UX for Lean Startups

Laura Klein has spent 15 years as an engineer and designer. Her goal is to help lean startups learn more about their customers so that they can build better products faster. Her popular design blog, Users Know, teaches product owners exactly what they need to know to do just enough research and design.

Validation
Chapter 1 Early Validation
A Market, a Problem, and a Product Walk into a Bar
Some Tools for Early Validation
Early Validation Isn’t the End
Loosely Related Rant: Pain-Driven Design
Go Do This Now!
Chapter 2 The Right Sort of Research at the Right Time
Competitor Testing
Five-Second Tests
Clickable Prototype Testing
Guerilla User Tests
Loosely Related Rant: Shut the Hell Up and Other Tips for Getting Feedback
Go Do This Now!
Chapter 3 Faster User Research
Iterate! Iterate! Iterate!
Stay in the Building
Unmoderated Testing
When to Survey
Loosely Related Rant: Stupid Reasons for Not Doing Research
Go Do This Now!
Chapter 4 Qualitative Research Is Great...Except When It’s Terrible
A One-Variable Change
A Multivariable or Flow Change
Deciding What to Build Next
Loosely Related Rant: If You Build It, Will They Buy It?
Go Do This Now!
Design
Chapter 5 Designing for Validation
Tool 1: Truly Understand the Problem
Tool 2: Design the Test First
Tool 3: Write Some Stories
Tool 4: Talk About Possible Solutions with the Team
Tool 5: Make a Decision
Tool 6: (In)Validate the Approach
Tool 7: Sketch a Few Approaches
Tool 8: Create Interactive Prototypes
Tool 9: Test and Iterate
Loosely Related Rant: Give the Users What They Really Want
Go Do This Now!
Chapter 6 Just Enough Design
Design the Necessary, Not the Neat
Here’s Another Example
Build a Feature Stub
Build a Wizard of Oz Feature
Solve Only the Important Problems
Loosely Related Rant: Stop Worrying About the Cup Holders
Go Do This Now!
Chapter 7 Design Hacks
Design Patterns
Competitive Research
User Testing the Competition
Consistency
Frameworks
There’s Probably a Plug-in for That
Don’t Design It at All
Getting Some Professional Help
Loosely Related Rant: The Art of the UX Steal
The Right Way to Steal
Go Do This Now!
Chapter 8 Diagrams, Sketches, Wireframes, and Prototypes
Why Diagram?
When Do You Sketch?
What’s a Wireframe, and Why Do You Care?
Do You Have to Make an Interactive Prototype?
So Which Should You Build?
Loosely Related Rant: Why I Hate Paper Prototypes
Go Do This Now!
Chapter 9 An MVP Is Both M & V
The Landing Page
The First Iteration
Loosely Related Rant: Limited Products versus Crappy Products
Go Do This Now!
Chapter 10 The Right Amount of Visual Design
Why Is Visual Design Important in UX?
Loosely Related Rant: The Best Visual Design in the World
Go Do This Now!
Product
Chapter 11 Measure It!
What Does Measuring Design Entail, Anyway?
Several Stupid Reasons for Not A/B Testing (and a Couple of Good Ones)
When to A/B Test and When to Research
What A/B Testing Does Well
What Qualitative Testing Does Well
How Do They Work Together?
Which Metrics Equal Happy Users
Loosely Related Rant: Stupid Mistakes People Make When Analyzing Data
Go Do This Now!
Chapter 12 Go Faster!
Work as a Cross-Functional Team
Combine Product and UX Roles
Avoid Engineering When Possible
Loosely Related Rant: Ship It Already! Just Not to Everyone at Once
Go Do This Now!
Chapter 13 The Big Finish
Appendix About the Author