My Process

How I go about doing projects

Process Overview

My process primarily consists of 6 Phases

  1. Discover

  2. Define

  3. Ideate

  4. Build

  5. Validate

  6. Iterate

DISCOVER

Discover
Discovering the project

Discover is the first phase of the process wherein I try to get to know the problem/product I'm going to work on. It involves initial research to find what the business needs are and also what the users are expecting out of it. If a version of the product currently exists, I start with auditing it to identify the areas needing improvement the most.

Techniques
  • Stakeholder interviews
  • Online research
  • Market research
  • Surveys
  • User interviews
  • Heuristic Evaluation

DEFINE

Define
Defining the problem

After the initial assessment, I move on to concretely defining the objectives for project. This is done by gathering information through a variety of techniques.

Techniques
  • Value Proposition
  • Contextual Inquiry
  • Affinity Diagramming
  • Target Users
  • User flow
  • Card Sorting
  • Buy a feature
  • Consumer Journey Map
  • Task Analysis
  • SWOT Analysis
  • Competitor Analysis

IDEATE

Ideate
Ideating possible solutions

Once the problem is well defined, the next step is to find possible solutions for it. This is done using various techniques which begin with thinking about all possible(but not necessarily feasible) solutions and end with settling on two or three practical solutions.

Techniques
  • Brainstorming
  • Moodboard
  • Storyboards
  • Feature list
  • Organization structures and schemes
  • Site map
  • Sketches

BUILD

Build
Building the product

All the shortlisted solutions are then converted into wireframes and ultimately an interactive prototype. Visual mockups are also created in this stage, but not necessarily in the first iteration.

Techniques
  • Feature Maps
  • Wireframes
  • Visual Mockups
  • UI Library

TEST &
VALIDATE

Test & Validate
Validating the solutions by testing the prototype

The built prototypes are then tested on target users to narrow it down to one solution or to get feedback used to further refine the chosen solution.

Techniques
  • Prototyping
  • Rapid Validation
  • Usability Testing
  • A/B Testing
  • Accessibility Analysis

ITERATE

Iterate
Iterating for improvement & refinement

The most important phase of the process where depending on response received from the user testing, I jump to an earlier step in the process and redesign the product. This may include doing some more user research or simply remaking the wireframes or the visual designs.