What is the Tech for Better programme?

The "Tech for Better" programme teaches Product Management to social entrepreneurs, charities and start-ups through a hands-on experience.

What is Product Managment?

"Project management is the art of getting things done... Product management is the art of deciding what to do in the first place"- Jennifer Pahlka, author of Recoding America, on The Ezra Klein Show.

Meanwhile, Product ownership is the art of balancing the needs of users with your team's capabilities.

Product managers need to be good at all three.

How is the programme structured?

The programme will allow you to work with your Product Owners over several weeks exploring and dveloping their ideas.

You will doing this using the 'Framework for Innovation' model from the Design Council

This looks a little somthing like this:

This is how the next few weeks will look based on the Framework for Innovation:

What happens after the Product Management Phase?

After selecting the projects you want to work on you go and build a MVP using your figma prototype as a blueprint. You will also be collaborating with your Product Owners throughout the process.

Scrum Guide

• A pdf that gives the basis for terms like Scrum, Product Owner and Product Manager.

Product Owner vs. Product Manager

• A great guide talking about the difference between Product Owners and Product Managers.

'Framework for Innovation'

• A guide to how the 'Double Diamond' design thinking process model works.

'A Study of the Design Process'

• An official document from the Design Council looking at how different companies approach the Double Diamond Design Model.

Google Ventures

• A guide to design sprints by Google Ventures

There are no resources for this week

Refer to the schedule here

There are no resources for this week

How to conduct good user research

• A quick guide on how to conduct user research and why it is important to understand your users needs.

• A guide to help you create an awesome presentation for your TfB showcase

Example Presentation

• An example presentation for the Habit Monster App from FAC26

What will we be doing this week?

Monday

• Usability testing

• Usability testing analysis

• Product refinement

Tuesday

• Choose roles

• Code planning

• Technical Spike

Wednesday

• Sprint planning

• Build (rest of the day)

Thursday

• Expert Feedback - Live code review

• Sprint planning

• Presentation prep

• Team SGC

• Presentations

• Feedback session

• Speaker @ 5pm

Friday

• Project documentation

• Build (the whole day)

Refer to the schedule here

Usability testing (120 minutes)

What is usability testing?

Usability testing is where you and your product owners present your clickable Figma Prototype to users. The aim of usability testing is to understand how a user interacts with the app and what features could be changed to make the user journey better.

Feedback from your users will be analysed and will inform how you iterate over your protoype next week.

How will the session work?

The Product Owner will lead the session and will be asking the users questions and giving them tasks to complete. As discussed in the scripting stage last week.

The Developers will observe the users journey and make note of:

• Tasks the user completed

• Tasks the user struggled with

• Tasks the user was not able to complete

• Observations about the look of the app

• Observations about the functionality of the app

• Observations about the feel of the app

• Any other observations.

After 2 hours you should have oservations from 5-6 different users, you can then use TRAFFIC LIGHT ANALYSIS and RAINBOW CHART ANALYSIS, which we mention last week. This will help you get a better understanding of features or pages that need to be changed.

Things to remember when conducting testing.

• Always introduce yourself and give context. WHAT is the app? WHAT is it's purpose? HOW will their feedback help?

• Try NOT to ask leading questions! e.g. "Would you use this app if it came to market, if not, why not?"

• Try to keep your questions open-ended. e.g. "What experience do you have of using an app that...[function of the app]?"

• It's OK to go off script and ask questions that go with the flow of the conversation.

• Encourage them to think out loud.

• Give users time to work out things for themselves before jumping in to help them out.

• Remember to thank users for their time.

Usability testing analysis (90 minutes)

Traffic light & Rainbow analysis

To help you think about the kinds of questions to ask your users when creating your scripts it is important to understand the analysis process looks.

Traffic light analysis

During this analysis you create a spreadsheet or table with tasks you asked the users to complete as rows; and participants as columns. You can then mark whether the user:

• Completed the task

• Struggled with the task

• Did not complete the task

It should look like this

Rainbow Analysis

During this analysis you create a spreadsheet and list observations in rows, and participants in columns. Where an observation occurs, mark the cell, giving each participant a different colour.

Product Refinement (120 minutes)

What will we be doing in this session?

In this session you will refine your figma prototypes using the usability testing from this morning.

• Remember you do not have to take on-board all the feedback that you got.

What will you do in this session?

• Sit down with a different pair of devs and discuss your idea (10 minutes each)

• Define a problem statement (10 minutes)

• Create user personas (15 minutes)

• Formulate questions that could be asked to the users (35 minutes)

• Use the questions from the previous step to create a user research script (20 minutes)

Things to remember when conducting Research

• User research is not “validation” or usability testing.

• Always introduce yourself and give context. WHAT are you conducting research for? WHY are you conducting research? HOW will their feedback help?

• Try NOT to ask leading questions! e.g. "Do you agree that our app is the most user-friendly and efficient solution in the market?"

• Try to keep your questions open-ended. e.g. "On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is very unlikely and 10 is very likely, How likely are you to take a recommendation for a film from a friend"

• It's OK to go off script and ask questions that go with the flow of the conversation.

• Remember to thank users for their time.

There are no resources for this week

Session summary

• Create multiple user stories of what the user should be able to do with the app, prioritize each task, and estimate the time (50 minutes)

• Work with the chosen Product Owner to map out the product idea (40 mins)

Why map the user journey?

Mapping the user journey within the Double Diamond design model helps designers gain insights into thier user's needs, pain points, and opportunities for improvment.

How does mapping work?

The sessions is split into two halves. For the first half, you will:

1. DEFINE multiple user stories in the As a... I want to... So that I can... format. This should reflect the granular tasks the user should be able to complete when using the app. (40 minutes)

2. PRIORITISE each user story with your product owner. The user stories that are HIGH priority will be your minimum viable product (MVP) everything else could be a stretch goal. (10 minutes)

3. ESTIMATE how easy or difficult you believe that user story will be to complete and attach a number to it. (10 minutes)

For the second half, you will:

1. MAP out how your users will go through your application. Start by listing all your users on the left hand side and have your end goal (usually the main task the user should be able to complete) on the right hand side. Then draw in all the steps in between the two, with a maximum of 10-15 steps.

Research Analysis & Definition (150 minutes)

Session summary

• Summarise the research under specific headings (15 minutes)

• Theme your notes, try to find commmon themes e.g. Ease of use (15 minutes)

• Insights looking at the themes ask what does this mean? (15 minutes)

• Inspirations (15 minutes)

• Lightning talks (10 minutes)

• Crazy eights (8 minutes)

• The Big Idea (4 minutes)

• Upload (5 minutes)

• Discuss your crazy eights (10 minutes)

• Low fidelity wireframes (20 minutes)

• Dot vote (5 minutes)

• Discussion (25 minutes)

User research

An Intro to research

Validating an idea with a user group is an important part of software development

Feedback from your users will be analysed and inform the direction of the Product

Qualitative vs Quantitative

There are two main avenues to analysing results from testing:

• Qualitative

• Quantitative

Qualitative research seeks to understand subjective experiences and perspectives through non-numerical data.

Quantitative research uses numerical data to analyze relationships and draw objective conclusions.

How do we conduct research analysis?

Research analysis is split into 3 - 15 minute sessions:

1. SUMMARISE the notes your product owner shares with you from their user research.

2. REFLECT on themes that summarise the notes from the first step.

3. ANALYSE the themes from the second step and ask "What does this mean?"

Definition

Definition focuses on moving from an idea to something we can prototype. It is broken down into a number of exercises:

1. INSPIRATIONS - Draw from other sources (websites, mobile phone apps etc) to get an idea of what we might include in the app.

2. LIGHTNING TALKS - Discuss, with your team, your rationale for the screens you have chosen from the previous step.

3. CRAZY EIGHTS - Draw 8 lightning sketches in 8 minutes, 1 minute for each drawing.

4. THE BIG IDEA - Take one design from your Crazy 8's and create a ore detailed sketch of it.

5. UPLOAD - Take some time to upload your designs onto your miro board.

6. DISCUSS - Come together to discuss your sketches and think about elements you want to take into the next step.

7. LOW FIDELITY WIREFRAMES - Take a few of the screens from the Crazy Eights step and recreate them as screens on Miro.

8. DOT VOTE - Mark what draws your attention or interest on Miro.

9. DISCUSS - Come together to discuss what you’ve created and what to move forward with.

There are no resources for this week

What is prototyping?

• An explanation of what prototyping is, why it is important and the difference between low fidelity and high fidelity prototyping.

Figma Resource Library

• Figma's official documentation on how to get started when making a prototype.

Ultimate Figma Crash Course

• The ultimate Figma tutorial, broken down into small bite-sized chunks.

Creating a mobile phone app protoype

• A tutorial for creating a clean flight booking app protoype.

Creating components in Figma

• A figma video guide on how to create components that allow you to speed up your workflow.

Protoyping

• A figma video guide on how to create prototype connections between screens.

Creating Micro Animations with Figma

• A tutorial on how to add small animations to your figma prototype to give it some flair

Refer to the schedule here

What is prototyping?

"Prototyping is a quick way to go from sketches or wireframes to a simulation where you can get user feedback" - Tom Lowry, Director of Advocacy at Figma

Why is it important?

"The goal of a prototype is to ensure your design works in the hands of the user. Getting feedback on a prototype is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to get feedback, before you spend a lot of money building something that might not meet user needs" Tom Lowry, Director of Advocacy at Figma

What will you be doing today?

You will be building a clickable Figma prototype.

It's ok if you haven't used Figma before we've put together some resources, that you can find here

Remember

• Send a link to the Figma prototype to the product owners and ask them to add comments about elements they would like changed on Miro.

For Product Owners

This week you should start thinking about creating a short summary/product pitch video for the developers to watch and decide which project they would like to work on. Even if your project is not chosen in week 9 you can use this video to pitch your idea and research to stakeholders or developers in the future.

Here are a few things to think about when creating your pitches:

• WHAT is the name of the product? (This can be a placeholder name)

• WHAT is the product supposed to do? (A blurb about what the product is supposed to do?)

Example

Do you love independant cinema, but can't find anywhere playing the films you want to watch?

Introducing "CineSphere," the ultimate app for cinephiles passionate about independent cinema. With CineSphere, discover and explore movies playing exclusively in independent cinemas near you, all in one convenient platform. From browsing events and Q&As with directors to booking cinema tickets, CineSphere empowers you to support independent talent, local economies, and film communities while enjoying purpose-driven films. Get ready to embark on a meaningful cinematic journey with CineSphere.

• WHAT is the MVP? (What is the most basic task a user should be able to do with it?)

• WHAT have you learnt from the programme?

• WHY should devs work on your project?

• WHERE do you see the product heading next?

Please use the resources from week 5

You can find them here

Video goes here

What will we be doing in this session?

For the first 45-60 minutes we will be watching video pitches from the product owners and making notes.

We will then have a group discussion where we will discuss the products based on what you have heard and express your preferences for the top 3 projects you want to work on.

There are no resources for this week

There are no resources for this week

There are no resources for this week

What will we be doing in this session?

You spend the first 45 minutes of the session iterating over your Figma prototype using the feedback from the PO's

For the remaining 45 minutes you will create a usability testing script for the Product owner to use the following week.

Why test?

• Get feedback quickly

• See how someone unfamiliar with the idea interacts with a app

• Understand which features to prioritise

• Adapt the content and copy

Things to consider when creating a script

Start with an introduction

"Thanks for helping us today. My name is Belinda, I’m a developer. The app we’re working on is…"

Explain the process

"Don’t worry about making mistakes, it all helps us understand how you, as the user thinks"

"Be honest, you’re not going to hurt our feelings and any negative feedback helps us improve the idea"

"Ask any questions you have throughout but I might not answer them until the end"

"We'll be recording the screen/taking notes"

Asking questions

Start with general questions:

• How do you feel about shopping online? How often do you shop online?

• How much do you use your phone vs a laptop when on the internet?

Tasks

Giving your user some tasks to complete can help you to see how they use your app. This will also be useful when you complete Traffic Light and Rainbow analysis.

For example:

Could you create a profile? Where might you look for help? How would you book an appointment?

Closing off

Ask a few questions to wrap up the session:

How was your overall experience moving around the app? What else would you like it to do? Anything else you feel we should know?