Design for how People Think (John Whalen) (Z-Library)

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John Whalen, PhD Design for How People Think Using Brain Science to Build Better Products

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Praise for Design for How People Think “This book takes John’s years of research and practice and turns them into an accessible, practical, and enjoyable read with a playful sense of humor. Regardless of the role you play on your team, the Six Minds framework and discovery techniques will help you unlock key insights about your customers and propel your product’s success.” HEATHER WINKLE, MANAGING VICE PRESIDENT OF DESIGN AT CAPITAL ONE “Design for How People Think reads just like a conversation with John—clear, engaging, and always quick to the point. This is a terrific book for people new to UX research or who work with UX and want to better understand its role in the product design process. Even long-time practitioners will find the Six Minds framework new and useful and the summary of key concepts, a helpful refresh. Lots of great examples and concrete, practical advice.” LAURA CUOZZO GUARNOTTA, USER EXPERIENCE RESEARCH LEAD AT GOOGLE “The design industry is changing quickly, and with AI and ML, new tools will replace design asset delivery once crafted with a keyboard and mouse. We have the tools to synthesize research now, but Design for How People Think helps you to understand how to synthesize for design of the future, focusing deeply on how customers think, not on how they use our products.” JASON WISHARD, DIRECTOR, DESIGN PRACTICE MANAGEMENT, AT CAPITAL ONE, CONSUMER BANK DESIGN

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“The demand for world-class customer experiences is increasing daily. Unfortunately, with new technologies like AR and AI, the rules of customer experience have changed. John’s book provides a way forward to understand how the brain processes these technologies, drawing a scientific road map of how to deliver customer experiences that work.” JASON PAPPAS, INNOVATION AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION LEADER, AT EATON

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Boston Farnham Sebastopol TokyoBeijing Design for How People Think Using Brain Science to Build Better Products John Whalen, PhD

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DESIGN FOR HOW PEOPLE THINK by John Whalen, PhD Copyright © 2019 John Whalen. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472. O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (http://oreilly.com). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: (800) 998-9938 or corporate@oreilly.com. Development Editor: Angela Rufino Acquisition Editor: Jessica Haberman Production Editor: Katherine Tozer Copyeditor: Jasmine Kwityn Proofreader: Rachel Head Indexer: Lucie Haskins Cover Designer: Karen Montgomery Interior Designers: Ron Bilodeau and Monica Kamsvaag Illustrators: Rebecca Demarest April 2019: First Edition Revision History for the First Edition: 2019-03-20 First Release See https://www.oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=0636920077916 for release details. The O’Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc. Design for How People Think and related trade dress are trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and O’Reilly Media, Inc., was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. Although the publisher and author have used reasonable care in preparing this book, the information it contains is distributed “as is” and without warranties of any kind. This book is not intended as legal or financial advice, and not all of the recommendations may be suitable for your situation. Professional legal and financial advisors should be consulted, as needed. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any costs, expenses, or damages resulting from use of or reliance on the information contained in this book. 978-1-491-98545-8 [GP]

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v [ contents ] Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi PART I RETHINKING “THE” EXPERIENCE Chapter 1 The Six Minds of Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Vision, Attention, and Automaticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Wayfinding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Decision Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Emotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 The Six Minds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Chapter 2 In the Blink of an Eye: Vision, Attention, and Automaticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 From Representations to Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Unconscious Behaviors: Caught You Looking . . . . . . . . .12 Visual Popout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Oops, You Missed That! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Our Visual System Creates Clarity When There Is None . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Ceci N’est Pas une Pipe: Learning What Someone Understands Something to Be, Not What Might Actually Be There . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

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vi  |   CONTENTS Chapter 3 Wayfinding: Where Am I? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 The Ant in the Desert: Computing Euclidean Space . . 19 Locating Yourself in Physical and Virtual Space . . . . . . 21 Where Can I Go? How Will I Get There? . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Testing Interfaces to Reveal Metaphors for Interaction 25 Thinking to the Future: Is There a “Where” in a Voice Interface? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Chapter 4 Memory/Semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Abstracting Away the Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Stereotypes of Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 The Value of Understanding Mental Models . . . . . . . . . .38 Acknowledging the Diversity of Types of Mental Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Riddle Answer Key! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 Chapter 5 Language: I Told You So . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Wait, Didn’t We Just Cover This? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 The Language of the Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 “What We’ve Got Here Is Failure to Communicate”. . .44 Revealing Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 I’m Listening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 Chapter 6 Decision Making and Problem Solving: Enter Consciousness, Stage Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 What Is My Problem (Definition)? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 How Might Problems Be Framed Differently? . . . . . . . .49 Finding the Yellow Brick Road to Problem Resolution 52 When You Get Stuck En Route: Subgoals . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

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CONTENTS   |  vii Chapter 7 Emotion: Logical Decision Making Meets Its Match . . 55 Too Much Information Jamming Up My Brain! Too Much Information Driving Me Insane! . . . . . . . . . . .56 Spock, I Am Not . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Competing for Conscious Attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 Getting to Deep Desires, Goals, and Fears . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 PART II EXPOSING SECRETS Chapter 8 User Research: Contextual Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 Why Choose a Contextual Interview? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Empathy Research: Understanding What the User Really Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65 Recommended Approach for Contextual Interviews and Their Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Common Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 From Data to Insights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78 Concrete Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Chapter 9 Vision: Are You Looking at Me? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Where Are Their Eyes? Eye-Tracking Can Tell You Some Things, But Not Everything . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84 Quick, Get a Heat Map… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88 Go with the Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89 Real-World Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Concrete Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94 Chapter 10 Language: Did They Just Say That? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95 Recording Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96 Prepping Raw Data: But, But, But… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96 Reading Between the Lines: Sophistication . . . . . . . . . . .96 Real-World Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98 Concrete Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102

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viii  |   CONTENTS Chapter 11 Wayfinding: How Do You Get There? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103 Where Do Users Think They Are? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104 How Do They Think They Can Get from Place A to Place B? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105 What Are Those Expectations Based On? . . . . . . . . . . . .106 Real-World Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107 Case Study: Distracted Movie-Watching . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109 Concrete Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .110 Chapter 12 Memory: Expectations and Filling in Gaps . . . . . . . . . . .111 Meanings in the Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112 Putting It All Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113 Real-World Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .114 What You Might Discover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117 Concrete Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119 Chapter 13 Decision Making: Following the Breadcrumbs . . . . . . .121 What Am I Doing? Goals and Journeys . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122 Gimme Some of That! Just-in-Time Needs . . . . . . . . . . .122 Chart Me a Course: The Decision-Making Journey . .124 Real-World Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124 Concrete Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127 Chapter 14 Emotion: The Unspoken Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129 Live a Little (Finding Reality, Essence) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130 Analyzing Dreams (Goals, Life Stages, Fears) . . . . . . . .131 Getting the Zeitgeist (Person versus Persona- Specific) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133 A Crime of Passion (In the Moment) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135 Real-World Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136 Concrete Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138

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CONTENTS   |  ix PART III PUTTING THE SIX MINDS TO WORK IN YOUR DESIGNS Chapter 15 Sense-Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141 Affinities and Psychographic Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141 Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143 Emotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147 Wayfinding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149 Finding the Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .152 Challenging Internal Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155 Ending an Outdated Practice: See/Feel/Say/Do . . . . . .156 Concrete Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .160 Chapter 16 Putting the Six Minds to Work: Appeal, Enhance, Awaken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161 Appeal: What People Say They Want . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161 Enhance: What People Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163 Awaken: Realizing Loftier Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165 Concrete Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171 Chapter 17 Succeed Fast, Succeed Often . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173 Divergent Thinking, Then Convergent Thinking . . . .173 First Diamond: Discover and Define (“Designing the Right Thing”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .174 Second Diamond: Develop and Deliver (“Designing Things Right”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .175 Learning While Making: Design Thinking . . . . . . . . . .177 Don’t Mind the Man Behind the Curtain: Prototype and Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .179 Test with Competitors/Comparables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .182 Concrete Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .183 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .183

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x  |   CONTENTS Chapter 18 Now See What You’ve Done? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .185 Empathy on Multiple Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .186 Evidence-Driven Decision Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .189 Experience Over Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191 Multiple Vantage Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .192 Concrete Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .193 Chapter 19 How to Make a Better Human . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .195 Symbolic AI and the AI Winter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .196 Artificial Neural Networks and Statistical Learning . .197 I Didn’t Say That, Siri! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .198 The Six Minds and AI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .199 I Get By with a Little Help from My (AI) Friends . . . 200 Concrete Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Appendix A: Recommended Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

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[ Preface ] Why I Wrote This Book “A Psychologist Doing Product and Service Design? How Interesting…” A common response when I introduce myself as a psychologist who does product design is surprise: “Isn’t that the job of designers? Oh, you must really get into the customer’s head! Are you analyzing me right now?” [No comment! ;)] While often intrigued, these people don’t know how knowledge about human cognition and emotion can be applied in digital product and service design . They are not alone . After giving a talk at SXSW, I had more than one person say, “That is so cool! I wish I knew how to use that in my products…” So Do You Want the Secret to Designing a Great Experience? Start by thinking of a truly great experience in your life . Was it one of life’s milestones? The birth of a child, marriage, graduation, etc .? Or was it a specific moment in time—a concert with your favorite band, a play on Broadway, an immersive dance club, an amazing sunset by the ocean, or watching your favorite movie? You might remark that it was “brilliant” or “an amazing experience” to a friend .

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What you probably didn’t think about was how many different senses and cognitive processes blended together to make that experience for you . Can you almost smell the popcorn when you think of that movie? Maybe the play had not only great acting but creative cos- tumes and lighting and starred someone you thought was good-look- ing and moved with amazing grace . Was it the dancing with festive fans nearby? So many elements come together to provide a “singularly” great experience . How might you go about designing a great experience for your product or service? What are the sensations, emotions, and cognitive processes that make up your experience? How can you tease them apart system- atically into component parts? How will you know you are building the right thing? This book is designed to help you understand and harness what we know about human psychology to unpack experiences into their com- ponent parts and uncover what is needed to build a great experience . This is a great time to do so . The pace of scientific discovery in brain science has been steadily increasing . There have been tremendous breakthroughs in psychology, neuroscience, behavioral economics, and human–computer interaction that provide new information about dis- tinct brain functions and how humans process that information to gen- erate that feeling of a single experience . How Humans Think About Thinking (And What We Don’t Realize) Your thoughts about your own thinking can be misleading because there are limits to your awareness of your own mental processes . We all know what it’s like to struggle over a decision about which outfit to wear for a big date or a job interview: Will you meet their initial expec- tations? Will they get the wrong impression? Does it look good? Do you look professional enough? Are those shoes too attention-grabbing? There are a lot of thoughts there—but there are still more thoughts that you are unable to articulate, or are even aware of . One of the fascinating things about consciousness is how much of our thinking is impenetrable to our own awareness . For example, while we are easily able to identify the shoes we plan to wear to an interview, we do not have insight into how we recognized the shoes as shoes, or how we were able to sense the color of the shoes . We generally don’t know

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PREFACE   |  xiii where our eyes are moving to next, the position of our tongue (yikes!), how we control our heart rate, how we see, how we recognize words, or how we remember our first home (or anything), to mention just a few examples . As a result, we must identify and understand not only con- sciously accessible cognitive processes, but also those that are uncon- scious (like eye movements often are) or deep-seated—like the emo- tions related to those concepts . I was trained in my PhD program as a cognitive scientist, studying memory, language, problem solving, and decision making . Now, after- more than 15 years of consulting, I’ve learned how to interview and observe customers, learn what makes them tick on the inside, and identify opportunities to make exceptional products or services that grow their businesses and provide a great experience for their custom- ers . I now work with some of the world’s biggest companies influencing product strategies for global products . I hope you benefit from what I’m sharing here and enjoy the process of understanding your customers as much as I do! Who This Book Is For I wrote this book to help product owners, product managers, design- ers, user experience professionals, and developers to: (a) identify the cognitive processes that together form a brilliant experience, (b) learn how to extract information about these through contextual interviews with your customers, and (c) apply that knowledge in your product and service design processes . This is meant to be a practical and hands-on book, not an academic one . Why Product Managers, Designers, and Strategists Need This Information No product, service, or experience will ever be a runaway success if it does not end up meeting the needs of the target audience . You want someone exposed to your product or service for the first time to say something like a Londoner might: “Right, that’s brilliant!” But how, as a corporate leader, marketer, product owner, or designer, can you be sure that your products or services will create an exceptional experience? You can ask customers what they want, but many don’t know what they need or can’t clearly articulate their needs . You might work from the vantage point of what you would want, but do you really

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xiv  |   PREFACE know how a 13-year-old girl wants to work with her “Insta” and “Finsta” (Instagram)? How a high-net-worth investor wants to “seek alpha”? Or how a 75-year-old attorney wants to search for tax law regarding reverse triangular mergers? So how should you proceed? This book is designed to equip you with the tools you need to deeply understand your customers’ needs and perspective . As a cognitive sci- entist, I feel like “usability testing” and “market surveys” and “empathy research” are at times both too simplistic and too complicated . I think they sometimes miss the mark in helping you—the product team—to understand what you need to build . I believe there is a better way: by understanding the elements of an experience (in this book I will describe six as a start), you can better identify audience needs at different levels of explanation . Throughout this book, I’ll help you better understand what the audience needs at those different levels and make sure you hit the mark with each one . How This Book Is Organized PART I: RETHINKING “THE” EXPERIENCE Part I is designed to share some of the fascinating properties of human cognition that you as designers, product managers, and developers need to be aware of: • Chapter 1 introduces the notion that “an experience” is actually many different experiences and cognitive processes all rolled into one human experience . • Chapter 2 gets you thinking about vision and attention—what draws you in, what you are seeking, and how much of your think- ing happens without your conscious awareness . • Chapter 3 reminds you that a huge part of your brain is wired to help you represent space, and gets you thinking about how you might harness that machinery in your virtual space (e .g ., an app or website) . Did I mention the part about Tunisian ants in the desert? Have a look! • Chapter 4 is there to emphasize how much of your experience is actually manufactured and filled in by your memories, and how quickly you go from concrete objects to abstract thoughts . What are your customers filling in with their thoughts?

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PREFACE   |  xv • Chapter 5 reminds you that you aren’t your customer . Your cus- tomers rarely use the language you do, and you can quickly lose their trust by being either too simplistic or overly technical with the words you use . And do the words you use mean the same thing that your customers think they mean? • Chapter 6 gets to what we typically think of when we are thinking: solving problems and making decisions . However, this serves as a reminder that in many cases (escape rooms are a good example) what we think we’re trying to solve is often not what we actually have to solve . What problem do your customers think they need to solve with your product or service? • Chapter 7 describes how our best intentions for wise decisions in Chapter 6 are often co-opted by our emotional selves . What will appeal to your customers, enhance their lives, and awaken their deepest passions—and allay their deepest fears? After reading Part I, you will (hopefully) know much more about human cognition and how an experience is composed of many thoughts, cog- nitive processes, and emotions than you did before . PART II: EXPOSING SECRETS Part II is designed to make every member of your team a valuable member of the customer research team . This part shows you how you can watch your customers work, and interview them, and in doing so expose valuable insights about the cognitive processes described in Part I . This is practical, “boots-on-the-ground” stuff . You do not need to be a psychologist to do this! • Chapter 8 introduces how I want you to conduct what I am calling a contextual interview—a hybrid of a simple interview and watching someone work (what researchers often call contextual inquiry) . This chapter covers a lot, including: Why do interviews at all? What do I need to capture? And once I have all my notes, how do I organize them to get product insights out of them? • Chapter 9 helps teach you how to gather lots of valuable insights about what captured your customers’ attention, what they were seeking, and why . I’ll share how I used this very same technique to help security teams at major buildings and stadiums keep people

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xvi  |   PREFACE safer by better managing all the cameras and bells and whistles and beeps constantly alerting them to everything from open doors to stuck elevators to faulty water heaters! • Chapter 10 shows you how to carefully record the words your cus- tomers are using, and what they mean to them . You’ll learn how we helped to organize every single malady at NIH .gov for both world experts and ordinary folks—a common challenge at many organizations . • Chapter 11 gets you thinking about your customers’ mental model for your product or service . Where do they think they are in your app or service? What do they think they should do to move from step to step? • Chapter 12 reminds you to harness what your customers already know . What knowledge are they bringing with them? How do they think your product or service works? What experiences inform that? I share the example of designing products and services for small business owners and quickly realizing there are two hugely different groups with completely different needs, suggesting two different sets of products and services should be offered . • Chapter 13 helps you to discover what your customers think they are trying to solve, and what they think they can do about it . You’ll see that part of a great experience might be helping your custom- ers to realize that they actually have a very different problem to solve . I describe why first-time home buyers are often a great exam- ple fo this . • Chapter 14 helps you intuit what was never spoken in the inter- view . What are your customers’ biggest goals? What are their fears? What do they need to know to be able to say yes to your product or service? I’ll describe how interviews asking first about what credit cards are in a customer’s wallet can quickly turn into revelatory experiences for them (hugs may be coming!) . This is when you might realize that you really need to refocus your product line to help your customers achieve their biggest life goals .

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PREFACE   |  xvii PART III: PUTTING THE SIX MINDS TO WORK IN YOUR DESIGNS OK, you’ve discovered some fascinating insights into what attracts your customers, the words they use, the emotions they have, the problems they are trying to solve, and more . But how does this change your prod- uct? Read on! • Chapter 15 is all about “sense-making”: how to identify patterns in your data and how you might segment customers by using what you know about their thought patterns and emotions—which might be a very different way of thinking about your customers than focusing on their zip codes, average sales, or years of experi- ence! You’ll find out how we put this to work for groups as diverse as Millennials managing their money and families that have expe- rienced fraud . • Chapter 16 gets you thinking about how to make your product a success for each of the groups you identified in Chapter 15 by mar- keting it appropriately . How do you appeal to them by recogniz- ing what they think they need, enhance their lives, and ultimately awaken their passions and helping them to achieve their biggest goals in life? • Chapter 17 covers how to test your product or service idea . Why not get to success and launch faster? Learn how we integrate the Six Minds into a lean, Agile approach (my apologies to any of the buzz words I may fail to mention) . • Chapter 18 is a summary of sorts . I want to show you how my complany launched some of the top one hundred websites in the world and had the Six Minds in mind as we designed . I also want you to think about how the Six Minds aren’t static . The elements that are most crucial may change over time (e .g ., during the buy- ing process) . • Chapter 19 is forward-thinking . You can’t swing a cat in Silicon Valley lately without having an artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) strategy (no cats were harmed in the writ- ing of this book) . I encourage all of you, especially product owners and technical leads, to take a step back and think about what you are really trying to accomplish . I argue that knowing more about the humans you will be interacting with will increase the likeli- hood that your costly and risky endeavor is a smashing success .

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xviii  |   PREFACE Think about how ML and AI can support humans so they attend to the right information, get fed the right words at the right time, and ultimately make better decisions and solve more problems . Now go! Read on, and with your new knowledge, tools, and skills make the best products and services your customers will ever experience! Conventions Used in This Book The following typographical conventions are used in this book: Italic indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, and file extensions . [ SIDE NOTE ] This element signifies a note or tip. Warning This element signifies a warning. O’Reilly Online Learning For almost 40 years, O’Reilly Media has provided technology and busi- ness training, knowledge, and insight to help companies succeed . Our unique network of experts and innovators share their knowledge and expertise through books, articles, conferences, and our online learning platform . O’Reilly’s online learning platform gives you on-de- mand access to live training courses, in-depth learning paths, interac- tive coding environments, and a vast collection of text and video from O’Reilly and 200+ other publishers . For more information, please visit http://oreilly .com .