UX for Lean Startups

3. Faster User Research
Iterate! Iterate! Iterate!
How You Can Do It Right Now
Stay in the Building
How You Can Do It Right Now
Unmoderated Testing
How You Can Do It Right Now
When to Survey
How You Can Do It Right Now
Loosely Related Rant: Stupid Reasons for Not Doing Research
Excuse 1: It’s a Design Standard
Excuse 2: Company X Does It This Way
Excuse 3: We Don’t Have Time or Money
Excuse 4: We’re New; We’ll Fix It Later
Excuse 5: It’s My Vision; Users Will Just Screw It Up
Excuse 6: It’s Just a Prototype to Get Funding
Out of Excuses?
Go Do This Now!

4. Qualitative Research Is Great...Except When It’s Terrible
A One-Variable Change
A Multivariable or Flow Change
Deciding What to Build Next
Qualitative Approaches
Quantitative Approaches
Still Don’t Know Which Approach to Take?
Loosely Related Rant: If You Build It, Will They Buy It?
If I Build It, Will They Buy?
What Questions Can Qualitative Research Answer Well?
What’s the Best Way to Answer This Question?
Are There Other Questions You Can’t Answer Qualitatively?
Go Do This Now!

II: Design
5. Designing for Validation
Tool 1: Truly Understand the Problem
When Is It Safe to Skip This?
Tool 2: Design the Test First
When Is It Safe to Skip This?
Tool 3: Write Some Stories
When Is It Safe to Skip This?
Tool 4: Talk About Possible Solutions with the Team
When Is It Safe to Skip This?
Tool 5: Make a Decision
When Is It Safe to Skip This?
Tool 6: (In)Validate the Approach
When Is It Safe to Skip This?
Tool 7: Sketch a Few Approaches
When Is It Safe to Skip This?
Tool 8: Create Interactive Prototypes
When Is It Safe to Skip This?
Tool 9: Test and Iterate
When Is It Safe to Skip This?
Loosely Related Rant: Give the Users What They Really Want
Ooh! An Example!
Why this matters
Go Do This Now!

6. Just Enough Design
Design the Necessary, Not the Neat
What You Should Do Instead
Here’s Another Example
What They Should Have Done
Build a Feature Stub
What Does This Have to Do with Design?
Build a Wizard of Oz Feature
Solve Only the Important Problems
How You Can Do It Right Now
Loosely Related Rant: Stop Worrying About the Cup Holders
Visual Design
Retention Features
Animations
Your Feature Here
Go Do This Now!

7. Design Hacks
Design Patterns
Competitive Research
User Testing the Competition
Consistency
Frameworks
There’s Probably a Plug-in for That
Don’t Design It at All
Getting Some Professional Help
Loosely Related Rant: The Art of the UX Steal
They May Not Want Exactly What You Want
They Don’t Do Exactly What You Do
They Can Get Away with It
The Right Way to Steal
Trust but Verify
Go Do This Now!

8. Diagrams, Sketches, Wireframes, and Prototypes
Why Diagram?
What’s It Good For?
How Can You Make One?
When Do You Sketch?
What’s It Good For?
How Can You Make One?
What’s a Wireframe, and Why Do You Care?
What’s It Good For?
How Can You Make One?
Do You Have to Make an Interactive Prototype?
What’s It Good For?
How Can You Make One?
So Which Should You Build?
Should You Make It Pretty?
Loosely Related Rant: Why I Hate Paper Prototypes
Screen versus Paper
Animations and interactions
Testing exploration
OK, there are exceptions
Go Do This Now!

9. An MVP Is Both M & V
The Landing Page
The First Iteration
You’re Not Done Yet
One More Time!
Loosely Related Rant: Limited Products versus Crappy Products
Go Do This Now!

10. The Right Amount of Visual Design
Why Is Visual Design Important in UX?
Visuals Enhance Information Design
Reinforcing Desired User Actions
Visuals Set the Tone
Why I Put Off Visual Design
How Much Visual Design Do YOU Need?
Using Visual Design to Enhance Usability
The Smartest Visual Design You Can Do
What You Should Do Instead
Why you should do this
Loosely Related Rant: The Best Visual Design in the World
Go Do This Now!

III: Product
11. Measure It!
What Does Measuring Design Entail, Anyway?
Why Measure Design?
Several Stupid Reasons for Not A/B Testing (and a Couple of Good Ones)
It Takes Away the Need for Design
It’s Useful Only for Small Changes
It Leads to Local Maxima
It Leads to a Confused Mess of an Interface
Design Isn’t About Metrics
When to A/B Test and When to Research
What A/B Testing Does Well
What It Does Poorly
A Bad Solution
What Qualitative Testing Does Well
Find the Best of All Worlds
Find Out Why Users Are Leaving
Save Engineering Time and Iterate Faster
How Do They Work Together?
Qualitative Testing Narrows Down What You Need to A/B Test
Qualitative Testing Generates New Ideas for Features and Designs
A/B Testing Creates a Feedback Loop for Researchers
Not Sold Yet?
Which Metrics Equal Happy Users
Retention
Revenue
NPS (Net Promoter Score)
Conversion to Paying
Engagement
Registration
Customer Service Contacts
So Which Is It?
Loosely Related Rant: Stupid Mistakes People Make When Analyzing Data
Statistical Significance
The fix
Short-Term versus Long-Term Effects
The fix
Forgetting the Goal of the Metrics
The fix
Combining Data from Multiple Tests
The fix
Understanding the Significance of Changes
The fix
Go Do This Now!

12. Go Faster!
Work as a Cross-Functional Team
The Waterfall
The Cross-Functional Team
Combine Product and UX Roles
Avoid Engineering When Possible
Loosely Related Rant: Ship It Already! Just Not to Everyone at Once
The Interactive Prototype
The Opt In
The Opt Out
The n% Rollout
The New User Rollout
Go Do This Now!

13. The Big Finish
A. About the Author

Index
About the Author