experience planningby bwilsonvi | ux designer | bwilsonvi@gmail.com

what is experience planning?

experience planning is a method used toscope a product or service.

in an ideal world this approach is informed bya deep understanding of our customers.

experience planning emphasizes what aproduct or service will do rather than how it will

work, or what it will look like.

experience planning is a collaborative,living process, that evolves over

a period of time.

the primary building block of experienceplanning is an experience goal.

what is an experience goal?

an experience goal represents yourcustomers ambition, aim, or desired result.

it’s easiest to think of these goals in simplesentences. for example,“I want to be healthy.”

why are experience goals important?

they can help provide a broad view ofyour product or service...

enable team members to collaborate andbuild consensus on a project vision...

reduce, and even eliminate feature creep...

surface risks and dependencies at anearly stage...

provide a tool for future decision making,and concept evaluation...

and finally it transitions smoothly into theagile scrum process.

three categories of experience goals

goals that change slowly if at all over timelike our earlier example “I want to be healthy.”

1

specific goals that relate to the larger goal.for example,“I want my LDL–Cholesterol

level to be below 100.”

2

and goal motivation which can revealunderlying needs. for example, because

“I want to live longer.”

3

how do I get started?

you will need sticky notes

markers

and foam core boards

how to compose a sticky note

I want to...

lower my LDL-level below 100

tips

go for quantity...

find patterns and group similar notes...

rewrite notes to follow the samesentence structure...

and of course iterate.

example

REAL WORLD EXAMPLE

kickoff meeting

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early planning progress

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planning refined

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scoped plan documented

follownews for a specificcelebrity

follow news from asource

follownews fora specific

movie

REAL WORLD EXAMPLE

document close-up

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follow a celebrity manifest in final design

feedback

I have been telling everyone about our design process and how amazing it was! That experience was the highlight of my internship. It was fascinating to learn a whole new way of thinking. My prior conceptions (and I think a lot of

people's) about design and development were completely topsy-turvy of what we did. This method is much more effective! I think we designed a better product than we would have otherwise. I know the process took

longer than what some people wanted, but I think it saved time in the end. By thinking through every possible angle of this app in the beginning, we had

less rework and blind spots later. I can't imagine designing anything in the future without using this process.

– Anonymous PM

thanksby bwilsonvi | ux designer | bwilsonvi@gmail.com