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.

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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
3. thanks Renato Feijo! https://renatofeijo.com/blog-UXstrat.html
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”
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”
7. https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action
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)
9. 1. Don’t sell a design process. Sell a good design. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
10. Come on in! Original photo by Pilgrimsoldier - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35164296
11. Make designers design better Make non-designers take up some HCD practice vs High quality, low volume ???? quality, high volume
12. 1. Don’t sell a design process. Sell a good design. 2. Don’t build ‘Castle Design’ 3. 4. 5. 6.
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
14. Noisiness Time Detractors Enthusiasts Champions
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
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.
17. #1 most important skill: curiosity Public Domain photo from the GPA Photo Archive
18. #2 most important skill: recruiting users Image by Quang Nguyen vinh from Pixabay
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.
20. Design Thinking Research 101 Design doing Learn by doing Don’t just ask Raise quality Immediately Reactively Strategically
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
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
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.
24. Photo by me Use it if you want to
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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 FBF8CC FDE4CF FFCFD2 F1C0E8 A3C4F3 90DBF4 8EECF5 98F5E1 B9FBC0 https://coolors.co linkedin.com/in/JonathanDuhig @JonDuhig