May 2018: How FreshBooks persuaded its customers to accept radical change

How do you persuade your customers to try your new product when they’re already pretty happy with what they’ve got? How do you get them to migrate to a new product that, technically, has fewer features? How do you overcome the dreaded “switching cost,” the pain of learning something completely new?

In this talk, Aaron Wright and Jeff Kraemer will detail how they researched migration experiences (which are usually terrible), explored UX designs using a lean UX process, and ultimately launched a migration experience that lives up to FreshBooks’ mantra: “Execute extraordinary experiences every day.”

In 2014, FreshBooks launched an ambitious, secret project to reinvent itself—a complete redesign and rebuilding of its flagship product, a cloud accounting application used by over five million people. The old product was saddled with both technical and UX debt, and we just weren’t able to deliver what our customers needed quickly enough.

After two years of testing and iterating in weekly UX sprints, we were confident that the new product was a much better experience for users. But: it had fewer features. And the first thing we learned when we asked customers what they expected from a new FreshBooks was “more features!”

So, we had a challenge: we needed to persuade our customers to leave a product they generally loved, move to a new one with fewer features, and avoid making it another awful migration experience.

We’ll explain how we researched and designed that experience, list some lessons we learned, and offer key takeaways for anyone planning to introduce their users to a radical change.

Bios:

Aaron Wright:

I stumbled into the field of UX while pursuing a degree in Graphic Design at York University. Originally just trying hone my web design and app-building skills, I soon learned that there was, in fact, an entire field devoted to the study of user experience itself and immediately changed focus. And I haven’t looked back. I’m now a UX Designer at FreshBooks since 2012, livin’ the dream of taming complexity and trying to make boring work (like accounting) as close to fun as humanly possible.

Jeff Kraemer:

I ran my first usability test back in 2001; this was before screen-recording software, so recording the test meant pointing a VHS videocamera at the screen. Since then, I’ve spent time specializing in content strategy and instructional design, but I really love being a UX generalist. Previously at Workopolis and Usability Matters, I am now Principal UX Designer at FreshBooks.

Please register for this free event

Thursday May 24, 2018
5:30pm to 7:00pm
3rd Floor Theatre, Roddenberry, Communitech
151 Charles Street West
Kitchener, Ontario

Pizza and drinks will be served at the event.

April 2018: It’s time to start designing for democracy, with Dana Chisnell

This month, we’re excited to welcome past Fluxible speaker Dana Chisnell to uxWaterloo to share her insights and experiences trying to improve the voting process in the United States. Dana will be presenting to us remotely, a format that has worked well in previous sessions this season.

Dana’s talk will show how every great designed experience starts with the stories of individual humans.

At the Center for Civic Design, Dana and her team collected close to 1,000 stories from U.S. voters over 5 years. They used the stories to visualize and map the voting experience. This revealed two massive gaps in the process.

First, people who administer elections and voters have very different mental models on the process of voting.

The second gap was between privileged voters and burdened voters. These gaps explained why it’s harder than it should be to vote in the U.S.

The stories also showed that several policies that were meant to make things better had unintended consequences that actually make it worse. And just as in the private sector and across lots of different kinds of organizations, design research could have helped solve real problems without causing new ones.

It’s time to start designing for democracy.

Pizza and drinks will be served at the event.

Please register for this free event

Thursday April 19, 2018
5:30pm to 7:00pm
3rd Floor Theatre, Roddenberry, Communitech
151 Charles Street West
Kitchener, Ontario

March 2018: Beyond the Hype: Transformative Entrepreneurial and Intrapreneurial Design

This month, we’re excited to have speaker Karel Vredenburg of IBM Design join us.

From start-ups to large enterprises, everyone is talking about innovation, disruption, transformation, design thinking, iconic branding, signature experiences, as well as things like artificial intelligence, machine learning, audio interfaces, big data, IoT, VR, and AR. There’s a lot of hype, a lot of excitement, and a lot of money being spent but little focus on the fundamentals and what really makes a difference. We’ll briefly review the history of design and the interface to technology from the point of view of a 106 year old startup, IBM, and then explore the common transformation myths, and the key foundational ingredients for effective design transformation by examining entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial companies. We’ll also discuss the design challenges inherent in several new technologies and proposals to address them. We’ll finish up with an open discussion with the session attendees to solicit their ideas, thoughts, and feedback on the topics raised during the session.

Karel’s Bio

Karel has spent his professional career dealing with design, technology, human affect, cognition, and behavior primarily through the human interface to technology. His current interests are in advances in design practice, design-based organizational transformation, the innovation ecosystem (design school, business school, university, entrepreneur, and enterprise), and the ways in which technology can extend, optimize, and improve work, play, relationships, education, health, and overall fulfillment. He is director of design at IBM and responsible for IBM Design’s worldwide client programs and serves as the head of IBM Studios in Canada. He’s also Industry Professor at the DeGroote School of Business, the DeGroote Health Leadership Academy, and McMaster University. Karel joined IBM in 1988 after having done graduate studies, research, and teaching at the University of Toronto. He introduced User-Centered Design at IBM in 1993 and assumed a company-wide role in 1995 leading IBM’s community of designers, leading the development of design methods, languages, and technologies, and leading the design of the commercialization of the IBM Watson. In 2013, he introduced IBM Design Thinking to IBM product development laboratories worldwide and introduced a tailored version of it to IBM consulting services and technology services organizations worldwide in 2014 through 2016. Karel now leads the development and activation of IBM Design Thinking for client facing professionals worldwide in addition to providing leadership to IBM’s Canadian design studios. Karel is based in Toronto, blogs at karelvredenburg.com, hosts a podcast called Life Habits, and his social media coordinates include @karelvredenburg on Twitter and LinkedIn and @karelveganburg on Instagram.

Pizza and drinks will be served at the event.

Please register for this free event

Thursday March 15, 2018
5:30pm to 7:00pm
3rd Floor Theatre, Roddenberry, Communitech
151 Charles Street West
Kitchener, Ontario

February 2018: Understanding problem spaces, with Indi Young

We’re delighted that past Fluxible speaker Indi Young will be joining us for a remote session on understanding problem spaces.

For Indi, the problem space is about understanding people and their larger purpose. Exploration of these spaces comes with letting go of thinking of solutions for a time. In todays presentation and discussion, Indi will outline what a problem space is, how to navigate the ambiguity of the problem space with empathy, and demonstrate techniques to explore problems and bring creative solutions. Join us, and bring along some questions for Indi.

Indi Young is the author of two books, Practical Empathy and Mental Models, and has presented at over 40 conferences worldwide — did we mention Fluxible? In 2001, Young co-founded Adaptive Path, a groundbreaking UX agency with the mission to transform communities through design. Young received her bachelors in computer science from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. In her early projects, Young realized that there was a gap between what her team knew, as engineers and creators, and what people were trying to ultimately accomplish. Young’s career has been dedicated to closing this gap.

Please register for this free event

Thursday February 15, 2018
5:30pm to 7:00pm
3rd Floor Theatre, Roddenberry, Communitech
151 Charles Street West
Kitchener, Ontario

December 2017: Sense and Respond, with Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden

We have a special remote presentation today from past Fluxible speakers Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden who will be joining us from Brooklyn NY and somewhere in Spain, respectively.

We are in the midst of a revolution.

Technology is no longer just an IT problem. The rhythm of technology is changing the rhythm of business, and businesses need to adapt. To thrive, businesses must become ‘sensing organizations,’ able to sense and respond to changing customer and employee behaviours.

In their new book Sense and Respond, past Fluxible speakers Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden explain how to build truly sensing organizations, using illuminating stories from organisations including Paypal, Zara, AutoTrader, and UK Government’s Digital Service.

Their new book tells us more about how to sense and respond effectively. This requires shifting from managing outputs to what the authors call ‘outcome focused management,’ which includes: – Framing work, not as a set of features to deliver, but as customer behaviors and outcomes that can be amplified, encouraged and changed

• Forming self-guided teams that can read and react to a fast-changing environment
• Creating a ‘learning-all-the-time’ culture that can understand and respond to new customer behaviors and the data they generate
• Developing the new universal skills of customer listening, assessment and response in everyone at the organization

Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, describes Josh and Jeff’s work as providing “a crucial framework for the modern world of business.” For those looking to engage in a two-way conversation with the market and their customers, and to drive value from that conversation, please join us to learn more.

Note that this event is being presented at a special time and starts at 12:00 noon sharp! Note as well that we’re presenting Jeff and Josh in collaboration with Lean Product Waterloo.

Please register for this free event

Thursday December 14, 2017
12:00 noon to 1:15pm
3rd Floor Theatre, Roddenberry, Communitech
151 Charles Street West
Kitchener, Ontario

November 2017: Thinking of the future is easy, the hard part is doing something about it

In this presentation, Aaron Szymanski and Janice de Jong of Real/Ideal will introduce the Strategic Foresight process, and how it informs ethnographic research and product strategy. With a case study of their work with Blue Ant Media’s Cottage Life brand, they will show what Strategic Foresight is and how fits in a user-centred innovation process. They’ll also give tips on how you can apply it in your own work.

Aaron Szymanski is a UX designer and strategist with Real/Ideal. Aaron’s previous experience includes Kinetic Cafe, where he led the design team and was the product owner for ALDO’s iOS application and Connected Store (Store of the Future) programs. Previously a Product Designer at Pivotal Labs and an Industrial Designer at BlackBerry where he worked with the portfolio development team to envision the future of connected technology and experiences.

Janice de Jong is a researcher and design strategist with Real/Ideal. Driven by the belief that understanding today can build a better tomorrow, she is passionate about inspiring private and public organizations to create the future. She holds a Master’s in Strategic Foresight and Innovation, is based in Kitchener, and is a frequent UX Waterloo attendee.

Please register for this free event

Thursday November 16, 2017
5:30 to 7:00 pm
3rd Floor Theatre, Roddenberry, Communitech
151 Charles Street West
Kitchener, Ontario

October 2017: What it means to be a design leader

We’re trying something different this month and featuring a remote presentation/conversation with Silicon Valley design veteran and past Fluxible speaker Uday Gajendar.

Uday will share insights from his career on what it means to be a design leader. Drawing upon experiences at large corporate groups and small scrappy startups as well as an indie consultant, Uday will hit upon a core set of themes: Working at multiple levels of craft, tackling the “wickedness” of complex business apps, collaborating with executives, and becoming an effective “force multiplier” with real impact and value. Each theme will be punctuated with real life “stories from the trenches” from his first day on the job after grad school to later moments along his journey — to help inspire others in their own path of becoming design leaders.

Please register for this free event

Wednesday October 18, 2017
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Communitech Hub, 2nd floor
[View on Google Maps]

September 2017: Looking back and looking ahead at UX in Waterloo Region

It’s been almost exactly ten years since uxWaterloo held its kick-off meeting at the Accelerator Centre in Waterloo. And it’s been just four days since the 2017 edition of Fluxible wrapped up. Given these milestones, we think a more reflective and conversational session is in order.

What do we want the next 10 years to look like? What’s on your mind UX-wise? What do you love about the UX community, both locally and globally? What are you looking for more of? How might the Waterloo Region become the place that designers in Canada want to call home?

Join us for lively conversation in which it’s 100% guaranteed that we’ll come up with all the answers! Or, if not, we’ll at least set the stage for ten more years of uxWaterloo topics. Yeah, let’s go with that…

Please register for this free event

Thursday September 28th, 2017
5:30 to 7:00 pm
3rd Floor Theatre, Roddenberry, Communitech
151 Charles Street West
Kitchener, Ontario

August 2017: Informal Pub Meetup, Part 2

Now available in a special August Edition! Complete with this repeated text from our delightful July Edition:

In what is now a beloved summer tradition, it’s time to replace energizing presentations and deep UX thoughts with a lighter event befitting the season. Let’s savour that summer feeling with an August uxWaterloo session that features informal talk, some of it even UX-related, and drinks. As befits any self-respecting tradition, we do this every July and August and the laid-back atmosphere and conversations are a welcome addition to any summer schedule. Join us!

And, as has become a yearly tradition, count on hearing from Bob and Mark with an an update on Fluxible 2017, Canada’s UX Festival! You’ve been warned…

Please register for this free event

Thursday August 17, 2017
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Abe Erb Brewing
15 King Street South, Uptown Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario

July 2017: Informal Pub Meetup

In what is now a beloved summer tradition, it’s time to replace energizing presentations and deep UX thoughts with a lighter event befitting the season. Let’s savour that summer feeling with a July uxWaterloo session that features informal talk, some of it even UX-related, and drinks. As befits any self-respecting tradition, we do this every July and August and the laid-back atmosphere and conversations are a welcome addition to any summer schedule. Join us!

And, as has become a yearly tradition, count on hearing from Bob and Mark with an an update on Fluxible 2017, Canada’s UX Festival! You’ve been warned…

Please register for this free event

Thursday July 27, 2017
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Abe Erb Brewing
15 King Street South, Uptown Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario