Situation

JPL’s UX Research and Design teams were having trouble communicating insights and design ideas to their project teams and product leaders.

Classic management approach to Powerpoint was burying research-based insights and key recommendations. The UX, UI and Research teams were struggling to present ideas effectively.

Task

I collected some data in a few short meetings with the team's leadership - and we studied the challenges of Design and Research teams, and then built new playbooks for various aspects of their presentations.


I prepared a lecture and lab activities for each workshop. We remixed design methods and UX practices with storytelling and strategy frameworks.

The first and biggest problem with the team's presentations: they were making presentations - they weren't planning or designing for conversations.

First key lesson:

The conversation isn’t about the solution idea - it’s about the problem.

Second key lesson:

There’s never just one presentation, if you’re doing it right. Share early and purposefully. Evolve the content and the meeting purpose as you go.

Action

I built and hosted (4) 2-hr workshops.

I prepared a lecture and lab activities for each workshop. We remixed design methods and UX practices with storytelling and strategy frameworks.

The team craved communication strategies. We built a new workshop each week after the previous session - evolving as we went.

We built playbook pages for various kinds of meetings and conversations needed to collaborative design with non-designers.

Visual patterns were matched with “Moment Objectives” - allowing design/research slides to help manage and reward attention.

Results

We continued meeting as needed - running a weekly “show and tell” practice sessions for people who needed to present.

While the over-arching problem of “teams of advanced experts” not speaking the same language wasn’t immediately solved - the UI/UX/Research team at NASA/JPL left the course with the ability to build and care for new insights and product ideas with senators, generals, physicists and engineers.

We continued meeting as needed - running a weekly “show and tell” practice sessions for people who needed to present.

While the over-arching problem of “teams of advanced experts” not speaking the same language wasn’t immediately solved - the UI/UX/Research team at NASA/JPL left the course with the ability to build and care for new insights and product ideas with senators, generals, physicists and engineers.

I re-mastered the content and progressed a number of concepts - ultimately offering the team access to 5 hours of recorded video, worksheets and lessons. This content is housed currently at www.info-play.com.