✕ This sort of software looks great on paper or in a PowerPoint presentation. It’s less nice for the actual users.

© 2015 All rights Reserved Design by Committee Stanford  Design  Process The cause is simple: the people running the project jumped right into the middle of the process. They failed to empathize with their users. They solved a problem, but they didn’t solve the right problem.

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Goal Donor & Gold Owner This is often because of a conflict between the “goal donor” — the person who sets the agenda — and the “gold owner” — the person who pays for the product.

© 2015 All rights Reserved Design by Committee Even if you need to consult the purchasers of enterprise software (say, the CTO), make sure you take time build empathy with the actual users. Visit them. Watch them work. Read — or even solve — support tickets. Build personas.

© 2015 All rights Reserved Design by Committee https://twitter.com/bryanl/status/609002953496760320

Emotional Intelligence

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Why Do We Want Emotional Intelligence? “Groups are most creative when their members collaborate unreservedly. People stop holding back when there is mutual trust, rooted in emotionally intelligent interactions.” -Druskat & Wolff

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved What Is Emotional Intelligence? “The ability to monitor one’s own and other’s feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions.” -Salovey & Mayer

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved How Do We Build Emotional Intelligence? “Mindfulness is the foundation of emotional intelligence.” -Mark Coleman

© 2015 All rights Reserved Design by Committee There is a difference between I am frustrated and I feel frustrated. Mindfulness helps us experience feelings without letting them take control.

© 2015 All rights Reserved Design by Committee Quick Meditation Let’s try a quick meditation now. You can close your eyes if you want. Think about the emotions you’re feeling right now. Maybe you’re feeling anxious about giving a talk later today. Or frustrated with a coworker. Or energized by the conference. One way we can understand our emotions better is to focus on their physical effects. We’re going to do a body scan and simply acknowledge how our bodies feel. Start by bringing your attention to your feet. Are they sore? That’s OK. We’re not trying to change anything — just feel. Now to your calves… your knees… your thighs. How does your stomach feel? Do you notice any tension? Now bring your attention to your chest. Is it tight? Is your heart beating fast? Whatever your body is doing is OK. Your job is simply to notice and acknowledge what is happening. Think about your arms and your hands. Now walk your attention back to your back… your shoulders… your neck. Now your jaw; maybe you, like me, carry stress there. Bring your attention to your eyebrows, then your forehead, and finally your scalp. Well done!

© 2015 All rights Reserved Design by Committee If you want to learn more, I highly recommend Search Inside Yourself by Google’s Jolly Good Fellow, Meng. He does a wonderful job summarizing recent neuroscience research and showing practical meditations that let you take advantage of that knowledge. Just 100 minutes of meditation — 10 minutes a day for less than two weeks — has been shown to change the way the brain works.

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Benefits Engage more honestly and creatively in groups Help others navigate groups better Build more emotionally engaging products Bonus:

Cognitive Biases

© 2015 All rights Reserved Design by Committee In 1979, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a paper on Prospect Theory — how people make decisions under uncertainty. In 2002, they won a Nobel Prize for that work. And ever since, bookshelves have been awash with volumes on behavioral economics.

© 2015 All rights Reserved Design by Committee I mean awash.

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Cognitive Biases Egocentric Bias Planning Fallacy Dunning-Kruger Effect Framing Effect Bias blind spot So I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve come across some of the following cognitive biases: • Egocentric Bias: we think other people are like ourselves • Planning Fallacy: our estimates are bad because we’re bad at combining probabilities • Dunning-Kruger Effect: unskilled people overestimate their ability • Framing Effect: drawing different conclusions from the same data based on how it’s presented, like a 90% success rate vs. a 10% death rate for a surgery • Bias blind spot: the ability to see cognitive biases in others’ behavior, but not in one’s own, resistant to introspection Many people think that working in a group will help them overcome these cognitive biases. “Two heads are better than one,” they say.

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Egocentrism & Availability “I think most people would prefer the navigation on the left.” “Everybody is switching to native on mobile.” Groups do help mitigate some of these biases. If you have a diverse group, their egocentric biases will tend to cancel out.

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Planning Fallacy & Overconfidence “As soon as I get the requirements from Marketing, it’ll just take a week to design and implement.” “I’d say we have a 95% chance of making our Q3 numbers.” “OK, so Claire will write a spec, then Rakesh will do few designs, then we’ll all meet to discuss, pick an option, and I’ll code it.” But groups exacerbate other biases. People in groups avoid talking about failure cases, making estimation even worse.

Cascade Effects There are also biases that occur only in groups. Cascade effects can exert tremendous pressure on people’s thinking. For an example, let’s turn to some research that was done with mock trial juries.

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Mock-Trial Verdicts In one mock trial, jurors 1, 2, and 3 endorsed a verdict of second-degree murder both privately and in the straw vote. Juror 4 had voted not guilty and indicated the highest level of confidence in his choice on the pre-deliberation private ballot. What did juror 4 do when confronted with three second-degree murder verdicts? He paused for a second and then said, “Second degree.” Juror 7, an undecided vote, suddenly spoke up and asked, “Why second degree?” The researchers saw a deer-in- the-headlights expression flit across juror 4’s face before he replied, “Oh, it’s just obviously second degree.”

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Gender & Cascade Effects Men self-censor more on stereotypically feminine subjects like fashion. Women self-censor more on stereotypically masculine subjects like sports.

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Recommendation Avoid ordered events early in the process. State the problem, design independency for 10 minutes, post ideas simultaneously, then collaborate.

Common Knowledge Focus

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Focus on “What Everybody Knows” Group discussions emphasize broadly-shared knowledge. If someone raises a point of contention, the group might deliberate briefly, but will often then put the topic aside. This results in “hidden profiles” — accurate understandings of the world that groups do not uncover.

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Recommendation Create a process by which “cognitively peripheral” people — people who have some sort of different perspective — share their knowledge. For example, you might invite people from other teams or even customers to design reviews and retrospectives and actively solicit their opinion during the discussion.

Contention & Loss of Focus

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Lateral Thinking There is a well-known problem called Duncker’s Candle Problem. Subjects are given matches, a box of push-pins, and a candle and are asked to attach the candle to the wall. Most subjects focus on pinning the candle to the wall somehow. What they don’t see is that the box is a tool they’ve been given, not just a container for the pins.

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Lateral Thinking With that insight, the solution is quite easy. Edward de Bono coined the term Lateral Thinking to describe this sort of problem-solving.

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Socratic Dialogue A: We need a way to indicate fields that have errors. B: Red border? C: Conflicts with focus B: Red label? A: Well, that’s hard for some users to see. C: (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ Later, de Bono went on to study how groups solve problems. He was particularly concerned with the sort of Socratic Dialogue that many groups use. It’s a very confrontational way of working. These sorts of back-and-forth discussions often have two significant bad results: 1. people get more annoyed 2. the group loses its focus, digressing on some small detail

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Parallel Thinking — Process State the problem — “Indicate fields with errors” Propose a solution — “Add a red boder” Everyone lists pros Everyone lists cons Everyone lists ways to mitigate cons He suggested a new process, called Parallel Thinking.

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Parallel Thinking — Result Ideas are considered more thoroughly Even if no consensus, everyone feels heard

Boost Your Team

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved What Makes a (small) Team Smarter? IQ  of  members             ✖   Group  satisfaction           ✖   Group  cohesion             ✖   Group  motivation           ✖   More  women               ✓         Likely  related  to  social  sensitivity Some recent research published in the Harvard Business Review looked at what makes small teams smarter. They tested groups on brainstorming, decision making, and puzzle solving. Any guesses as to what was correlated with higher performance?

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved 30 Circles One creativity-priming exercise I really like is called 30 Circles. Everyone takes 60 seconds to use as many of the 30 circles as possible. Draw whatever you like. Art skill doesn’t matter. Just try to use as many as possible.

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved 30 Circles

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Use My Line Use My Line is a similar exercise. The goal is to improve your ability to build off of other people’s ideas — to enhance remix. The first person draws a little squiggle…

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Use My Line and the second has one minute to use it in a drawing. I cheated here, because you can turn almost any squiggle into a puzzle piece.

Final Process

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Process Meditate: 10min/day, 2 weeks Talk to users of the product Prime Creativity Generate ideas independently Reveal simultaneously Remix Analyze critically

References & Further Reading

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Bibliography • Atwood,  Jeff.  The  Pontiac  Aztec  and  the  Perils  of  Design  by  Committee.  http://blog.codinghorror.com/the-­‐pontiac-­‐aztek-­‐and-­‐the-­‐perils-­‐of-­‐design-­‐by-­‐ committee/   • Brown,  Tim.  Tales  of  Creativity  and  Play.  http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_brown_on_creativity_and_play   • Druskat,  Vanessa  Urch  and  Steven  B.  Wolff.  Building  the  Emotional  Intelligence  of  Groups.  https://hbr.org/2001/03/building-­‐the-­‐emotional-­‐intelligence-­‐of-­‐ groups   • Friedman,  Ronald  S,  Ayelet  Fishbach,  Jens  Förster,  and  Lioba  Werth.  Attentional  Priming  Effects  on  Creativity.  http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/ 10.1080/10400419.2003.9651420   • Hadjihabib,  Amir.  Design  with  Zendesk.  https://hadjihabib.exposure.co/design   • Kelley,  Tom  and  David  Kelley.  Three  Creativity  Challenges  from  IDEO’s  Leaders.  https://hbr.org/2013/11/three-­‐creativity-­‐challenges-­‐from-­‐ideos-­‐leaders/   • Kolko,  Jon.  A  Process  for  Empathetic  Product  Design.  https://hbr.org/2015/04/a-­‐process-­‐for-­‐empathetic-­‐product-­‐design   • Kolko,  Jon.  Make  Enterprise  Software  People  Actually  Love.  https://hbr.org/2015/02/make-­‐enterprise-­‐software-­‐people-­‐actually-­‐love   • Miron-­‐Spektor,  Ella,  Miriam  Erez,  and  Eitan  Naveh.  To  Drive  Creativity,  Add  Some  Conformity.  https://hbr.org/2012/03/to-­‐drive-­‐creativity-­‐add-­‐some-­‐ conformity   • Salovey,  Peter  and  John  D.  Mayer.  Emotional  Intelligence.  http://www.unh.edu/emotional_intelligence/EIAssets/EmotionalIntelligenceProper/ EI1990%20Emotional%20Intelligence.pdf   • Seelig,  Tina.  Insight  Out.  http://t.co/aSCBgikQh0   • Sunstein,  Cass  and  Reid  Hastie.  Making  Dumb  Groups  Smarter.  https://hbr.org/2014/11/making-­‐dumb-­‐groups-­‐smarter   • Tan,  Chade-­‐Meng.  Search  Inside  Yourself.  https://siyli.org/resources/#book   • Wikipedia.  Pontiac  Aztec.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Aztek   • Woolley,  Anita  and  Thomas  W.  Malone.  Defend  Your  Research:  What  Makes  a  Team  Smarter?  More  Women.  https://hbr.org/2011/06/defend-­‐your-­‐ research-­‐what-­‐makes-­‐a-­‐team-­‐smarter-­‐more-­‐women   • Wu,  Michael.  The  Future  of  Enterprise  Software  Will  Be  Fun  and  Productive.  https://community.lithium.com/t5/Science-­‐of-­‐Social-­‐blog/The-­‐Future-­‐of-­‐ Enterprise-­‐Software-­‐will-­‐be-­‐Fun-­‐and-­‐Productive/ba-­‐p/25486

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Image Credits • https://www.flickr.com/photos/83633410@N07/7658225516   • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candle_problem#/media/File:Genimage.jpg   • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold#/media/File:Gold_Bars.jpg   • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_Solo#/media/File:Solo-­‐2010-­‐bos.jpg   • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury#/media/File:The_Jury_by_John_Morgan.jpg   • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Aztek#/media/File:Pontiac-­‐Aztek.jpg   • http://dschool.stanford.edu/dgift/   • http://vandewerk.nl/brainboost-­‐kickstarting-­‐a-­‐brainstorm/   • https://www.flickr.com/photos/83883944@N07/7681417044/   • https://www.flickr.com/photos/bagsgroove/7025571489   • https://www.flickr.com/photos/foundanimalsfoundation/8055192650   • https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahakabmg/3948240339   • http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2006/10/in-­‐praise-­‐of-­‐the-­‐pontiac-­‐aztek/

Design by Committee © 2015 All rights Reserved Find Me Online @jamesarosen   https://github.com/jamesarosen   james@fastly.com   https://speakerdeck.com/jamesarosen/making-­‐design-­‐by-­‐committee-­‐work