Service Innovation and Design: Empowering Growth and Value in Transformation

Role: Product Strategist & Service Designer

Project: WWT Lean UX Workshop

Background

Application Services' (AS) main service offering was bespoke agile software development. However, after being acquired by WWT in 2017, AS found itself with access to larger markets with more diverse technology needs. This led to an initiative to grow and expand AS's footprint within the company and technology market by crafting innovative service lines across the software industry vertical.

As part of AS, the UX team's original mission was to support software delivery teams as internal UX consultants, providing guidance, visual assets, and HTML/CSS/JS. With the initiative to grow and expand, the UX team needed new value to bring to the market. It was in this context that I stepped forward to lead the effort to develop and bring the award winning Lean UX Workshop to the market.

Outcomes & Accomplishments

Generated over $1.5M in revenue and $550k in gross profits across 12 workshop clients

Won WWT's 2021 High Performance Team Award after scaling, operationalizing, and delivering a portfolio of workshops that generated over $500k in revenue from new accounts.

Trained 5 workshop delivery leads, 8 workshop co-facilitators, and 15 workshop breakout room coaches

Service Concept

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, businesses demand strategies that can rapidly respond to changes in the market while maintaining alignment with the business' broader objectives. Recognizing this need, I spearheaded the creation, planning, piloting, training, and operationalization of a five half-day virtual and three day in-person workshop titled “Lean UX Workshop.” This workshop was meticulously designed to impart practical skills and knowledge based largely on the principles outlined in the second edition of Lean UX by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden. Collaborating with AS and UX leadership, I identified crafted key Lean UX themes such as iterative design, customer feedback, and data-driven product hypotheses into a valuable and successful service offering.

Workshop Design

The workshop was structured into five half-day sessions, each focusing on a specific aspect of Lean UX. The sessions included:

Day 1: Introductions & Product Problem Statement

The first step in the Product Foundations Workshop is to align the client product owner and other business stakeholders to a solvable, measurable, and shared problem.

Day 2: Business Outcomes & Customer Assumptions

Inevitably participants in the workshop perceive the product from diverse perspectives. The first collaborative discovery activity in the workshop allows everyone to identify and document their assumptions and beliefs about the product. This way participants can learn where there is both agreement as well as divergence.

Day 3: Proto-Personas & CX Journey Mapping

Great products solve real pain points, and help people achieve real and tangible gains in their lives. In this section participants identify the characteristics and behavioral motivations for each customer segment/persona that directly influences how and when customers engage with the client organization and the product.

Day 4: Hypotheses, Value, and Risk

The most important portion of the workshop is to take all of the business outcomes, proto-personas, customer goals, and product features and transform them into testable hypotheses. Each hypothesis includes the change in the world the client expects to see when the product is launched, and clear metrics to determine when they have proven their assumptions and beliefs. The hypotheses are then ranked based on their value to the business and the amount of risk the organization is taking on if the hypothesis proves to be false.

Day 5: Design Studio

Ending on a collaborative and fun activity, the design studio allows each participant to envision what the product might look like in real life. Participants sketch storyboards and solutions to prove the highest value hypotheses. Individual sketching, leads to the workshop team sketching out the idea flow to build and test as you design, build, and deliver your product.

Operationalizing

Operationalizing the workshop involved creating a sustainable model that could be repeatedly sold and delivered with consistent quality.

Service Blueprint Excerpt

In addition to a rigorous and repeatable system, the workshop needed many support documents and processes to ensure successful outcomes for our customers.

Sales Playbook

  • Internal Awareness Strategy
  • Customer Identification Cheatsheet
  • Workshop One-pager
  • Workshop Pitch Deck
  • Case Studies
  • Pricing and SOW Templates
  • Sample Workshop Artifacts

Workshop Planning Playbook

  • Customer Onboarding Guide
  • Workshop Planning Guide
  • Pre-Workshop Requirements, Dependencies, and Checklist
  • Logistics Plan (e.g. Software & Licenses)
  • Communication Plan
  • Delivery Team Roles & Descriptions
  • Participant Technology & Access Check
  • Pre-Workshop Activities

Workshop Delivery Playbook

  • Workshop Curriculum & Agenda
  • Facilitator Guide
  • Activity Templates
  • Daily Agenda and Activity Guide
  • Presentation Templates
  • Workshop Artifact Templates

Sample Documents & Artifacts

Sales Enablement - Workshop Overview and Value
Customer Leave Behind
Sample Planning/Training/Facilitation Docs
Workshop SOW
Planning Checklist
Workshop Schedule
PPS Templates & Examples
Journey Mapping Facilitation Guide
Sample Workshop Deliverable

Impact and Outcomes

Adopting Lean UX principles and processes can lead to a multitude of valuable impacts and outcomes for organizations, teams, and products. These principles are designed to enhance the user experience, streamline product development, and align cross-functional teams towards common goals. After the workshop, our customers often reported:

  • Lasting stakeholder alignment
  • Faster time to market
  • Reductions in the cost of delivery
  • Enhanced team collaboration
  • More data-driven decision making
  • Better risk management
  • Increased ROI
  • End-User Outcomes
  • Increased product adoption and retention
  • Enhanced user satisfaction (CSAT/NPM)
  • Greater user product & brand engagement

Conclusion

The Product Foundations Workshop represents a successful endeavor in translating theoretical knowledge into practical skills. It underscores the power of hands-on learning and the effectiveness of virtual education in today's professional landscape. As businesses continue to navigate the complexities of digital innovation, workshops like these are not just beneficial; they are essential.

Customer Feedback