At Arrk, we start any new project with something called EmbArrk™. It is usually a two-week (sometimes shorter, sometimes longer) series of intensive workshops that kick-starts a project and manages to generate such animation and buzz within the Arrk and customer team, that it is a challenge to not begin the project immediately.

A key component of an EmbArrk™ is the research groundwork that our Researchers, Experience Consultants and Business Analysts put in prior to the EmbArrk™ start date. This groundwork includes some or all of the following:

• Narrative interviews
• Ethnographic research
• Field trips

The outcomes from these activities provide the Arrk team with a deep understanding of the End User – their needs, desires, fears and relationship with the existing product/service.

So what is the problem?

All the above is a very mature, tested and deployed method (refined and improved over many customer engagements) of acquiring, codifying, collating, presenting and making use of Qualitative knowledge. Which is great, we start a project with a massive empathy that drives the decisions and designs produced.

During the project development period (Arrk uses an Agile methodology, so Sprints) we iteratively create a digital product that can be tested and qualitatively assessed.

So far so good, but, how do we really know if we are making something that improves upon what has gone before? Something that reduces an end user’s error rate, or increases their productivity. In short, we don’t.

This has been a large hole in a qualitatively driven user experience model, which had to be addressed.

What can be done?

The bedfellow of qualitative knowledge is quantitative knowledge, you’ll notice that I’m saying knowledge, not data or information. Data is meaningless without context, and is of little use until it has been processed into usable information. But information is only part of the journey, we take this further, looking at the DIKW pyramid and applying experience and skill we can distill knowledge and ultimately wisdom from information.

Being adept digital engineers, we use New Relic and Google Analytics to gain insights into how end users are using the digital product. The raw data from these services is processed by the team into knowledge that enables us to see how our design decisions, are reflected in user behaviour.

Examples

Quite often we reach design impasses, in that we have a distinct branch in a product’s design, and the outcome from making this choice has a fundamental effect on the whole product’s development style. In this case, we would set up a simple A/B test. The mechanics of this being that as we tend to develop using virtual servers, it’s a simple (I’m not allowed to say trivial) task to create a pair of servers with the two design branches. The servers are then used to alternative between product users, and their behaviour is observed using New Relic/Google Analytics. As the outcome of this test is (relatively) easy to objectively demonstrate which solution works best, we can make the best design decision.

For those of you who may think that this sounds expensive with regard to effort and time, this has to be balanced against the cost of getting it wrong. I believe that we (the IT industry) are conditioned to building monolithic structures with strong analogies to physical world processes such as building architecture or car manufacture. When in actual fact we are presenting a fleeting, almost ethereal manifestation of a product or service, which has real world outcomes – Eg. A hotel is booked, a taxi is ordered, a cancer therapy is assigned. With this mindset, the abilities such as re-arranging an order form’s sequence, or the arrangement of an interactive sequence is approached correctly.

A second example is of funnel filtering. We often build a process that has a linear sequence that makes sense to the designers and developers. However, the end user hasn’t been privy to the design session where we’ve determined how they should act, and therefore is able to take the most oblique route through our system. Often though, the end user will reach an impasse, and be prevented from completing their task.

In a live product, or during any of the early stages of a soft launch, or alpha release, it becomes an overwhelming task to continually monitor the service using qualitative methods (through interviews or observations), and so we use analytic tools to watch the users for us.

Funnel filtering is a technique by which we can model the presumed path we expect a user to take through our software. This will be the path that most effort has been taken to ensure that the process logic is a ‘usable’ as possible. The analytics tracker then monitors the users to see whether progress matches our model. The knowledge derived from this monitoring will identify whether our model is correct, and more importantly highlight stumbling blocks that slow a user down, or cause them to abandon the process completely.

Notice that funnel filtering analytics does not provide the solution, or even identify the actual issue, it does, however, enable us to know where to look for the issue.

I’ve demonstrated how quantitative knowledge provides us with a tool as valuable as qualitative knowledge in an Agile project. The natural complement to an Agile project is to run it Lean as well. To be lean we must be able to demonstrate that the outcomes from our actions have a (hopefully) positive impact for the end user, and quantitative knowledge is the most appropriate tools for this.

I’ve written about analytics within the context of an EmbArrk™ led project, and as a part of our project process. The skills we use are directly transferable to an existing product, project in production, or as an evaluation tool, used to determine the best direction for a product’s development.

Lean methods have been transforming manufacturing and software development – so could they be applied to public services too?

As the public sector undergoes its digital transformation, the ground is fertile for new ideas and new methods that can deliver more effective outcomes: and lean innovation might just hold the key.

Wait, what is lean?

If you’re not familiar with lean methodology, it has many similarities to agile in that it represents a set of principles meant to help achieve speed, quality and customer alignment. Its premises revolve around eliminating waste; building quality; creating knowledge; and delivering quickly while optimising the whole outcome.

In short, the idea is to eliminate anything that does not add value to a concept – eliminating everything from useless documentation to meaningless meetings. It means eliminating the inefficient methods and spending time building what you are sure will work.

Why does the public sector need lean methods?

There are many potential barriers that could get in the way of the digital transformation of public services. Among the most obvious are financial constraints with the country attempting to reduce its deficit without raising taxes; political interests, both internal and external that could slow down potential changes as people look to safeguard their own positions, among other reasons; the general change that would be needed to an organisation’s processes and culture with so much focus on new digital systems; the skills and experience that would be needed; and much more.

These barriers however, can be tackled in a number of ways when adopting lean methods. By taking a lean approach, the emphasis can be put on outcomes that actually meet needs, nurturing from both the bottom up and top down to adopt best practice behaviours that help overcome these barriers. It may also mean turning to external help to inject energy and momentum into the proceedings.

Applying lean principles

No matter what area of public service you work in, if you’re aiming to enhance outcomes you should focus on policies that support re-inventive change. This will mean not being afraid to try new things – and in fact, actually embracing the “fail fast, fail often” approach that will see you regularly try methods that don’t work in an effort to find an optimum outcome and ultimately make the process more efficient. In addition, it will mean having strong leadership and a permissive culture that gives people the right to have their say and try their ideas without worrying about negative feedback.

There should also be added emphasis on listening to new ideas and being willing to bring in external support, resources, training and coaching. Don’t assume that your in-house experts are always right – if that was the case then the system would already be working optimally and there would be no need for change. The idea of adopting new methods is to listen to truly new ideas from new voices and not just the “same old suspects”.

Above all, however, you should aim to minimise waste by focusing on the needs of the customer and their purposes. Have them in mind from the outset and you can streamline your operations. By putting the user first, you should be able to quickly define the end goal and be able to rapidly mobilise your ideas.

Putting the theory into action

To bring the methodology to life, Arrk has created the EmbArrk™ time-boxed lean discovery method. This takes on several stages:

Finding the problems

The first stage is to investigate the problem. Carry out interviews with customers to assess their feedback; analyse competitor offerings and be honest about what they are doing better; make contextual inquiries; and examine analytics, among other potential methods of investigation. This should be carried out, typically over a period of two-five days, to clearly establish the issues.

Considering the issues

The next step can be referred to as consideration. It will see your team create choices through brainstorming, gaining insight from external experts, and mapping out the customer experience from the initial feedback. Over a period, typically of more than a week, you will be generating ideas and conversing before shortlisting the solutions you feel can work best.

Realisation

The third step is realisation: that is putting things into practice. This will see you define the minimal viable product and bring this to life through storyboarding, information design and prototyping before customer testing.

Wrap up

The next stage is the wrap up stage, where you are confident enough to put your service out there and showcase it to the public. Just remember that this should never be considered the “final” stage because lean development should be an ongoing cycle that you revisit to ensure you maximise efficiency.

Using EmbArrk™ for your public service transformation

EmbArrk™ can help you achieve your objectives with a systematic approach to your individual project. It involves a strategic design that is customised for your service, a clear discovery stage to outline the issues and how they can be resolved; and a low-level business process redesign that can help make the digitisation of your service a reality.

The key with reinventing any service is to look beyond the status quo and be willing to make efficient changes that will maximise value and bring the customer what they need and demand. EmbArrk™ can put you on the right track.

Imagine starting a business without examining the market first; or hiring a new employee without carrying out an interview. Both scenarios seem almost unthinkable: yet, a host of organisations are still launching their digital projects while overlooking the discovery phase.

Chances are, if you’ve had a project that’s gone awry, you can trace the root cause back to the fact that the requirements and goals of the project weren’t understood from the beginning; or something changed during the project. With a thorough discovery phase you can help avoid the first problem while enjoying superior management of the second.

 

Discovery phase of a project | Why do you need it?

In the eyes of many project managers, a discovery phase is just a way to neglect a launch and often a waste of money. However, they very often regret its omission very quickly.

The idea behind a discovery phase is that it is meant to reduce the risk of failure and ensure that when you launch you have maximised the potential of the project and are able to make a flying start. It represents a chance to test the market while sharing ideas and examining each angle available to understand your business both inside and out.

 

Wait… what exactly is the discovery phase?

Think of the discovery phase as a vital stage in the project. This is when you will work alongside your team in an effort to establish a deep understanding of what your expectations of the project really are. You can outline what you want to achieve, including:

• Outputs | What are the major deliverables, including reports, applications and websites.
• Outcomes | What are the expected results of the project? For example, if it’s a website, what are your expectations in terms of daily visitors or monthly revenue?

The idea here is to develop an effective blueprint: a story for your project. Reducing risk should be your goal – both in terms of overspending and creating an incorrect solution. So outline a project goal statement that includes exactly what you want the project to achieve – both for new clients and for the business; cost savings; potential visual designs with an outline of how the website will look and possible user flows; functional requirements that detail what the website will do; and information architecture that explains what content should be displayed and how accessible it will be. In addition, make sure you include a project schedule that outlines all major milestones; and an overall cost estimate.

 

Is a Discovery Phase truly agile?

Given that so much of the Agile philosophy revolves around “Fail Fast, Fail Often”, all of this planning and analysis may not sound like it fits into the general picture.

However, the Discovery Phase should actually be looked at as a first sprint: it is meant to find a road map for the project and is an opportunity for business stakeholders and technology providers to ensure they are working with the same goals in mind. Just remember that even though you are outlining requirements and needs now, they will still need to evolve over time – especially as new information is made available or as external events occur. At Arrk Group we call our discovery phase EmbArrk™ and we like to include lots of interactive workshops and sessions which aim to capture all stakeholder requirements to shape the direction and scope of the digital project.

 

Discovery Phases and Digital Agencies

Not every digital agency will make use of a Discovery Phase. However, the fact is that few can provide accurate estimates if they do not make a detailed analysis. Instead, they are forced to make a “best guess” approach which can have mixed results.

In a best case scenario, agencies will attempt to factor in unknown scenarios as a contingency plan and as a way of saving costs. The very best companies however, will usually refuse a project because they won’t want to risk their integrity by leaving the chance for a lack of a success.

By contrast, in a worst case scenario, agencies may be desperate for work and ignore the potential risks involved. They will often make bids that are below the true value of the project and hope to charge the client further at a later stage after they have claimed the project as their own.

As such, it’s worth looking for a digital agency that truly understands that what your objectives are from the outset.

 

Discovery Phase | Customers benefit too

By developing a plan for the entire architecture of your digital product, your customers will ultimately reap the rewards.  It will highlight that you care about how satisfied they are and ensure the user experience is enhanced. They may not know about all of your meetings and the stages that went into its production: but they will be satisfied with its usability from the get-go.

Of course some complaints are always likely to occur: but without a discovery phase you risk walking in blindly without understanding how the guest posts, social media, landing and product pages all fit together.

In summary, the Discovery Phase is all about heightening the chances of success and limiting the risks of failure: and what could make more sense than that?

 

Why not take part in our interactive workshop EmbArrk™ and we can help through the discovery phase to make sure your business goals and project objectives are aligned.