User Research Workshop

UXR&D meets the Lean Canvas

2025

Angela Martin

Lenovo | Staff UX Designer & Board Chair of ABLE

UX, Savannah College of Art and Design Class of 2020

Collaborated with: HomeDepot, Google, Volvo, Lenovo, & AirBnB

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UX Intern at Microsoft�Summer of 2019�

Staff UX Designer, UXD Software at Lenovo�May 2020 – Current

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ABLE Board Chair�A Better Lenovo for Everyone, disability advocacy ERG

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Mentor to students pursuing creative careers for 7+ years

What is UX?

Has anyone ever pushed a pull door?

What is User Experience (UX) Design?

UX is about people and how they interact (with a product)

Users may evaluate their experience according to:

• Value. Does this product give me value?
• Function. Does this product work?
• Usability. Is it easy to use?
• General impression. Is it pleasant to use?

https://xd.adobe.com/ideas/career-tips/what-is-ux-design/

Yes, you only have a week.

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No, you can’t skip research.

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It will be obvious if you skip it because you will simply have a weaker project.

https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2018/09/ux-research-is-essential-to-product-success.php

Good design starts with a good “why” which can only come from good research.

WHY

HOW

WHAT

Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle

https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en

Discover

Define

Design

Deliver

Breakout

UX Process

Good design starts with a good “why” which can only come from good research.

WHY

HOW

WHAT

WHAT: Your result

• Solution and concept
• Unique value proposition

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HOW: Your process

• Lean canvas

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WHY: Your purpose and identity

• The motivation and need

Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle

https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en

WHY UX RESEARCH IS IMPORTANT

Design thinking

=

Creative problem solving!

1. Define your problem and target audience
2. Draft a solution, a minimum viable product (MVP)

Create napkin sketches first and worry about pixel-pushing later.

• Don't assume that what you’ve built is the right solution, find an efficient �way to test your hypothesis, getting as many results as you can..

https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2018/09/ux-research-is-essential-to-product-success.php

The Lean UX Process

Without skipping anything, here’s the abridged version.

Discover

Define

Design

Deliver

Breakout

Define your target audience and research paths:

1. Identify a target audience for each solution. Cross out the solution if the audience is too narrow or will be difficult to contact.
2. What personal resources do you currently have?
1. Maybe you happen to know an expert or specialist. They can check your biases and provide your research with a credible source.
2. Professors are great examples.
3. To avoid hitting a dead end, whichever topic has the most research resources right now is where you should start your digging.
4. Write down any and all solutions you can think of.

Define

Design

Deliver

Breakout

Now that you have a problem space �and target audience…

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1. Read as much secondary research as possible.�Good problem spaces are defined in trends and easily supported by logic.

Discover

Market Research

Primary

Secondary

Quantitative

“The collection �of numerical data”

Qualitative

“Provides reasoning for user actions, opinions, wants, �& needs”

Public Sources

Commercial

Educational Institutes

Focus Groups

In -Depth Interviews

Observations

Surveys

Questionnaires

Phone Interviews

Define

Design

Deliver

Breakout

Discover

You do this second

You do this first

Define

Design

Deliver

Breakout

Now that you have a problem space �and target audience…

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• Read as much secondary research as possible.�Good problem spaces are defined in trends and easily supported by logic.
• Do your market/competitive analysis.�Understand what is on the market and what isn’t. Pivot if your idea space is too flooded. If you find a product with a major flaw, your product could be the better version. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, you just have to have a unique value proposition that the competitors lack.

Discover

Define

Design

Deliver

Breakout

Now that you have a problem space �and target audience…

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• Read as much secondary research as possible.�Good problem spaces are defined in trends and easily supported by logic.
• Do your market/competitive analysis.�Understand what is on the market and what isn’t. Pivot if your idea space is too flooded. If you find a product with a major flaw, your product could be the better version. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, you just have to have a unique value proposition that the competitors lack.
• Start your lean canvas (also business model).

Most of it can be filled in with secondary research and later validated with primary research. It is a living document that should be iterated every day.

Discover

Problem

List your customers top 3 problems.

Existing Alternatives

List how these problems are solved today.

Solution

Outlines possible solutions for each problem.

Key Metrics

Key numbers telling how your business is doing.

Unique Value Proposition

Why customers should buy yours over competitors. Single clear message.

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High-Level concept

List your X for Y analogy. (example: Youtube = Flickr for videos).

Unfair advantage

Can’t be easily copied or bought.

Channels

List your path to customers.

Customer Segments

List your�target users

Early Adopters

List characteristics of your ideal customer

Cost Structure

List your fixed and variable costs.

Revenue Streams

List your sources of revenue.

2

4

8

7

6

3

9

1

5

No idea what this is?

Check out this video:

https://youtu.be/pvIN9STpzCQ

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“A problem statement is a short description of a specific problem that needs to be solved.”

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“Problem statements are used in the Design Thinking process to help you stay focused and make good decisions.”

Discover

Define

Design

Deliver

Breakout

3 min timer

Gather key information

Discover

Define

Design

Deliver

Breakout

• Who?
• …are you designing for?
• …needs help?
• What?
• …do they need?
• …do they want?
• When?
• Where?
• Why?
• …would they use your solution?

• Who?
• …are you designing for?
• …needs help?
• What?
• …do they need?
• …do they want?
• When?
• Where?
• Why?
• …would they use your solution?

For example,

Problem: My dog runs out of water every day

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Who: My dog, Kitty

What: Water bowl is empty a lot

When: Every day

Where: At home

Why: Dog drinks a lot of water

Discover

Define

Design

Deliver

Breakout

Info gathering

How is the problem currently solved?

😐😃😊😠😡😮😥😓

I’ve done my secondary and initial market research and have discovered a problem space with a target audience.

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How do I start �primary research?

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Define

Design

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Breakout

Primary Research Methodologies:

https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2018/09/ux-research-is-essential-to-product-success.php

Discover

Design

Deliver

Breakout

• Interviews

• Surveys

• Focus Groups

• Observations

• Card Sorting

• Participatory Design / Co Creation

Please,

do not just send out a survey because you wrote out some questions and have a Facebook.

Define

How to identify what primary research methodology is best for you:

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• Think critically about what holes you have in your data and understanding.
• Check if you can fill those holes with more secondary research.
• Identify the understanding you want to validate and data you still lack.
• Write some research questions, these aren’t what you will actually ask your interviewee.
• “How does caffeine impact my target audience’s (females, ages 50-60) sleep habits?”
• Write specific questions to ask that will answer your research questions.
• These should be questions that lead to your research questions such as: “What is your gender? What is your age? What time of day do you stop drinking anything with caffeine? How often do you get a full night’s rest?” Etc.
• The types of questions you have written down will determine what methodology you should use.

Discover

Design

Deliver

Breakout

Define

Need lots of long answer responses?

A brief interview is good. Interviews are good to discover the five “why”s.

You’ve got a week - these don’t have to be formal but should be unbiased so ask at least

two more people than just your mom or roommate.

Discover

Design

Deliver

Breakout

Lots of quick questions?

Surveys are good to discover patterns quickly but,

make sure you are getting a good range of answers.

Need to know how people do something?

Don't do a short answer survey. Make a questionnaire instead, but be aware, �people get turned off by having to type a lot. When writing out your questions �make sure you know exactly what kind of data you want to get out of it.

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Not obvious what primary research methodology is going to be the best for you?

Contact us. We are always happy to help.

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Define

If you spoke to fewer people than you thought necessary but see a clear pattern in your research, it �is okay to stop asking people the same question and trust the insights.

Discover

Design

Deliver

Breakout

Define

Great, now I’ve got a lot of data.

How do I turn this into a concept?

Discover

Design

Deliver

Breakout

We highly recommend affinity mapping.

If you must cut a step, let it be this one. But don’t.

Define

Discover

Design

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Breakout

What is affinity mapping?

It’s a way of synthesizing data.

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Oh $h*t… Doesn’t affinity mapping take hours?

Yes, it can. Anywhere from 3 to 14+ hours.

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Is it really that helpful?

Undoubtedly, yes.

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How do I do it quickly?

We can help.

Define

Discover

Design

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Breakout

Affinity Mapping 101

AKA “Affinitization”

If you’re a pro:

• Feel free to play by your own rules
• Add in some steps like writing Point Of View statements

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If you’re just getting started or are short on time:

• If you spend more than 3 hours using our method, �we’re pretty confident you’re over-thinking.

Define

Discover

Design

Deliver

Breakout

Data point with source

Insight sentence

HMW question

Design framework

For the pros

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Define

Discover

Design

Deliver

Breakout

Data point with source

Insight sentence

HMW question

Design framework

For the pros

Define

Discover

Design

Deliver

Breakout

Data point with source

Insight sentence

HMW question

Design framework

For the pros

Define

Affinity Mapping 101

(Don’t want to waste paper, constantly losing things, hate when stickies fall, or don’t have time to run to Target for sticky notes? Use Miro or Figma instead.)

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If you spend more than 3 hours on this, you’re over thinking.

• Write down all the data you learned from secondary and primary research on yellow sticky notes. One sticky per data point. Remember to write down where the data point came from on the back or in the corner.
• Group all yellow sticky notes into piles based on relevance to each other.
• Each group should have at least three stickies in it to make for a valid insight but no more than ten stickies or the insights get muddled. The numbers can be flexible depending on how much data you have.
• Give each yellow group a blue sticky with a sentence that summarizes that group’s data findings. These are your insights. (Photograph your work before you lose which blue goes to which yellow pile.)
• Group all blue sticky notes into piles based on relevance to each other. Outliers are fine.
• Give each blue group a green sticky with a word (or two) that captures the essence of the insight group. These are your design frameworks.
• Go back to your blue stickys and give each one at least one HMW question.
• HMW questions begin with the phrase “How might we” and form the basis of your concepting.
• Example: How might we… help females aged 50-60 get a good night’s sleep regardless of caffeine intake during the day?
• If you had more than a week, you’d identify gaps in data and repeat.

Discover

Design

Deliver

Breakout

Define

So now I’ve got data, insights, some �HMW questions, and a design framework.

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Now you can ideate!

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Design

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Breakout

Remember, it’s probably a bad concept if…

1. you had this exact concept before your research.
2. you can’t point to what research inspired the insight that the concept was based on.
3. your concept doesn’t solve your problem statement (or your problem �statement doesn’t relate to your prompt).
4. you are not excited to design.

Putting lipstick on a pig just won’t work here. These judges will see past your pretty UI if it’s got a terrible concept. They will also see past your well designed slide deck if you’re just not enthusiastic about your solution.

Define

Research Backed Ideation

We recommend Wild 8s

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Define

Design

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Breakout

1 HMW

8 min timer

8 “napkin sketch” ideas to be developed into concepts and later solutions

1 piece of paper folded into 8 squares

Research Backed Ideation

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We recommend Wild 8s:

• Fold a piece of paper so that there’s 8 boxes
• Grab one HMW question.
• Set a timer for 8 minutes.
• While remembering the essence of your design framework, come up with as many solutions to that HMW as you possibly can aiming to get to at least 8.
• These should not be good sketches, full sentences or pretty at all. Only do the bare minimum necessary for you to be able to tell your team what you thought of.
• Go around the room and read your HMW and share any concepts that you don’t absolutely hate (you should share them even if you don’t like them).
• Combine related concepts, discuss and develop further around the ideas that the team like.
• Identify top 3-5 concepts.
• Bring concepts to an expert or your target audience for initial feedback.
• Only sketch what is needed to communicate the idea, you should be verbally explaining it at this point. If your users say your idea sucks, you will be glad you wasted no time making it pretty.
• If you are crazy short on time, just pick one to run with. But don’t do that.

Discover

Define

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Breakout

Design

You have 3-5 concepts and refined it down to one solution. �

It’s pretty kick ass and has a great unique value proposition �(and you checked against our competitors again).��Now can you design?

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Yes!

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We recommend using the Minimal Viable Product (MVP) �model to iteratively design quickly.

Discover

Define

Deliver

Breakout

Design

Pick your favorite idea(s)!

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MVP Model Designing

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Define

Design

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Breakout

What is the Minimum Viable Product model and how do I design for it?

I think of the MVP model as “if I had to turn this in right now, �it may be ugly but, would it at least work?”

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Example:

Johnny needs to get to work across town everyday.

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He refuses to take the bus or an Uber and is determined to build his own means of transportation.

What should Johnny do?

1. Spend years running to work while he spends his weekends making a car from scratch.
2. Spend an hour making a skateboard.

MVP model & how to design for it

Not this:

This:

Not this:

This:

MVP model & how to design for it

5 min timer

Sketch your product idea!

Describe the concept

Visualize the concept

Key benefits of the concept

Discover

Define

Design

Deliver

Breakout

MVP Model Designing

Finalize your idea, adding any bells and whistles you have time for

Discover

Define

Design

Deliver

Breakout

The Elevator Pitch for products

Discover

Define

Design

Deliver

Breakout

The Elevator Pitch for products

Discover

Define

Design

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Breakout

Congrats on finishing your UX project proposal!

Day 4: Aim to finish business model

Finish Lo-Fi Prototype

User Test

Mid-Review

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Day 5: Reflect on feedback

Reflect on User Tests

Ideate and move into Hi-Fi

User Test

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Day 6: Prepare Pitch

Nail that “why” and “wow”

Refine visuals

Pixel push here

Add the flare

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Day 7: Pitch

Day 0: Identify problem spaces

Identify target audience

Research

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Day 1: Research

Reflect

Affinitize

Gap in data analysis

Ideate

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Day 2: Research (round 2)

Re-Affinitize

Prototype

Consider your “wow” factor

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Day 3: Ideation/Prototyping

Personals and User Journey Maps

Business Model draft done

Prepare for Mid-Review

You want feedback on your “why” and “wow” factors at the mid point review.

Discover

Define

Design

Deliver

Breakout

The timeline we followed and had great success with:

Questions?

Angela Martin

Lenovo | Staff UX Designer & Board Chair of ABLE

Let’s connect!

425-577-3316

2022 Lenovo Internal. All rights reserved.