

At LB*, we often organize design sprints for our clients. Since the beginning of
COVID-19, we were forced to organize them remotely. We've gathered the best
practices from our experienced facilitators to create a ready template for your
own design sprint.

➡️ 4-day Remote Design Sprint
[https://www.figma.com/community/file/913771607816628383/4-day-Remote-Design-Sprint] 
⬅️

Why using Figma over Miro for a remote design sprint?
Miro [https://miro.com/] is more adapted to remote collaboration with
stakeholders who never used a design tool before. However, Figma
[https://www.figma.com/] is accessible for free. It is much more versatile. It
acts as one source of truth with both workshop insights and prototype. If you
like the template, don't forget to hit the LIKE button so the rest of the
community know you recommend 👍

What is included in this template?
 * All design sprint activities
 * Post-its
 * Timer
 * Voting dots
 * Arrows for flows
 * Ice breaker
 * Introduction
 * Parking lot
 * & lots of other useful stuff.

Need help to run remote design sprint?
Get in touch [https://www.lbstudio.sk/contact] with us, we offer a free
consultation to discuss anything. 🤗

4-day Remote Design Sprint Figma Template

The Slovak e-commerce market has been stable in recent years, without seeing
much growth. As of 2019, 60% of people residing in Slovakia make at least one
digital purchase a year
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/bookmark/b8d72922-7f8d-4f8c-b72b-2a420c183705?lang=en]
, only 1% increase since 2017. While Slovak companies turnover on e-commerce has 
stagnated at 21% since 2017
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/bookmark/deef91fa-b21a-49a1-a9ff-85352f84fdab?lang=en]
. Of course, 2020 represents a completely different year to its predecessors,
with an estimated sharp increase in online shopping due to the COVID-19
pandemic. However, official statistics won't be available until 2021. It's hard
to understand why the market has not grown much in recent years, but the surge
in online sales represents a big opportunity. Making sure that you have the best
possible e-shop experience can give you a big lead, as the Holiday season
approaches.

Good news is that just like the economical data is stable, so are best practices
for e-commerce experience. Plenty of e-shops have paved the way, one A/B test at
a time, to provide us with a rich understanding of what works and what doesn't.
Nevertheless, it's only wise to understand that simply applying best practices
is not enough—oftentimes they will only work in certain environments—but if this
is your first time looking to improve the UX of your e-commerce, this is a great
place to start.

We have compiled a list of best practices based on our work for Martinus, Orange
and Nay—three  of the biggest Slovak players in e-commerce—and other big
international e-commerces  are glad to share it with you.

Everything is about a well functioning funnel
Each user is unique in how they try to accomplish their goals at an e-shop. They
may be looking for different products, for different reasons. Their previous
experience on other e-shops will also dictate their expectations on your
website. Despite all this, it's still possible to generalise the user flow into
a funnel that represents how most users go from need awareness to conversion. A
few funnel options are available out there, for inspiration.

For those who wish to have a grasp of how users not only interact with the
e-shop, but also brand awareness, the funnel could consist of 4 phases:
awareness, interest, desire and action.

This article will, however, focus more on the experience inside the e-shop. For
more information about how to also approach brand awareness, you can consult 
E-Commerce Conversion Funnel
[https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/ecommerce-conversion-funnel/].

Most e-shops have the following elements: homepage, navigation, search, category
page, product detail page, shopping cart and checkout. This exact order
represents the most common experience funnel you may expect. The user will most
likely land on your homepage, if they haven't Googled for a specific product,
and will make their way through navigation and different products, until they
find what they want and finish the purchase. It often happens that users will
come back later and reactivate the journey not from the top of the funnel, but
from the last place they visited (e.g. a product they saved, or the shopping
cart).

The first step to create your conversion funnel is to identify the user journey
from end to end. What are the most common landing pages? Upon landing, what are
the actions they take? At what point do they interact with the products? What do
you consider a conversion: purchase or registration? It's possible to map out
this journey by using the User Flow feature on Google Analytics or replaying
sessions on HotJar.

With the journey at hand, the next step is to identify what triggers a signal
that a user has moved from one step to another. Generally, these triggers will
be your main ammunition to set up the funnel. Assuming that you already have
Google Analytics installed on your e-shop, the next step shouldn't be
complicated. It consists of setting up Goals on the tool. Since our main goal
here is to discuss UX best practices and improvements for the funnel, we won't
dig deeper into setting up funnels.  For a detailed step-by-step guide, you can
read How to Set Up Conversion Funnels in Google Analytics
[https://www.adhook.io/en/conversion-funnel-in-google-analytics/].

The 5 types of shoppers
Before we jump right into the improvements, it's important to become aware that
not all users are born equal. I commonly hear the statement "our target audience
is everyone" and while it's true that anyone may stumble randomly upon your
e-shop, probably a smaller set of people is more likely to type the correct
words on Google that will lead to your site. If we skip demographics, e-shopper
behaviour generally falls into 5 categories:

 * Product Focused Shopper - who is mostly interested in a specific product
 * Browser - who is just checking what's new or trending
 * Researcher - who wants to buy something, but still have a lot of unanswered
   questions, so probably won't buy anything today
 * Good Deal Hunter - who is out looking to make a good deal
 * One-Time Shopper - who doesn't want any strings attached, all that is
   important is to buy that one product, but how does this site work?

Each shopper will rely more heavily on different parts of the e-shop. Being able
to identify these behaviors will help you prioritise which improvements to make.
But beware that sometimes in a single session a unique user may wear different
hats, one can be a Researcher and a Good Deal Hunter. Generally, this is the
behavior you can expect from each shopper:

 * Product Focused Shopper - who is going to rely heavily on search or
   navigation
 * Browser - who is going to scroll down the front page and look through some
   news, trending products or charts
 * Researcher - who is going to power-use everything offered to figure out which
   product is best (navigation, search, product comparison, ratings,
   recommendations, tests, best sellers, etc.)
 * Good Deal Hunter - who is going to be aware of anything indicating discounts
   and offers, on the front page, category list or any other place
 * One-Time Shopper - who probably will try to use a guest checkout soon after
   finding what they want

Have you seen any of these behaviors in your user base before? Maybe you can
even identify yourself as one or multiple of these personalities.

Improving the funnel, one element at a time
We'll start from the top with the Homepage and move our way down the funnel.

Homepage

The homepage is where most users will land if they haven't Googled any specific
keyword leading directly to a product page. Instantly, two questions come to
their minds "Can I shop here?" and "What can I buy here?". These may sound like
obvious questions, but they cross people's minds frequently. For shops like Nay
or Martinus, it's very obvious from the first glance that they sell electronics
and books, respectively, but could it be possible that clothing and board games
are sold as well? Another example comes from telco websites. More often than
not, users will land on a frontpage that is very coy about displaying prices, so
how can they assume that products are actually being sold?

"Can I shop here?"The frontpage is very important for Browsers, Deal Hunters and
One-Time Shoppers. It's the very first impression and not meeting their
expectations can cause a significant drop in the top of the conversion funnel.
To help users orient themselves during their first visits, here are some
elements that are a must-have:

 1. Brand identifier - company logo and e-shop name
 2. Shopping cart
 3. Login & registration
 4. Visible search
 5. Clear value proposition
 6. Product pictures
 7. Promotions and currently discounted products
 8. Top categories

Other useful information may also be included to raise credibility, answer
questions from demanding customers like the Researchers and help with customer
service. These are some points to consider:

 1. Payment methods
 2. Delivery options and duration
 3. FAQs
 4. Contact to customer service
 5. Help and support
 6. Trial period, returns and reimbursement

Search

It's the Product Focused Shopper's best friend. A well-designed search system
allows users to find relevant products more easily, after all if users can't
find something, in their heads, it means that it doesn't exist. Normally, a
search system should contain 3 main elements: the search bar, autocomplete and a
results page.

The search bar should be available on every page, be large and in a shape users
will be able to identify while scanning pages (1). To help users type in the
best keywords and remember what they've inputted, it's best to present
meaningful search tips (2) and for the bar to be large enough to fit the entire
search query (3).

While interacting with the search engine, users may benefit from autocomplete,
as it effectively helps them get to the product detail page, bypassing results.
Some of the best autocomplete practices include: using most frequently searched
terms (4), displaying search terms categories (5), offering frequently and
recently researched products (6), and having direct links to products with
pictures and prices (7).

Finally, typing search terms into the bar and confirming culminates in results.
The biggest pitfall of results pages is overwhelming the user with information
to the point they are not able to separate the good from the bad. It's enough to
display product image, name and description, price and any relevant deals or
discounts. Further information could be added, but it would be best to validate
their effectiveness on the funnel via A/B tests. Besides the basic information
about a product, users should also have support features to help them sort out
what is most relevant to them. These are some of the best practices:

 1. Allow users to scan search results through an F reading pattern
 2. Filters relevant to the set of results displayed
 3. Show most frequently and recently searched products
 4. Suggest most frequently searched terms and categories, when no results are
    available

Category page

For simplicity, many e-shops keep a similar design between search result pages
and category pages. While that's a fair approach, they can miss out on great
opportunities to boost the user flow. Category pages can be used to give an
overview of the products while aiming at findability and discoverability. For
many users, it's the first impression on the products, so it's important to keep
it interesting and dynamic, for example with seasonal changes (1) and options to
see the catalog as a list or grid (2).

Browsers rely heavily on category pages to discover what's new (3), trending (4)
or simply what is the offer from the store (5). Researchers use it to assure
themselves they have found the best options for the product they seek (6).
Furthermore, it's a great place to showcase discounts for Deal Hunters (7). 

Product detail

When was the last time that you made an impulsive purchase? Do you remember what
you felt like when you were doing that decision? Chances are that what you've
seen on the product page tipped you over the edge. Apple is probably the best
example of how to showcase a product in a way that evokes an emotional reaction
out of people. However, not every store can be Apple. Most stores don't have the
time or money to design special product pages for each of their products, and
having thousands of products on offer doesn't help.

The question that remains is "how can you evoke a visceral reaction to convert
users, without unlimited budget?". The short answer is that product pages should
rely heavily on visuals, while trying to make the customer see themselves using
the product. Here are some tips on how to accomplish this:

 * Provide high quality detailed pictures from different angles
 * Place the product on their natural usage environment
 * Consider the case when bad pictures are inevitable
 * Offer 360° visualisations or videos
 * Display effective and clear headings
 * Don't forget about all the crucial information (technical parameters,
   dimensions, transport, service, etc.)

Conclusion
Shopping carts and checkouts are not as major dropout points as the remaining
points of the funnel, so we've decided to leave them out this time around, but
we will approach the subject later on. Let us know if you'd like us to delve
deep into it.

Best practices are not called rules for a reason, they may not always work
depending on the context. Always think of your customer first and whether any
improvements you plan to implement will really contribute to the betterment of
their journey, but if this is the first time you're diving into building a
funnel and improving its steps, the fact that you've decided to do so is already
a major accomplishment.

If you'd like to learn how we have approached the innovative redesign of
Martinus, the leading and biggest bookseller in Slovakia, come check our case
study [https://www.lbstudio.sk/martinus].

If you need help with boosting your performance or launching new products and
services, let's have a chat [https://www.lbstudio.sk/contact].

This article was co-created by Stanislav Rykalský and Walter Lima.

Fine-tuning e-commerce with UX best practices

What is this guide for?
Launching a new product is extremely risky, 90% of startup ideas fail. This
guide is a summary of best practices combined with our 11 years experience in
bringing successful new products to market. Following our 7-step process, you
will maximize your chances for success.

In this handbook
 * Complex process simply explained: No need to be an expert in product
   management to read this guide. We write in plain english what you should know
   about creating a new product.
 * 7 steps process: From your first meeting to the launch, we explain in 7 steps
   how to build your product for your customers. 
 * Recommended tools: For each step, you can find some of our favorite tools.

The process
 * Business goals
 * Problem exploration
 * Solution development
 * Business model definition
 * Solution validation
 * Build a minimum solution
 * Continuous build & measure & learn

Get the Product Discovery Guide First Name* Professional email* Which one best
describes you?* Entrepreneur (I am startup founder or employee) Corporate
innovator (I work at a bigger company) Corporate Leader (I am a leader at a
bigger company) Consultant (I work as a freelancer or in an agency) Academic (I
am a teacher or student) Other Handout type Validation handbook Experiment
toolbox Experiment card canvas Assumption mapper canvas Product discovery guide 
We handle your personal data gently and will only use it to send you updates
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Personal data protection policy [https://www.lbstudio.sk/gdpr.pdf]. 

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Product Discovery Guide

Products don’t reach success out of sheer luck. Many think that all it takes is
a great idea and a talented team. It certainly helps having those, but the 
startup graveyard [https://www.failory.com/cemetery] is full of ideas by
talented teams that have failed. Surviving in a competitive market is tough when
only 7 out of 10 businesses won’t make it to their 10-year mark
[https://www.fundera.com/blog/what-percentage-of-small-businesses-fail].

A product represents the results of carefully constructed planning, which stands
on several pillars, such as vision, strategy and goals. While the vision is
abstract and driven by a great deal of uncertainty, goals are very precise and
tangible. Somewhere in-between these contrasting worlds lives product strategy.
The strategy outlines how to turn the vision into reality while focusing on
empowering teams to solve complex problems. It’s the cornerstone of team
autonomy, helping them determine what the real problems are and how to solve
them.

The Vision
Creating a product strategy requires having a solid product vision. The vision
describes what value the product intends to deliver to the customers in the 2-5
years horizon, thus giving us a direction to follow. Your strategy will then lay
out the right path to reach the vision, helping you decide where to dedicate
appropriate efforts.

It's best not to think of the project vision in terms of a utopian goal, or to
define it in the smallest details. It should be about a realistic long-term
intention that is still challenging to achieve.

A good example comes from Slack, the communication platform. Since the
beginning, their strategists have been aware that, in the future, email
communication will be gradually replaced by faster and more interactive forms of
communication; and the platform wants to make sure they are a part of that
future.

> “It is almost inevitable that centralized internal communication systems will
gradually replace email for most organizations over the next 10-20 years and we
should do what we can to accelerate the trend and own it.” – Stewart
Butterfield, CEO of Slack
Once the vision is defined, the strategy can be created. Beware that product
strategy is not a document you write down based on a business case and proceed
to strictly follow. It's a path towards the vision, usually consisting of 3
elements: focus, insights and action steps.

The Strategy
Focus
Not everything we do is equally important. Investing efforts in unnecessary
initiatives can turn out to be very costly in the end. In today's world, we are
surrounded by various possibilities and opportunities, and it's very easy to let
yourself go and commit to useless ones. That's why I believe that the basis of a
good product strategy is the ability to say NO.

> “Good strategy requires leaders who are willing and able to say no to a variety
of actions and interests. Strategy is at least as much about what an
organization does not do as it is about what it does.” – Richard Rumelt
If your company has gone through the struggle of not being able to choose its
battles, you probably have experienced at least one of these symptoms:

 * Too many critical initiatives;
 * Excessive reactivity (e.g. the need to react to every competitor);
 * Continuous generation of activities instead of achieving goals;
 * Focus efforts on non-essential low-impact initiatives.

So the big question is "How do you focus your efforts to move the needle?" 
Unfortunately, there is no clear answer. However, Marty Cagan of SVPG
[https://svpg.com/product-strategy-focus/] recommends limiting the number of
things your product team is working on at any given time. If you don’t have
these limits, work piles up at bottlenecks and you end up constantly switching
context. As a result, you get fewer things out the door.

When creating a yearly strategy, it’s usually useful to narrow down your focus
to:

 * Vertical market (e.g. financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications,
   etc.)
 * Specific customer type (e.g. B2C)
 * Geographical location (e.g. focus on local market)
 * Channel (e.g. digital channels)
 * Set of key results (e.g. invent an autonomous car)

You may choose a focus from the list, a combination of them, or just look for
something that makes sense in your context, potentially informed by your own
insights.

A good example is Tesla that operates in the automotive vertical market. In the
oversaturated car market, they decided to focus on sustainable forms of
transportation, which they transformed into the production of electric cars for
the mass market. This specialization has enabled them to produce the most unique
electric cars and gain a competitive advantage.

> “(...) Our goal is to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing
compelling mass market electric cars to market as soon as possible (…)” – Elon
Musk
Another example might be Google, the search engine, whose vision is to “Provide
the most relevant and reliable information available". For this reason, they
decided that it would be very important for them to focus on mastering the
connections and relationships between information on the web, which culminated
on their decision to build The Knowledge Graph. Currently, Google Search covers
over 90% of search queries and it's clear that the results are relevant and
reliable.

Insights
Market and business knowledge are necessary not only to decide where to focus
the efforts, but also for planning your tactics and action steps towards the
vision.

What data do I recommend looking at?

 * Quantitative reports: It can show you certain patterns in shopping behavior,
   e.g. that small customers shop more often in smaller volumes than large ones
   and you can adjust your behavior or sales strategy accordingly; or what would
   be a good product for up-sell with some particular service; and so on.
 * Qualitative reports: Useful to describe existing problems or reveal new
   opportunities. Popular techniques are customer surveys and interviews.
 * Technological news: On one hand, it can show you trends but on the other hand
   it can show you new possibilities or threats, e.g. making better
   recommendations with AI is definitely a new possibility, while not having an
   optimized cart for mobile devices is a threat.
 * Sectoral information: Another way to gather trends and guidance, but in your
   own section. For example, in the newspaper business, when you see the decline
   in newspaper sales and decline of newspaper subscriptions you probably
   wouldn’t invest in creating new printed media or newspapers.
 * Shared knowledge: Make use of publicly (not always free) available data from
   researchers or public institutions.

Unfortunately, again, there's no golden formula that would help us simply create
a solid product strategy from this data. But the basics is to use the available
data to orient ourselves and find one or two critical insights upon which we may
build the strategy.

Google Search illustrates this pillar quite well. On mobile devices, people are
able to both type and dictate, which led Google to discover that people not only
search for keywords but also for complex sentences. This realisation taught them
that a rise in complex searches requires them to be able to know the context of
indexed information.

To build a realistic future, all your decisions should be guided by data and
insights. Turning the checking of the data into a ritual or automatising its
extraction process can help you avoid gut-feeling decisions that steer your
product towards the wrong direction.

> “Good strategy … does not pop out of some ‘strategic management’ tool, matrix,
chart, triangle, or fill-in-the-blanks scheme. Instead, a talented leader
identifies the one or two critical issues in the situation – the pivot points
that can multiply the effectiveness of effort – and then focuses and
concentrates action and resources on them.” – Richard Rumelt
Action steps
When you have decided about your focus and said NO to all impactless initiatives
it’s time to prepare your action steps. These steps reflect your focus on
meaningful and measurable goals and are your yearly strategy.

Personally, I prefer creating a yearly strategy in the form of OKRs, but they
deserve a separate article. As an alternative, you may use a roadmap, but be
careful not to focus on product features, instead of issues that you try to
resolve over a period of time. A good roadmap should be able to answer the
following questions:

1. What do we need to resolve to move closer to our vision?
2. How will we know that we have succeeded or failed?

As I wrote in the introduction to this article, the strategy describes the way
of realizing the vision and its main purpose is to empower teams to solve
complex problems. This should be your ultimate intention.

If you're facing some troubles setting up your product strategy, we can help you 
make better strategic decisions [https://www.lbstudio.sk/approach].

Some more resources to help you on your journey to mastering product strategy:

 * How to write a product vision statement
   [https://www.productboard.com/blog/write-product-vision/] – Productboard
 * Guide: Set goals with OKRs
   [https://rework.withgoogle.com/guides/set-goals-with-okrs/steps/introduction/] 
    – Google
 * Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The difference and why it matters
   [https://www.amazon.com/Good-Strategy-Bad-difference-matters-ebook/dp/B005331U7Q/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=] 
    – Richard Rumelt

Product Strategy Is All About Saying No

What is this guide for?
Validation is the best way to make sure you're building something successful,
before actually building it. Save up weeks of work by discovering which ideas
are worth implementing.

In this handbook
 * Simply explained concepts: No buzzwords, we explain why you should validate
   your ideas before implementing them in plain english.
 * Step-by-step process: In the handbook we are introducing the assumption
   mapper and the experiment cards canvas. We provide you with clear steps how
   to use them yourself.

Get the Validation Handbook First Name* Professional email* Which one best
describes you?* Entrepreneur (I am startup founder or employee) Corporate
innovator (I work at a bigger company) Corporate Leader (I am a leader at a
bigger company) Consultant (I work as a freelancer or in an agency) Academic (I
am a teacher or student) Other Handout type Validation handbook Experiment
toolbox Experiment card canvas Assumption mapper canvas We handle your personal
data gently and will only use it to send you updates about the content that you
request. You can unsubscribe or change preferences anytime. For details about
how we respect and protect your privacy, review our Personal data protection
policy [https://www.lbstudio.sk/gdpr.pdf]. 

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Validation Handbook

What is this canvas for?
The “Experiment Card” helps you frame your experiments and focus on what really
matters. It’s crucial to define the success criteria so that you can decide
whether or not to repeat, pivot, or implement.

Step-by-step process
 * Step 1: For the assumptions you previously selected with the team,
   individually complete the experiment cards that you printed before hand. Tip:
   Check out the Experiment toolbox
   [https://www.lbstudio.sk/blog/experiment-toolbox] (15 min)
 * Step 2: Present filled-in experiment cards and write down feedback on sticky
   notes (10 min).
 * Step 3: For each assumption, merge your individual work into one experiment.
   (15 min).
 * Step 4: Wrap-up by reviewing the next steps, roles and responsibilities. (10
   min).

Get the Experiment Card First Name* Professional email* Which one best describes
you?* Entrepreneur (I am startup founder or employee) Corporate innovator (I
work at a bigger company) Corporate Leader (I am a leader at a bigger company) 
Consultant (I work as a freelancer or in an agency) Academic (I am a teacher or
student) Other Handout type Validation handbook Experiment toolbox Experiment
card canvas Assumption mapper canvas We handle your personal data gently and
will only use it to send you updates about the content that you request. You can
unsubscribe or change preferences anytime. For details about how we respect and
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[https://www.lbstudio.sk/gdpr.pdf]. 

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Experiment Card

What is this canvas for?
We created the assumption mapper canvas to help you frame your learning goal,
brainstorm assumptions and prioritise the riskiest ones.

Step-by-step process
Define your learning goal
 * Step 1: Individually write down the most important questions or problems you
   need answers for. Example: Will people use this feature? How should we build
   it? (5 min).
 * Step 2: Share your questions and problems and build on top of them (15 min).
 * Step 3: Merge your questions into one or two learning goals. If you have many
   of them, prioritise the most important ones and keep the others for later (5
   min).

Map out assumptions
 * Step 1: Individually write down 2-4 key assumptions linked to your learning
   goal previously defined (10 min).
 * Step 2: Share them on the assumption mapper and build on each other’s
   assumptions (15 min).
 * Step 3: Rank each assumption from the riskiest to less risky ones.  (15 min)
 * Step 4: Focus on the riskiest assumptions, and agree with the team which one
   of them you will test first (10 min).

Get the Assumption Mapper First Name* Professional email* Which one best
describes you?* Entrepreneur (I am startup founder or employee) Corporate
innovator (I work at a bigger company) Corporate Leader (I am a leader at a
bigger company) Consultant (I work as a freelancer or in an agency) Academic (I
am a teacher or student) Other Handout type Validation handbook Experiment
toolbox Experiment card canvas Assumption mapper canvas We handle your personal
data gently and will only use it to send you updates about the content that you
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how we respect and protect your privacy, review our Personal data protection
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Assumption Mapper Canvas

What is this handbook for?
It is often hard to think about how something could be tested. The experiment
toolbox gives you 30 experiments to pick from. For each experiment, there is a
description as well as criteria to help you decide if it is the one you need.

In this handbook
 * 30 experiments ideas: We combined 30 experiments to help you validate your
   hypotheses. It goes from the traditional survey to less known techniques such
   as “Imposter Judo” or “Picnic on the graveyard”.
 * How to pick the best experiment: We created a system that helps you to
   determine what is the most suitable experiment depending on the stage you are
   in and what type of assumption you’re trying to validate.

Get the Experiment toolbox First Name* Professional email* Which one best
describes you?* Entrepreneur (I am startup founder or employee) Corporate
innovator (I work at a bigger company) Corporate Leader (I am a leader at a
bigger company) Consultant (I work as a freelancer or in an agency) Academic (I
am a teacher or student) Other Handout type Validation handbook Experiment
toolbox Experiment card canvas Assumption mapper canvas We handle your personal
data gently and will only use it to send you updates about the content that you
request. You can unsubscribe or change preferences anytime. For details about
how we respect and protect your privacy, review our Personal data protection
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Experiment Toolbox

The words digital transformation are being thrown around a lot at board
meetings. It is an umbrella term for the inner need of a corporation to be ready
for the digital future. And to boost efficiency through digitalisation,
resulting in cost savings. Both are correct. But many times, companies approach
digital transformation with a fuzzy framing.

When the need becomes evident, but the challenge appears insurmountable, the
board reaches out to big consulting firms for help with designing their digital
transformation initiatives. Good move. However, this process often lacks one of
the main factors for digital transformation success: internal capacities ready
to get aboard the train and take over the driver seat. And soon after, the
digital transformation cycles back to fuzziness and unclear purpose.

I have been part of several digital initiatives and I have discovered that
problems arise from the very start. When defining what they want to achieve,
companies keep hitting the wall of “what the hell do we really mean by digital
transformation?”. After years of struggling and learning in the field, I have
narrowed it down to:

> The goal of digital transformation is to provide business owners with proof that
digital operations have actual, measurable impact on the business; so that
business owners can scale their products to be operational in a digital
environment.
That is a mouthful, but it's very important to hit on two main points: measuring
the impact and scaling digital operations. Let’s dive a bit into these topics.

Measuring the impact of digital
Before a company fully embraces the transformation, they will employ a
complicated set of metrics for digital projects. At the board reporting meeting,
there will be a lot of discussion about page views, subscribers, NPS, App Store
rating or the number of users. These are what we call vanity metrics. They are
used to create an often false sense of achievement. At the end of the day, NPS
can be easily manipulated and may not reflect directly on business success. When
it comes down to measuring impact, simplicity is king.

I have learned that digital products should be measured through their direct and
proven impact on the core business metrics of the company. In a digital
environment, it's fairly straightforward to connect the dots between a specific
digital product effort and the company's objective. For example, a well setup
digital funnel and conversion goals could easily tell you how much money digital
is making.

Your digital products should not be driven by vanity metrics like NPS,
interaction speed, customer satisfaction or App Store rating. You should rather
focus on how many new customers were acquired digitally (conversion), how many
sales were driven through digital channels or how much service operation costs
have been reduced. The Head of Sales has quite precise expectations from every
sales representative, often measured in closed deals. It should be no different
for digital products, you should have precise expectations from all of your
digital initiatives, connecting it directly to the company's success.

We're currently working on an easy guide on how to setup optimal KPIs for
digital products. You can subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to know
when it's ready. In the meantime, our consultants can guide you through the
process, just hit us up at hello@lbstudio.sk and let's have a conversation.

Scaling digital operations
A company's digital maturity has a direct correlation with how well business
owners are capable of scaling their digital operations and building a team that
is empowered to deliver business-relevant results.

In the early stages of digital maturity, digital channels are often used just to
provide support for regular sales. Your digital portfolio may include a few
landing pages showcasing your services and direct contact to sales associates.
At this point, business owners will often focus on vanity metrics while grasping
at straws trying to prove how an increase in page views is helping achieve the
quarterly sales goal. Likely, the digital team does not feel motivated to push
their initiatives forward and lacks the vision or focus to do so.

A better approach is to set up the right expectations from your digital
products, while connecting it directly to your yearly or quarterly goal (e.g.
sell 100k worth of your service). This is better achieved through close
cooperation with top management. From that point, digital product teams will be
regarded as important across the company and focus on direct impact, as opposed
to superfluous metrics such as NPS. If they showcase what they can deliver, they
will feel empowered to leverage decisions in favor of achieving business goals,
as opposed to blindly fulfilling business requirements. When your team reaches
this point, you've taken the next step in your digital maturity and are able to
start scaling your digital operations.

Scaling is a tough process, best driven by product teams who are in direct
contact with customers. The recipe for success is all about working agile and
making decisions in the field, by balancing customer insights, technical
limitations and business goals. Focused and empowered teams will do everything
they can to get rid of useless work in order to achieve their goal.

The more successful these digital teams become, the more powerful they will be
in saying what new products and services should look like. Business owners will
see the results of the goals they have set up together with the teams and will
start thinking more digital. They will start asking themselves: How can I design
my product to utilise digital channels? Company products and services will start
scaling to digital and become better optimised for the end users.

Goal-centric cooperation
At LB*, we have believed for years that showcasing good product work in the
teams would drive digital transformation within the company. And we still
believe so. Unlike consulting firms, we earn our daily bread on real projects –
researching, designing, teaching and developing digital products.

But the impact of the digitalisation is limited without proper goals at the
managerial level. That is why we consult C-level management members to set up
the right environment for the digital transformation to rock. The cascading
goals model (such as OKRs) helps digital products to become real players in a
corporation and to take on a real business objective, not just a vanity metric.

Driving digital change inside an organisation goes beyond great digital
education, launching agile squads and changing mindsets. Setting the right goals
is one of the most important levers for transformation success. With the right
goals, it’s much easier to evaluate a digital product, praise it or hate it,
make those decisions about scaling, pivoting or dismissing it. Also, reporting
becomes much more transparent and useful.

If you have already started your digital transformation, go on delivering great
product work, staying agile and striving for great CX. Once you have proof that
your approach is successful, your next stop should be the C-level suite
explaining why the organisational goal setting should change.

Hint: The OKR framework (Objective - Key results)
[https://www.perdoo.com/the-ultimate-okr-guide/] are a great framework to start
with.

Struggling with digital transformation? Goals might be the key

Po úspešnej spolupráci LB* s What Architects. na tvorbe víťazného návrhu k
inovácii trnavskej polikliniky
[https://www.lbstudio.sk/blog/trnavska-poliklinka-bude-inovovana-podla-navrhu-od-dizajnerov-z-lb-a-what-architects/] 
sme sa na jar spoločne zapojili do architektonicko-urbanistickej súťaže
developera YIT. Jej cieľom bolo navrhnúť, ako by mohla vyzerať budúca atraktívna
mestská zóna bratislavských Mlynských nív v blízkosti Bajkalskej ulice.

S architektonickými štúdiami What Architects. a 3:0 Landschaft Architektur sme
sa podieľali na návrhu, ktorý v konkurencii 10 renomovaných ateliérov zo
Slovenska a Českej republiky uspel na druhom mieste ako nadštandardne vyhovujúci
.

Najväčšou dizajnovou výzvou pre nás bolo vniesť do architektúry
customer-centrický prístup, kedy tvorba vychádza z reálnych potrieb, obáv a
očakávaní zákazníkov. Naše zistenia z výskumu pretavili architekti do návrhov
typológie bytov a do konceptuálneho uchopenia bulváru, ktorý môže slúžiť aj ako
park s funkčným využitím, nie iba ako prepojovacia zóna jednotlivých budov.

Dizajnový prístup cez Double diamond
Lokalita je už dnes vo fáze intenzívnej výstavby obytných aj biznisových
komplexov a pre ďalší rozvoj potrebuje adekvátny urbanistický koncept. Našou
úlohou v tvorivom procese preto bolo zmapovať a pochopiť potreby potenciálnych
zákazníkov a identifikovať priority, ktorým sa oplatí venovať v súťažnom návrhu.

Aby sme spoznali cieľovú skupinu, dizajnéri z LB* Blanka Votavová a Walter Lima
realizovali používateľský výskum formou kvalitatívnych rozhovorov. Z kľúčových
zistení o budúcich rezidentoch aj súčasnej komunite v susedstve vytvorili
niekoľko konceptov, z ktorých What Architects. čerpali pri hľadaní vhodného
architektonického riešenia.

Respondentmi boli zástupcovia skupín kľúčových pre lokalitu – klienti komplexu
Jarabinky, ktorý sa nachádza hneď v susedstve, a obyvatelia Nuppu, najbližšieho
projektu zadávateľa YIT. Chceli sme si tiež potvrdiť, či je pre budúcich
rezidentov dôležitá komunita a či je možné vytvoriť synergiu s tou existujúcou.
Rozhovor sme preto absolvovali aj so zástupcami punkovej komunity, ktorá sa roky
stretáva počas Koncertov na garážach na Prístavnej ulici.

Vo všeobecnosti respondentov spájala nádej a vízia, že napriek súčasnému
charakteru staveniska bude neskôr zo štvrte kvalitné miesto pre život.
Identifikovali sme tri hlavné cieľové skupiny:

 * mladí pracujúci ľudia, ktorí hľadajú atraktívny, no dostupný štartovací byt
 * mamičky batoliat, ktoré počas materskej dovolenky čiastočne pracujú
 * viacnásobné mamy na rodičovskej dovolenke, ktoré hľadajú priateľský komunitný
   priestor pre rodinu

Samostatnú persónu tvoria ľudia pracujúci v administratívnych budovách projektu.
Výskum nám však potvrdil, že pre budúcich klientov je synergia medzi obyvateľmi
a zamestnancami rovnako dôležitá. Naše koncepty vychádzajúce z tejto pridanej
hodnoty zapracovali architekti napríklad do návrhu verejných priestranstiev.

Používateľská skúsenosť v architektúre
Aby sme architektom posunuli viac ako iba tabuľky so surovými dátami,
odprezentovali sme im príležitosti vychádzajúce z našich zistení. Naša dizajnová
výzva znela:

> Ako by sme mohli reagovať na potreby a dynamiku rodín a zamestnancov v komplexe
tak, aby sa cítili ako doma aj mimo svojho bytu?
Na základe poznatkov z výskumu sme pripravili niekoľko konceptov, zameraných
viac na používateľov než na ponúknutie konkrétnych riešení. Túto časť výzvy sme
nechali na architektov. What Architects. sa pri tvorbe návrhu odrazili najmä od
informácií o pracovnom režime rezidentov. U mnohých rezonovalo spojenie práce s
domovom, na základe čoho vznikla inovatívna typológia bytov "home/business" a
"home/office".

"Výskum bol dobrý na zistenie, čo by dokázalo dané prostredie jednoduchými
úkonmi zmeniť funkčne, s využitelnosťou pre ľudí," vraví architekt Marek Trebuľa
z What Architects. "Pomohol nám napríklad pochopiť, že ľudia sa v danom
prostredí niekedy v noci až boja, a prinútil nás rozmýšľať, ako vytvoriť pocit
súkromia a bezpečia."

Navrhli sme tiež koncept pozitívnej segregácie, ktorý podporuje zdieľanú
ekonomiku a vznik spoločenských priestorov. Návrh pre aktívnych rezidentov
rozvíja športové aktivity aj napojenie na neďalekú hrádzu. Koncept útočísk chce
zase do verejného priestoru zapracovať intímne zákutia, ktoré v parku v prípade
potreby ponúknu súkromie.

Hoci sa návrh LB* a What architects umiestnil na druhej priečke, potvrdil, že
metodiky dizajnovania používateľskej skúsenosti majú priestor aj v architektúre.
Výskumu sa venoval dvojčlenný agilný tím, ktorý dokázal 13 rozhovorov, ich
analýzu aj následný koncepting realizovať počas niekoľkých dní plne na diaľku.

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