#015 - Cloudy with a Chance of SaaS
PEOMS your Way to Success
Design December
I’ve written a bit about my Masters of Design Methods degree. My design school experience was not about art, colors, layouts, or fonts. Instead, it focused on Strategy, Innovation, and Leadership, along with many research models based on repeatable methods. I am going to focus the next several posts on this type of Design. My next two posts will speak to observing users. Let me introduce the POEMS method. This method of user observation will result in insights and game-changing innovation for your users and organization. Like many methods, this one is based on products delivered in the physical world, so I’ve used some artistic license to convert it to the digital world.
POEMS
People, Objects, Environments, Messages, and Services or POEMS, is another great way to give your observations and insight gathering a baseline and way of working across a disparate team. The model ensures everyone on the team uses the same user observation framework and defines common buckets to start with when doing classification and normalizing your insights during analysis and synthesis. Inside these observations will be key insights to drive your innovation projects. It is really hard to define a key insight, but you will know it when you see it. It can be defined as that eureka moment, when you find a core reason something is happening, or can model the challenge before you simply and elegantly. Breaking down observations continually is key to getting deep into your insight gathering. You will see some overlap with the AEIOU framework from last week, which is common among Design methods.
People
For the purpose of this method, People is defined as the demographics, titles, and roles of your users, as well as the activities performed by the users during your study. The prior education, training, and experiences of your study participants, will color the expectations and biases they bring to the activity. Understanding these biases will give you deep insights into the makeup of the users of your offering. Stressors and other friction elements your people are experiencing are also important to look at and make note of. Getting deep into who your people are and what makes them tick is key for this element.
Objects
In our digital world, we often forget about the number of different tools our users will be using. These tools include phones, tablets, notebooks, and desktop computers. Each of these devices influences the kind of activities your users should be expected to accomplish and where they will occur. Each device type has unique delivery capabilities and implied ways of working. For example, tablets and phones can have swipes and other gesture commands that may not work on notebooks or desktops. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t tried to swipe the screen on my Mac. On a few occasions, I’ve used a swipe on my Mac while using an application that has many of the same visual queues as the phone or tablet experience. Of course, that shows poorly laid out wayfinding or curation on the part of the creators.
Environments
Beyond objects, we need to consider the environment our users are in. We should think about the lighting, noise, temperature, desks, chairs, and anything else that makes up the physical space of our users. Getting into their environment is admittedly more challenging in a Covid reality, but necessary to allow you to see and feel the way in which your users are living and working with your experience. People's homelife and home offices affect their experiences and should definitely be included in your observations.
Messages
Your users will communicate with other users as they work. Watching and listening for common words, phrases, and other verbal and non-verbal cues will give you a sense of how your users are feeling as they interact with your offer. Are their interactions professional and seemingly orchestrated, or are they haphazard without coordination? What codewords, abbreviations, acronyms, and other tribal knowledge are being leveraged in communication between parties? With computers, it is so easy to forget there is a treasure trove of information shared in emails and chat, and we should work hard to uncover those messages to gain real insights into the feelings of our users.
Services
Finally, we should think about the documentation the user is using, either their own or provided. We should also take note of any other software tools people are integrating to complete their experience. What frameworks or tools have been created by the user for success, or what mental models do they bring from past use to ensure their or their team's success? Who are they reaching out to for help, or what google searches or videos are they watching to complete the tasks?
1 Tip:
Use the POEMS, Think about what your People are doing, think about the Objects they are using, look at the Environment, check out the Messages they use with each other, and the Services they bring to solve the things they are trying to accomplish.
Thank You
Jim ‘The Designatic’ Tyrrell