Which UX Method?

The discovery phase should begin with a problem statement workshop to ensure alignment on the problem you are trying to solve. In discovery, you will also define what success looks like and how you would measure success (success metrics). Through an assumption mapping exercise, you will gain an overview of what you know about your users and how confident you are in that knowledge. This exercise will help you create the research plan and research questions.

In discovery, you will not create a prototype. You will collect data and conduct research to explore your user groups and their motivations, goals, needs, and pain points. You may want to research competitor products or services.

At the end of discovery, you should have a clear understanding of your user group(s), their needs, and what you should build. To summarise that knowledge, you can create personas and lists of prioritised and categorised user needs.

For the next phase, alpha, you need to decide what to focus on. You should define your alpha goals. Typically, you will focus on the most important user groups and their most pressing needs. A potential risk in the alpha is a too broad scope when you try to cover too many user groups and user needs. When considering the double diamond, after broadening in discovery, you need to narrow it down at the end of the discovery phase.

In alpha, you begin creating the product or service. You develop a prototype and iterate on it. The prototype can be paper-based or consist of screenshots, even PowerPoint slides. More advanced prototypes are designed with Figma, InVision, Marvel, or Sketch.

You will have several rounds of research and improve the prototype iteratively, step by step. With this iterative approach, you are increasing your knowledge about your users. You can try different concepts and variations with your users. You should avoid focusing on one specific solution too early.

Suppose there are still missing gaps from the discovery phase. In that case, you can continue exploring these and adding to your knowledge about your users (e.g., when you haven’t been able to conduct research with some target groups in the discovery phase).

At the end of the alpha phase, you have a validated prototype (often referred to as an MVP or Minimum Viable Product – I prefer to call it a Minimum Valuable Product). You can take this prototype into development in the beta phase. The user needs you discover in both the discovery and alpha phases are the basis for the user stories for development in beta. Often, a BA (Business Analyst) writes the user stories. As a researcher, you must ensure that every user story is based on a real user need.

In beta, the actual product or service is already built. You will collect feedback from a larger group of people using the product. The product can already be live as a beta version or selected users can receive a beta version of the software to test and provide feedback. In beta, it is essential to collect feedback over an extended period to gain insights into product usage from new users, also known as newbies (who are onboarding and learning), to expert or power users (who are efficient users). Some beta research is similar to a diary study.

The purpose of collecting feedback in beta is to identify and address usability issues or bugs. By doing this, you ensure that when the product goes live, it provides users with a seamless experience.

Earlier in the discovery and alpha phase, you have already identified your target groups and how your product solves their problems. Therefore, in beta, you will not make any significant changes regarding the concept, only minor tweaks. The product should already address the most critical user needs and pain points; it should solve the problem stated in the problem statement you defined at the beginning of the discovery phase. In beta, you will verify whether you have achieved the success metrics you described at the start of the project (what success looks like).

At the end of beta, you should have removed all remaining usability issues and bugs so the product can go live.

A live product or service doesn’t mean the end of user research! User research and product/service improvement are continuous activities. Research in this phase is similar to beta research, but you will have much more long-term data to analyse. You should continue to track and analyse any success metrics you have defined in the earlier product phases.

Some companies track the NPS score for customer satisfaction. With Google Analytics data or data from tools like Hotjar, you might be able to see trends and patterns in the data. You can also analyse user feedback from online forums or app stores. Some organisations (like the government) have a feedback option directly on the service page.

The double diamond

The double diamond is a simple model of the design process, which is also the underlying basis of the different phases of product development:

Read more about the story of the double diamond from the famous British Design Council: The Double Diamond: A universally accepted depiction of the design process, Jonathan Ball, 2019.