095 - Increasing Adoption of Data Products Through Design Training: My Interview from TDWI Munich

Today I am bringing you a recording of a live interview I did at the TDWI Munich conference for data leaders, and this episode is a bit unique as I’m in the “guest” seat being interviewed by the VP of TDWI Europe, Christoph Kreutz.  Christoph wanted me to explain the new workshop I was giving later that day, which focuses on helping leaders increase user adoption of data products through design. In our chat, I explained the three main areas I pulled out of my full 4-week seminar to create this new ½-day workshop as well as the hands-on practice that participants would be engaging in. The three focal points for the workshop were: measuring usability via usability studies, identifying the unarticulated needs of stakeholders and users, and sketching in low fidelity to avoid over committing to solutions that users won’t value.  Christoph also asks about the format of the workshop, and I explain how I believe data leaders will best learn design by doing it. As such, the new workshop was designed to use small group activities, role-playing scenarios, peer review…and minimal lecture! After discussing the differences between the abbreviated workshop and my full 4-week seminar, we talk about my consulting and training business “Designing for Analytics,” and conclude with a fun conversation about music and my other career as a professional musician.  In a hurry? Skip to:  I summarize the new workshop version of “Designing Human-Centered Data Products” I was premiering at TDWI (4:18) We talk about the format of my workshop (7:32) Christoph and I discuss future opportunities for people to participate in this workshop (9:37) I explain the format of the main 8-week seminar versus the new half-day workshop  (10:14) We talk about one on one coaching (12:22) I discuss my background, including my formal music training and my other career as a professional musician (14:03) Quotes from Today’s Episode “We spend a lot of time building outputs and infrastructure and pipelines and data engineering and generating stuff, but not always generating outcomes. Users only care about how does this make my life better, my job better, my job easier? How do I look better? How do I get a promotion? How do I make the company more money? Whatever those goals are. And there’s a gap there sometimes, between the things that we ship and delivering these outcomes.” (4:36) “In order to run a usability study on a data product, you have to come up with some type of learning goals and some kind of scenarios that you’re going to give to a user and ask them to go show me how you would do x using the data thing that we built for you.” (5:54) “The reality is most data users and stakeholders aren’t designers and they’re not thinking about the user’s workflow and how a solution fits into their job. They don’t have that context. So, how do we get the really important requirements out of a user or stakeholder’s head? I teach techniques from qualitative UX interviewing, sales, and even hostage negotiation to get unarticulated needs out of people’s head.” (6:41) “How do we work in low fidelity to get data leaders on the same page with a stakeholder or a user? How do we design with users instead of for them? Because most of the time, when we communicate visually, it starts to click (or you’ll know it’s not clicking!)” (7:05) “There’s no right or wrong [in the workshop]. [The workshop] is really about the practice of using these design methods and not the final output that comes out of the end of it.” (8:14) “You learn design by doing design so I really like to get data people going by trying it instead of talking about trying it. More design doing and less design thinking!” (8:40) “The tricky thing [for most of my training clients], [and perhaps this is true with any type of adult education] is, ‘Yeah, I get the concept of what Brian’s talking about, but, how do I apply these design techniques to my situation? I work in this really weird domain, or on this particularly h

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Are you an enterprise data or product leader seeking to increase the user adoption and business value of your ML/AI and analytical data products? While it is easier than ever to create ML and analytics from a technology perspective, do you find that getting users to use, buyers to buy, and stakeholders to make informed decisions with data remains challenging? If you lead an enterprise data team, have you heard that a ”data product” approach can help—but you’re not sure what that means, or whether software product management and UX design principles can really change consumption of ML and analytics? My name is Brian T. O’Neill, and on Experiencing Data—one of the top 2% of podcasts in the world—I offer you a consulting product designer’s perspective on why simply creating ML models and analytics dashboards aren’t sufficient to routinely produce outcomes for your users, customers, and stakeholders. My goal is to help you design more useful, usable, and delightful data products by better understanding your users, customers, and business sponsor’s needs. After all, you can’t produce business value with data if the humans in the loop can’t or won’t use your solutions. Every 2 weeks, I release solo episodes and interviews with chief data officers, data product management leaders, and top UX design and research professionals working at the intersection of ML/AI, analytics, design and product—and now, I’m inviting you to join the #ExperiencingData listenership. Transcripts, 1-page summaries and quotes available at: https://designingforanalytics.com/ed ABOUT THE HOST Brian T. O’Neill is the Founder and Principal of Designing for Analytics, an independent consultancy helping technology leaders turn their data into valuable data products. He is also the founder of The Data Product Leadership Community. For over 25 years, he has worked with companies including DellEMC, Tripadvisor, Fidelity, NetApp, Roche, Abbvie, and several SAAS startups. He has spoken internationally, giving talks at O’Reilly Strata, Enterprise Data World, the International Institute for Analytics Symposium, Predictive Analytics World, and Boston College. Brian also hosts the highly-rated podcast Experiencing Data, advises students in MIT’s Sandbox Innovation Fund and has been published by O’Reilly Media. He is also a professional percussionist who has backed up artists like The Who and Donna Summer, and he’s graced the stages of Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center. Subscribe to Brian’s Insights mailing list at https://designingforanalytics.com/list.