So what is a ‘high value scenario’ anyways?
Posted by Paul Giurata
I was recently asked an interesting question from a prospective new client. They wanted to know how we could successfully design mission critical software across such a tremendously diverse range of applications - from detecting cancer cells, to completing bond trades to, to generating payroll to notifying college students of emergencies. The answer is deceptively simple - we focus on what we call “high value scenarios” and systematic user validation.
In previous posts I’ve written about about high value scenarios as a key component to profitable SaaS application design. Working with high value scenarios not only minimizes time to market, it also helps to manage risk and maximize business value. So what do I mean with the term “high value scenarios”?
From 1000’s of use cases, there are typically less than 10 key user scenarios
High value scenarios are the primary centers of mission critical activity within a software application. They represent the core value that the software offers to the user and to the organization. While most applications are based on hundreds or even thousands of use cases, there are typically less than ten key user scenarios, from which users gain the most value.
Identifying “Get Cash” as a high value scenario at the ATM seems obvious. But such easy identification is not always the case. It is certainly not usual for an organization to be unaware of their own high value scenarios. Organizations are pulled in multiple and often competing directions by IT, marketing, sales, and upper management. This makes it challenging to objectively distinguish between high value scenarios and departmental feature wish lists.
So how do you identify high value scenarios?
Discover, optimize, & re-validate
We follow a formal and systematic approach to identify high value scenarios by working with real users, studying their use context, objectives, and how they carry out tasks. Our initial focus is to identify high value scenarios and validate these with users. Then we define a work flow and optimize the experience for that scenario. Finally we re-validate the optimized application design for that scenario.
For example, for a recently completed trading application, we modeled the core experience around submitting the “trade ticket”. Users understood and were focused on this time-sensitive activity. All of the other services could then be “tucked” in and made accessible around this principal high value scenario.
High value scenarios and systematic user validation can be applied with equal efficacy across any industry, for any particular application. The benefit to the organization is actionable information that can be used to make better business decisions in both product development & marketing. The benefit to the user is that the application becomes inherently engaging and tuned for the real work.