Tales of mystery and adventure from the start up world

Startups are peculiar and how UX fits in (if indeed, at all…) is nebulous. Hilary will share her insights and approaches, failures and successes when working in this strange frontier.

by Hilary Cinis, from UX Australia 2014

Transcript

1. A story about designer hubris Hilary Cinis
 
 Principal UX and UX Manager, NICTA @hi1z My adventures in Australian Startup Land
2. What is a Startup? “A startup is a company working to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious and success is not guaranteed” 
 ~ Neil Blumenthal, cofounder and co-CEO of Warby Parker.
3. What is a Startup? “… a huckster and a hacker” 
 ~ Startup founder, CeBIT 2014 University educated Have a degree Aged 35 - 45 Andrew Stead Aaron McNeilly Male
4. * http://allmandlaw.com/ Failure approx 90% fail
5. Ignored customers No market need, offering is too niche, not fit for purpose Bad marketing, competitors are more aggressive Ran out of cash, team runs out of steam No business model, no scalability, gaps in the strategy (devil in the detail) Bad timing No passion, loss of perspective, poor leadership, no focus Failure to pivot, market shifts Poor product, concepts instead of products Bad or wrong advice George Deeb, Forbes Steve Tobak, Invisor Costing ChubbyBrain Oliver Milman, Startsmart Hilary Cinis, NICTA Reasons for Failure (no particular order)
6. The design hero approaches
7. Well practised in hypothesis driven design…
8. experienced with lean principals…
9. works in emerging tech…
10. everyone loves free coaching…
11. Watched pitches at Tech23, iATP 22 founder interviews Followed blogs and articles 3 VC and early start interviews Read Eric Ries and Steve Blank Optimistic picture of
 an optimistic designer Read Startup Genome Report Commercialisation attempts at NICTA
12. Propositions and Customers A lot of propositions were unclear There was very little information about customers 
 ~ Pitches at Tech23 ~ Interviews at Tech23, CeBIT 2014 and Incubators/Accelerators 2013 - 14 Insight
13. 
 UX is assumed just like the business plan is
 (customer evaluation doesn’t come up) VC/Angels Insight
14. Subject Matter Experts “I had been working in company/industry/position
 for five/six/seven years and can do it better” 
 ~ Pitches at Tech23 ~ Interviews at Tech23, CeBIT 2014 and Incubators/Accelerators 2013 - 14 Insight
15. Build first “Yep, here’s our demo. 
 Tech guy is coding on it, right now” ! “What do you think of my site design” ! ~ Interviews at Tech23, CeBIT 2014
 ~ Incubators/Accelerators 2013 - 14 Insight
16. Assumptions validated!
17. Building is how they express themselves Lean Startup is a culture they cannot deviate from They are learning to run a business Its a race Contraints
18. Coaching course - quick intro to UX basics - proposition creation - writing user stories - when to talk to customers - needs evaluation - setting benchmarks for testing - fitting it into the BCM - time boxed focus of usable assets
19. Can you take a quick look at our site/app/wireframes?
20. Changed it from “UX” 
 to “Product” Presentation x2 Internal, Incubators 2013 - 14 Total Participants 70 Workshop 1 x2 UI review request UI review request UI review request 1 UI review 1 No Show Feedback survey - ignored Workshop 2 x2 Workshop 3 x2 Submission - ignored time to quit Coaching course
21. Changed it from “UX” 
 to “Product” Presentation x2 Workshop 1 x2 Workshop 4 UI review request UI review request UI review request 1 UI review 1 No Show Accelerated UX Framework requested Feedback survey - ignored Workshop 2 x2 Workshop 3 x2 Submission - ignored Internal, Incubators 2013 - 14 Total Participants 70 Coaching course
22. What I’ve observed Connections are highly valued Sales and marketing activities over product design They are chasing a dream Some are doing UX organically Insight
23. What I’ve observed UX is directly related to business maturity UX is directly related to startup offering type Luck and timing are really significant It is improving, but… Insight
24. They don’t know how to talk to customers Insight !
25. How to help Teach them how to gather and evaluate
 quality feedback Support their drive to market while doing UX too Recommend a UX design book or course re customer insights Be immersed for a period of time Be a conduit
26. Thanks! @hi1z hilary.cinis@nicta.com.au