Really, Really Rapid Prototyping: Flash Builds and User-Driven Innovation - NFAIS 2015
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The document outlines the rapid prototyping methods employed by JSTOR Labs to foster user-driven innovation, focusing on flash builds for validating new ideas. It presents case studies, including JSTOR Snap and a partnership with Folger Shakespeare Library, to illustrate the implementation of these methods. Key ingredients for success include a diverse team, flexible technology, user research skills, and early user engagement.
Really, Really Rapid Prototyping: Flash Builds and User-Driven Innovation - NFAIS 2015
- 1. REALLY, REALLY RAPID PROTOTYPING: FLASH BUILDS & USER-DRIVEN INNOVATION February 23, 2015 Alex Humphreys, JSTOR Labs @abhumphreys NFAIS Annual Conference 2015
- 2. JSTOR is a not-for-profit digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources. Ithaka S+R is a not-for-profit research and consulting service that helps academic, cultural, and publishing communities thrive in the digital environment. Portico is a not-for-profit preservation service for digital publications, including electronic journals, books, and historical collections. ITHAKA is a not-for-profit organization that helps the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways.
- 3. A new-ish team at ITHAKA Mission: to seek out new concepts and opportunities, to refine and to validate them through research and experimentation. Among our methods: Flash Builds* (or a version of them) * We first heard of Flash Builds from Marty Cagan, describing the work of the Nordstrom Innovation Lab.
- 4. CASE STUDY #1: JSTOR SNAP
- 5. ONE WEEK IN ANN ARBOR… https://vimeo.com/120185616
- 8. PARTNERSHIP W/ FOLGER Folger Shakespeare Library • Folger Digital Texts • Shakespeare Quarterly • Scholars and students Objective: demonstrate the value of Folger Digital Texts to scholars and students and demonstrate how it can be cross-referenced with Shakespeare Quarterly. JSTOR • The full archive run of SQ • 2000+ other journals • A newly-formed Labs team Objective: validate the value of using a primary text as a portal into secondary literature.
- 10. THE INGREDIENTS
- 11. • A diverse team with technical, design and business skills • The best products combine technical, design and business innovations toward a single goal • Barest expression of that goal = Minimum Viable Product (MVP) INGREDIENTS A TEAM Biz Image source: http://uxtraordinary.com/venn-pie-agram/
- 12. • Flexible technology that allows for componentization, and continuous deployment • Ability to produce, present, augment and query content in a variety of manners (aka data science) • A safe-space to fail, either through a Labs team, an A/B test or in-person testing • Comfort with uncertainty • The time to dedicate to the work – eliminate distractions; timed works INGREDIENTS A SPACE TO INNOVATE CulturalTechnical
- 13. • The ability to show work to users early and often, with the whole team present. • User-research skills and experience: - Listening deeply - Having multiple tools, fit for purpose - Knowing what can and can’t be learned from a user • Hypothesis-creation skills and the discipline to know what you’re trying to learn when INGREDIENTS USERS
- 14. • Seeing through a user’s eyes, you see the ecosystem in which your product operates • That helps show opportunities / challenges that can’t easily be met • Partners can help to fill those gaps • Our best partnerships have been open, exploratory collaborations INGREDIENTS A PARTNER
- 16. THANK YOU Alex Humphreys AVP, JSTOR Labs ITHAKA http://labs.jstor.org @abhumphreys alex.humphreys@ithaka.org Further Reading • Lean Startup, Eric Ries • Marty Cagan’s Blog: http://svpg.com/articles/ • UX for Lean Startups, Laura Klein • Lean Analytics, Croll & Yoskovitz
- 17. APPENDIX
Editor's Notes
- #10: demo
- #12: Labs is dedicated to innovation so is a bit special, but all JSTOR teams work like this. Innovations aren’t limited to labs team. Small team. Conversations supported by slack, other tools for collaboration
- #13: JSTOR is in the midst of a platform switch to increase our flexibility. We release over a hundred times every week. Can release “small” – a/b tests, or targeted rollouts. If your platform is just a production machine focused on your own workflow, it won’t work. Comfort with uncertainty. Mobile devices.
- #14: No user-proxies allowed (e.g. sales).
- #15: Labs is always looking for partners – see me afterward if you’re interested