Big Nerd Ranch DesignOps
Defining and aligning on discovery improvements to focus on the “right” problems and build the “right” thing
Combating the lack of of understand and negative perception clients have about the discovery process.
Overview
Big Nerd Ranch is a Product Consulting company that was struggling with selling and conducting client discoveries. They had a lack of understanding, expectations & clarity impact our clients trust and value in the BNR discovery process. BNR’s lack of consistency, documentation, communication and organization has lead to misalignment.
2022
Company Type
Product Design and Development Consulting Firm
Role
Lead Experience Designer
Project
Internal Process Improvement/DesignOps
Design and Research Timeline
3.50 Months
Team
Kimberly Owens, Client Solutions Architect - Big Nerd Ranch
Dustin Guice, Project Manager - Big Nerd Ranch
Matt Raufman, Principal Experience Designer - Big Nerd Ranch
Problem
Recently several projects had been scoped and sold inaccurately, causing a loss of revenue, extended timelines and very unhappy clients. Come to find out this has been an ongoing problems with little to no investigation into the “why” behind it.
Solution
To conduct a design led discovery into our internal processes to uncover what the real problem was and bring cross-functional teams together to solution and midigate the problem.
What’s a Discovery
Do we really know what it means?
How we at Big Nerd Ranch defined a discovery.
A discovery is a preliminary phase that involves researching the problem space, framing the problem(s), and gathering enough evidence and initial direction on what to do next. They are crucial to setting projects off in the right direction by focusing on the right problems and building the right thing.
NN/g Nielsen Norman Group
World’s Leaders in Research-Based User Experience
Discovery
Searching for pain points
We conducted a series of workshops to identifying our primary pain points, so we can narrow our focus.
Process:
• Conducting a series of stakeholder interviews with 13 team members across 3 teams
• Mapped out the "current" workflow to understand the current process
• Conducted an analysis of previous discoveries; went well/what didn't
• Reviewed & leveraged existing documentation across both p202 & BNR teams
Observations:
• Clients have a negative perception because they don't understand the value & outcomes from a discovery
• No one really agrees the current process is the right process and most said there was no process
• Overall lack of communication & documentation beginning with tech sales through a discovery project to a delivery project
What makes a successful discovery
Clients have an understanding of product development, value design before building it.
Using the same team from discovery to delivery.
Works well when its not tied to a budget or timeline
Strong Project Strategists are essential for Discoveries, especially complicated/ambiguous ones.
When clients know how we work and we know how they work.
What makes a unsuccessful discovery
Client does not have a PO or lacks understanding of the role of a PO.
Discoveries are sold to mitigate risks.
When clients thought they had everything they needed, but we disagreed.
We use discoveries to scope projects.
Clients needed lots of coaching and tend to be stubborn.
Hard to articulate what that discovery phase was going to be — lack of a plan and to ambiguous.
PS’s are 50% billable so they don’t want to get too involved because they don’t have the time.
Learnings
Process:
• Synthesized the all of the data collected
• Crafted a problem statement based on findings
• Created a clear set of goals & outcomes for us to measure
• Made a hypotheses for us to validate throughout the process
Observations:
• We identified 3 areas of focus: Communications, Process and Education
• Identified value in creating client types and discovery types
Understand
Connecting the dots
After gathering as much data as we could, we began identifying themes, crafted problem statements and made hypotheses to validate.
Pain Points and Focus Areas
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• Its unclear what work needs to be done in a post-discovery project.
• Unclear if the discovery is perceived as a project.
• Clients needs to understand what a discovery is and why it’s beneficial.
• Clients experience discovery fatigue. The same conversations happen multiple times.
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• We rely on the SOW to tell us what we need to know.
• We’re focused to investigate and find our own way when onboarding.
• To much variation and not enough of a consistent process.
-
• Clients don’t understand the value, outcomes of a discovery.
• Sales leaves, then we have to re-educate.
• Educate on product ownership. Show them the BNR way of doing things.
Goals
• Well defined Discovery documentation
• Alignment on strategy and execution of the Discovery process
• Clear communication of the Discovery process
• A successful execution of the Discovery process with a plan to iterate as needed
• Improvements to our tech sales process
• Confidence that our clients value, trust and want to invest in our recommended solution
• Indirect improvements to the BNRs project process
• Recommended solutions that users desire & are viable to clients
Well defined Discovery documentation both internally and externally.
Alignment on strategy and execution of the Discovery process.
Clear communication of the Discovery process along with defined roles and responsibilities.
A successful execution of the Discovery process with a plan to iterate as needed.
Improvements to our tech sales process and SOW strategy.
Confidence that our clients value, trust and want to invest in our recommended solution.
Expected Outcomes
Product Ideation
Client with an idea needing further product research, stakeholder validation, product or feature exploration and market fit before designing and building.
Product Validation
Client with a basic understanding of what needs to be done based on light research but needs further research, audit, validation & expertise.
Product Discoveries
Client has an existing product and has done a significant amount of research, validating needs and preliminary user testing but they need help getting to the next version or something is missing in order to take it to the next version and needs our help.
Discovery Types
A Discovery can be something we sell as a service OR as a part of a standard Project Delivery.
Delivery
Getting Real
Based on our themes we prioritized our areas of focus and created a path forward. And, have begun crafting tangible assets to begin testing.
Process:
• Identified key deliverables that work towards improving the key areas of focus
• Realized a need to test & share the new process across all BNR teams
Deliverables
• Sales — external: Discovery Deck
• Sales — internal: Playbook on how to communicate
and sell a Discovery. Questions, checklist, how-to/strategy
• Standardized BNR Discovery playbook discovery process
• Templates for Discovery deliverables
• Discovery Report — client
• Executive Summary / Discovery Diary — Internal source of truth
• Guidelines for handing over a disc from sales phase to delivery phase
• Rollout strategy/next steps (feedback loop)
Visionary: Product Ideation
Client with an idea needing further product research, stakeholder/user validation, product or feature exploration and/or market fit before designing and building.
Sage: Product Validation
Client with a basic understanding of what problem needs to be solved and has existing research but needs further research, audit, validation and/or expertise.
Ruler: Project Delivery
Client has an existing product and has a significant amount of research, validation and preliminary user testing. They know what their problems are. But they need help iterating or discovered a feature is missing and needs our help.
Archetypes
She has expert skills and very experienced in all things UX and UI. I'm particularly impressed in her workshop skills. She has a long list of methodologies in her toolbox, and is adept at choosing the right one for the job. Her facilitation skills are fantastic and yielded solid design deliverables to build upon for the Discovery project.
Matt Raufman
Principal Experience Designer
Big Nerd Ranch (now Stellar Elements)
Outcome
A more clearly defined & communicated discovery process will affect client and internal team alignment — resulting in more successful outcomes. With an easy understandable discovery process will lead to better sales materials & client value — ultimately leading to more sales.