It's strange for me to sit down and think about a formal process. I've been doing this work for so much of my professional life that if feels like second nature. For me, I think every project begins collecting and gathering information. It really all starts with empathy - uncovering as much as I can about what the user needs - maybe some history lessons and background detail...  I start formalizing a definition about their problems and goals. Gathering this discovery work upfront, helps to create the framework for the product.

 

Once I've collected all of this information, you'll typically find me noodling some thoughts out .... on literally most anything that's around. Stickies, notepads.... whiteboards.... no surface is really safe from me and an my sharpie! Ideally, whether I'm leading a brainstorming session, facilitating a whiteboard session with my design squad, or and ideation session with product teams, the goal is always the same -  sift through those golden nuggets, so we begin honing in on that Northstar.

 

From there, I continue to gather information that feeds into the design lifecycle. Prototype. Test. Iterate. Repeat. Need I say more? The best products are created from gathering insights from real users, on a regular basis. It's easy to get too close to a product or a solution - and miss things that are super obvious to people that haven't been knee deep in the details. It's good to take a step back, reflect upon that feedback and what it means and understand how it impacts your products. Ideally, once a level of product maturity has been established, user research and analytics, can help us get deeper insights, and continue to improve on our results. 

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