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In the messy middle

I’m a little past halfway through earning my Object-Oriented UX (OOUX) Strategist re-certification. I thought it would be easier than the first time around since I had done this before. Of course, I was wrong!

What makes this process challenging, and ultimately worthwhile, is that thinking through a system before designing it for me has been a process of unlearning processes that do not serve me (or my teams) well anymore.

I have been creating systems for over 20 years now. No system in place defined the process of designing a system back then when everything was new! When the Agile Manifesto came along, things got a little clearer, but as you probably know, every person has their definition of Agile in their head.

What got me interested in OOUX in the first place was that it made sense to me immediately. It follows mental models that we already have in our heads. The thing about designing systems is that we are creating something new, but for people to learn how to use them, you must leave hints from our existing mental models. So that’s why online stores have shopping carts, for example.

Digging out those mental models starts with the Noun Forage process, to discover the language your customers use every day. But then once you have your list of nouns what happens next?

I am working on an assignment for my home renovation project called the CTA (call to action) Matrix. This step gives you clarity on turning a list of words into a functional roadmap, with user stories included. Although it is a spreadsheet, my designer brain starts to see what a system could look like at this step.

Each row describes an action taken on one of your system’s nouns (aka objects). For my project, the first object is USER. The calls to action in my example are:

• “Create Account”
• “Edit Profile”
• “Delete Account”
• “Invite User”
• and “Follow User”

For each of these actions, I describe why the action is in the system and when someone would do it. If you have written user stories before, you can see how this feeds into a user story:

• As a [specific user]
• I need to [call to action], [when], so that [why]

In later steps I will prioritize these rows into phases, which will create the bones for a future MVP (Phase 1) and a roadmap (Phases 2, 3, and beyond). Having a CTA Matrix is powerful tool for a product team to have to prioritize work and minimize the re-work that really drag product teams down!

If you want to learn more, get in touch.