Contract Design Process

This is the process I follow when helping new startups. Most companies I spend a short 10 hours with through Co.Labs’ Expert Program.

If you’d like to schedule a consultation call, contact me via LinkedIn or email: stephanie@unruh.ca

Introduction call with the client - 15 min

Goal: decide if the company’s needs fits my skills

What is your goal? The most common answer is “make the app look nice or make it easy to use”, I then dig into why they want to do this, which leads to the true business impact: increase customer conversion, decrease drop off during setup, decrease development time by having a UI Style Guide, etc.)

New user experience audit - 1 hour

Goal: get myself up to speed on what the product does and understanding the users’ pain points

I run through the product without guidances, making notes of opportunities to improve. This is the most effective way for me to learn the product.

In preparation for this activity, I ask the company to provide me with the scenario and context a new user would have when experiencing the product.
– User: who am I?
– Scenario & goal: what am I doing and why am I trying to do it?

Review the new user experience with the client - 1 hour

Goal: create a mutual understanding of the problems that could be worked on + identify small things to fix on their own time

Walk through my first impression. A few themes emerge that are candidates to focus on.

Client identities the area to focus on - 20 min

Goal: decide how to spend the hours with me

Since I have only a short amount of time with a client, I’m rely on the client to provide the expertise on which is most valuable area to focus on. To help guide them, I refer back to the initial goal they stated and ask questions about why they think that area of focus will impact the goal.

Project timeline - 5 min

Goal: Decide a schedule for when to meet next and deliverables

Example timeline:

– Workshop – 2 hours: goal is to come up with many solution ideas as rough sketches by the end. Invite members from your from various areas of the business (dev, support, training, etc.) everyone can contribute ideas.

– Wireframes – 1 hour: I will combine the ideas from the workshop into several options.

– Review wireframes & identify user feedback – 1 hour: Discuss the wireframe options with the client and make changes based on end user knowledge. When multiple potential solutions surface with no obvious front runner, this is when more feedback is needed.

Testing

Goal: the client tests solutions on their own with their clients

Due to the limited time of 10 hours, completing the testing myself isn’t the best use of the limited hours the clients have with me. I ask the clients to gather more feedback themselves, coaching them in the types of questions to ask and how to present the wireframes or prototypes. Ex: don’t ask “do you like it?” or leading questions like “where would you click to do [name the element in the UI]?” but instead ask questions that are things the user is thinking “You now want to accomplish [goal], how would you do that?”