Finding the Story 🕵️♂️
Before jumping into solutions, my first phase is simple: talk to users. I dive deep into their world - through interviews and observations - to uncover their biggest pain points, frustrations, and unmet needs. I make insights memorable (and actually fun), by transforming interviews into 'Popcorn Time' - A complete 'movie' with real quotes, visuals, and a narrative that brings user pain points to life. We simply grab some popcorn, dim the lights, and hit play on the big screen.
By watching these stories on the big screen, the entire team - designers, developers, customer support and product managers - can step into the users' shoes and empathise. It’s engaging, immersive, and way more effective than a dry research report.
Plus, who doesn’t love an excuse for popcorn?
Popcorn Time ensures that everyone (not just UX) internalises the challenges users face, so our solutions aren’t just based on assumptions, but on real human experiences.
Defining the Problems 🎯
With the user stories fresh in everyone’s mind, it’s time to shift gears from discovery to definition.
My next step is to dig into the problems and prioritise what really matters.
In a hands-on 'Prioritisation Sprint', I map out the most pressing challenges and run a series of activities such as Impact vs Effort Matrix, Timeboxing, Pain & Gain Graphs, Newspaper Headlining and Fix it, Build it, Park it to separate nice-to-fix from need-to-fix.
By the end of this sprint, we have a clear roadmap for action and a shared understanding of what’s worth solving first. This ensures that when we move into design, we’re tackling real, high-value problems, not just guessing what might work.
All-Hands-On-Deck Design Sprint 🚀
With our top priority locked in - I run relentless interviews, focus groups and observation sessions, uncovering every frustration, inefficiency, and hidden nuance, this time focused on a specific problem. I bring this to Popcorn Time so the team can truly feel the pain - then we roll up our sleeves and design.
I plan a high-energy, multi-disciplinary Design Sprint where we tear, rebuild, and test solutions through Affinity Mapping, Assumption Busting, The Worst Idea Ever (Creative Chaos Mode), User Journey Mapping, Story Mapping, Crazy 8s, Lightning Idea Rounds, Solution Funnelling, Impact-Effort Matrix, Sketches, Card Sorting and Low-Fidelity Wireframes & Prototypes.
Competitive Analysis 🔍
Why reinvent the wheel when we can fine-tune the ride?
And yes, I do enjoy a free demo and good conversation from a competitors Customer Success team.
Test It Till It Breaks 🔨
After a full-throttle design sprint, we don’t just assume we’ve nailed it - I put our prototypes through the wringer. This phase is about testing, breaking, refining, and testing again, ensuring what we build is not just intuitive, but practical in the real world.
At this stage, I care more about user reactions than pixel perfection. I run Usability Tests, Think-Aloud Sessions, Task-Based Challenges, Reverse Testing, Observation-Only Testing, Red Pen Reviews and try to find all the ways a user can break things so we fix them before launch. If users struggle, I don’t defend my designs, I fix them.
Once our ideas prove their worth, it’s time to make things a bit more real. I polish designs into high-fidelity interactive prototypes, refining every detail, and throw them back into the testing pool to see how they hold up.
Building & Beta Testing 🏗️
This phase is all about tight collaboration with developers to ensure every interaction, every micro-animation, and every detail works exactly as intended.
Before we go all-in on a full launch, I run a Beta Test Gauntlet and Data Track. We 'soft launch' with real users through A/B Tests, Click-Tracking, Heat Mapping, Edge Case Hunting, Performance Monitoring, Bug Searching, Task Completion Rating, Time on Task Tests and Likert Scale Surveys. Through data, I fine-tune, polish, and refine until I'm absolutely confident that what we’ve built is ready for take off.
Launch! and Brace for Impact 💥
No matter how much we prepare, there’s always something unexpected, an edge case we didn’t anticipate, a workflow we thought was intuitive but needs tweaking... Launch isn’t the end of the process, it’s the beginning of continuous learning and refinement. Real user feedback and data helps us fine-tune, optimise, and ensure we’re delivering something that not only works, but truly improves digital experiences.
Power to the Problems!
