01

Define the Requirements

The first step I take is to define the general business needs, and requirements for the project, and understand the deliverables, timeline, and expectations. It’s essential to always stay on the same page with the rest of the team. At this step, I like to jot down my hypothesis for what I expect the problem might be.

02
Discover the Issues

During this phase, I collect information, talk to people, and explore the problem space. I will also look into user reports and understand why the product came to be the way it is. If user research isn’t within the budget or allocated time, I’ll try to conduct ad hoc guerilla interviews to avoid designing blindly.

03
Interpret the Results

The interpretation phase allows me to define the users, their needs, and pain points. Personas, journey maps, storyboards and problem statements can be limited or redefined. At this stage, I set our goals and the metrics we want to hit for success. This phase is always very insightful.

04
Ideate over solutions

The ideation phase is a lot of fun for me! I like to bring in developers, other designers, stakeholders and customer supports to an ideation session to explore different options. I want to let my mind go wild and develop as many solutions as possible. I strive for quantity over quality at this stage.

05
Prototype

In this phase, I will create the interactive prototype. It may be a hi-fi figma prototype or even an interactive website. The level of details and fidelity depends on how far along in the process I am and what I want to test.

06
Test, iterate, and test again

In this final phase, I will test the prototype with users. Sometimes it will be a quick guerilla test, while other times it may be a full-fledged usability test session. The test results will help us understand what needs to be changed and fixed.