Intentional collaboration and co-design
INTENTIONAL COLLABORATION
Tips and techniques for collaborative user-centred design
While people acknowledge collaboration is vital for innovation
Surprisingly, Nielsen found that 7 out of 10 people agree that collaboration in organisations is NOT effective
COLLABORATION WORKS
This is despite strong evidence for the benefits of multidisciplinary collaboration.
According to Nielsen's research, new product concepts developed by small teams of individuals from various business functions perform better than those created by teams that work solely in their functional areas.
And it’s not surprising. People with different backgrounds, expertise and know-how will forge alternative perspectives on how to solve your problem, increasing your chances of success.
Diverse teams perform better
They create concepts that perform 58% better than when just two functions collaborate
How can you boost effective collaboration?
Collaborate using design thinking methods
According to McKinsey, companies that excel in agile prototyping and iterative design methods outperform their industry benchmarks for growth and shareholder returns by a ratio of 2 to 1.
You can turn your initial ideas into prototypes as quickly as possible and use them to test your hypotheses and assumptions with the help of target users using co-creation methods.
Furthermore, collaborating across functions helps identify potential ideas, eliminate flaws, and align concepts with internal strategies and capabilities throughout the value chain.
This approach speeds up idea development and the quality of your thinking.
Collaborative experimentation
High-performing teams experiment with ideas by making them real quickly—using low-resolution mockups, wireframes, interactive user experiences, storyboards and sketches.
Your first ideas are never your best, so these aim to find flaws in your thinking and test your assumptions as early as possible. You can use the cross-functional expertise of your team to create alternative scenarios of how to solve your problem.
Prototypes can simplify complex problems and boost creativity.
They provoke you to ask questions like ‘Are we solving the right problem?’; ‘What is the simplest way to do this?’; ‘How can we make this unique and relevant?’
We each iteration, you build confidence that you are solving the right problem for your target users in the best way before you commit to expensive resources as you scale up.
Successful organisations foster a culture of sharing prototypes with outsiders
However, a McKinsey survey highlighted that more than half of companies only used prototyping for internal product testing late in the development phase.
Benefits of a user-centred collaboration approach
We are hard-wired to simplify the world.
And for business folk, this means creating business playbooks and strategies. These are great for management purposes but can result in groupthink which hinders creativity. You can see this with many large brands that have predictable innovation trajectories.
Effective innovators must change their thought patterns to get a fresh perspective to side-step the competition. How can you do this?
Successful ideas must be unique and relevant to stay ahead of the competition.
Start by putting yourself in the shoes of your customers/end-users. Look at the problem through their eyes to understand what they are trying to achieve and the workarounds they've created because things don't work as intended.
Uncovering customer insights shouldn’t be the domain of just the market research team. Everyone from sales, R&D, and marketing to business partners should be involved in hunting for customer insights.
Turn these observations into hunches—the springboards for ideas.
Additionally, involve consumers in the upfront experimental prototyping phase to help pinpoint flaws in your thinking from the outset before you get locked into a solution.
With each iteration of your prototypes, and customer feedback, you build a more vivid picture of how to design more customer-relevant solutions.
Check out our approach to design sprints and user-centred collaboration here
To sum up:
Working with experts from various fields can improve ideas and solutions for challenging problems.
By prioritising the user's needs in collaboration, you enjoy three major advantages:
Quicker and more relevant customer solutions through agile prototyping and iterative design.
Designing solutions that meet people's needs.
Increased competitiveness through relevance and advantage.