UXA2022 Day 2; Jon Duhig - Getting under their skin: culture change in transformation programs

When you’re an individual or very small team trying to establish design capability in a novice area, it is critical to change the mindset and the culture so that improved design (and improved product outcomes) can flourish. Having been the first ‘designer’ introduced into different government transformation projects in different government departments, as well as similar situations in commercial organisations, I can share some personal observations (which won’t be attributed to any department individually!), share some stories and offer some specific advice which might help others build design understanding in similar contexts.

Transcript

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2. Culture change
   Transforming how people think, feel,
   communicate and approach tasks.
   Making work feel different so the
   organisation works better.
   Transformation programs
   Changing the fundamentals of
   technology and processes within
   an organisation with a number of
   projects over a number of years
   

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3. thanks Renato Feijo!
   https://renatofeijo.com/blog-UXstrat.html
   

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4. ‘If your website is sh*t then your chatbot will be just awful’
   ‘Ok I see what you’re saying but let’s
   just try it out with a few people’
   “Make it simpler” “We have to translate that to the users’ language”
   “Yes that is technically correct but no-one will understand it”
   “This only makes sense to an inside expert”
   “We don’t need to show the users that”
   “We need to make the content
   and our service accessible to
   everyone”
   “The only thing that matters is that people can use it correctly”
   “Nobody wants technology - they just want to get something done”
   “If they can’t understand it they can’t (or won’t) use it”
   

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5. View Slide

6. ‘If your website is sh*t then your chatbot will be just awful’
   ‘Ok I see what you’re saying but let’s
   just try it out with a few people’
   “Make it simpler” “We have to translate that to the users’ language”
   “Yes that is technically correct but no-one will understand it”
   “This only makes sense to an inside expert”
   “We don’t need to show the users that”
   “We need to make the content
   and our service accessible to
   everyone”
   “The only thing that matters is that people can use it correctly”
   “Nobody wants technology - they just want to get something done”
   “If they can’t understand it they can’t (or won’t) use it”
   

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7. https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action
   

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8. It needs to work for the people that should use it
   We need to be sure it’s gonna work
   This is how we can do it
   Can’t do it without you
   (That last thing you made didn’t work)
   (Can’t make another failure)
   (We need to change our approach)
   (I need your help)
   

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9. 1. Don’t sell a design process. Sell a good design.
   2.
   3.
   4.
   5.
   6.
   

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10. Come on
    in!
    Original photo by Pilgrimsoldier - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
    https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35164296
    

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11. Make designers design better
    Make non-designers
    take up some HCD
    practice
    vs
    High quality, low
    volume
    ???? quality, high
    volume
    

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12. 1. Don’t sell a design process. Sell a good design.
    2. Don’t build ‘Castle Design’
    3.
    4.
    5.
    6.
    

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13. Take every opportunity….
    Toju, H., Guimarães, P., Olesen, J. et al.
    Assembly of complex plant–fungus networks. Nat Commun 5, 5273 (2014).
    https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6273. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
    

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14. Noisiness
    Time
    Detractors
    Enthusiasts
    Champions
    

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15. Learning phase
    Firefighting work builds
    design domain knowledge
    Reputation phase
    Informed design capability
    adds value to in-flight projects
    Strategic phase
    Mature design culture aligns
    projects to design practice
    Design practice
    In-flight projects
    

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16. 1. Don’t sell a design process. Sell a good design.
    2. Don’t build ‘Castle Design’
    3. Take every opportunity with every individual
    4.
    5.
    6.
    

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17. #1 most important skill: curiosity
    Public Domain photo from the GPA Photo Archive
    

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18. #2 most important skill: recruiting users
    Image by Quang Nguyen vinh from Pixabay
    

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19. 1. Don’t sell a design process. Sell a good design.
    2. Don’t build ‘Castle Design’
    3. Take every opportunity with every individual
    4. The most important capabilities to develop are 1. curiosity and 2.
    recruitment
    5.
    6.
    

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20. Design
    Thinking
    Research
    101
    Design
    doing
    Learn by doing Don’t just ask Raise quality
    Immediately Reactively Strategically
    

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21. How I introduce Design Thinking
    https://www.matsudamulville.nl/traditional-thinking-v-design-thinking/ http://wiki.doing-projects.org/index.php/Double_diamond:_A_design_process_model
    

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22. How I introduce “Research 101”
    People are
    strange
    Observation
    beats
    questions
    Ask open
    questions
    Research questions & planning your research
    (ask us)
    It’s great that you want to do a [survey | focus group] …but
    don’t
    

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23. 1. Don’t sell a design process. Sell a good design.
    2. Don’t build ‘Castle Design’
    3. Take every opportunity with every individual
    4. The most important skills to develop are curiosity and recruitment
    5. Do Design Thinking training straightaway, Research 101 as soon
    as needed, and design training much later
    6.
    

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24. Photo by me
    Use it if you want to
    

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25. 1. Don’t sell a design process. Sell a good design.
    2. Don’t build ‘Castle Design’
    3. Take every opportunity with every individual
    4. The most important skills to develop are curiosity and recruitment
    5. Do Design Thinking training straightaway, Research 101 as soon as
    needed, and design training much later
    6. Once you have a small team, hold Design Jams
    7.
    

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26. What you want to tell them: All they care about:
    1. This is what our project is doing
    2. This is what we’ve done already
    3. This is why it’s important
    5. Here’s the justification for why change is happening
    6. Here’s the current process and what is changing
    7. Here is a step-by-step guide of what to do
    8. How to handle each and every variation
    9. How to troubleshoot
    10. How to contact us
    11. What will be happening next
    12.Meet the team
    What do I have to do?
    Organisational focus Employee focus
    

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27. Care factor (FGIndex):
    What do I
    have to
    do?
    Why is it
    changing?
    What’s in it
    for me?
    What support
    tools have you
    given me?
    Does it really
    work?
    What about if
    there’s an X and
    I need to Y?
    What’s the
    strategy here?
    What support
    tools do I need
    to make?
    Have you
    fixed Z?
    Show me
    a picture
    This information needs to be immediately
    Visible
    0 Lots
    This information needs to be easily
    Findable
    

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28. 1. Don’t sell a design process. Sell a good design.
    2. Don’t build ‘Castle Design’
    3. Take every opportunity with every individual
    4. The most important skills to develop are curiosity and recruitment
    5. Do Design Thinking training straightaway, Research 101 as soon as
    needed, and design training much later
    6. Once you have a small team, hold Design Jams
    7. Check the comms
    

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29. Original photo by Uranimated18 - CC BY-SA 3.0
    https://creatures-of-the-world.fandom.com/wiki/Jaguar?file=Jaguar-attacks-a-Yacare-Caiman.jpg
    

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30. 1. Don’t sell a design process. Sell a good design.
    2. Don’t build ‘Castle Design’
    3. Take every opportunity with every individual
    4. The most important skills to develop are curiosity and recruitment
    5. Do Design Thinking training straightaway, Research 101 as soon as
    needed, and design training much later
    6. Once you have a small team, hold Design Jams
    7. Check the comms
    8. When you see it, go for the jugular
    

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31. Sell a good design (not a design process)
    101
    Take every opportunity with every individual
    Present about Design Thinking immediately, have a ‘Research 101’
    ready
    Check (or change) the way staff are communicated to
    Don’t build a Design Castle
    Build curiosity, establish user recruitment
    Hold Design Jams
    Go for the jugular on those dangerous ideas
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    https://coolors.co
    linkedin.com/in/JonathanDuhig @JonDuhig
    

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