"I help organizations understand their users and create better products and great experiences for users.

Bente Steffensen

From user needs to solutions

If you have the task, I will help you and your team to explore, design and prioritize so that you produce and launch the solution that provides the greatest value for your users.

My name is Bente Steffensen, and I can help you understand your users' needs, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems and identify alternative strategies and solutions that may not be the ones you initially considered.

Design thinking gives us tools and innovative processes so that together we can concretize your business needs and specify user needs, so you can create better products and good user experiences.

What can I do for you?

How do you get from problem to launch?

No matter where you are in the process, I will put in where your needs are. Maybe you need to map user journeys, do user tests or evaluate an existing solution. Or you are in the process of designing a new solution, and are in doubt about how to describe and prioritize user stories, so that you initiate what creates the most value for your users.

Research

There is an infinite amount of information on all topics, but a targeted desk research is always a good starting point for any design process. Let me explore your problem and find the information that can make us wiser.

Workshops

I facilitate workshops and design sprints that can help clarify the task or create new ideas. It may also be that there is a need to prioritize the tasks in relation to value for business and users in relation to complexity and costs.

User test

User testing can in a short time provide valuable insight into your users' challenges and needs. I conduct both qualitative and quantitative user tests at the concept level for clickable prototypes. User tests are adapted exactly to what you need to investigate further.

Prototyping

With wireframes, flows, mockups and interactive prototypes, we create a common understanding of the solution. Prototyping allows you to test, further develop and evaluate ideas, features and designs before investing time and money in development.

My work process

Based on Design thinking, I work with a user-centered approach, with a focus on solving users' "problems".

The method is quick and easy and can be integrated into the vast majority of processes in all types of organizations that want to specify business needs and specify user needs.

The dynamic development process consists of 6 phases, where we work through the phases in an iterative process. In this way, we ensure that the necessary priorities and adjustments are made on an ongoing basis, without it having significant costs for the organization.

Join me on a journey through the different phases, and gain more knowledge about how we can together create better products and good user experiences.

Clarify

Reconcile and specify what value should the solution create and for whom?

What do we want to achieve? What concrete difference is there between before and after? Expectation reconciliation with client / steering group / management on framework for the task, roles, responsibilities and time.

How can we clarify what we are working on next?

We will always have an initial task clarification, to find out what the problem is and what the focus for the further work should be. To become wiser about the problem, we can hold a Lean ux canvas workshop or work with Business model canvas, prioritization matrix and goal hierarchy.

Explore

Explore the problem, with the help of experts 'and users' knowledge of needs and expectations. How have others tried to solve the same problem?

How can we gain insight into users' needs?

Desk research is a great place to start, we can get far with the help of Google. Expert interviews can qualify our knowledge and sharpen the problem. Observations by users in their daily work can provide new knowledge and identify specific needs. Maybe there is some business analysis (BA / BI) or experience from the support that can point us in the direction of what we need to investigate further.

Design

Develop ideas and visualize how the problem can be solved and thus meet the identified needs. Combine, expand and refine ideas. Hold workshops, get creative and create as many ideas as possible.

How can we find solutions?

Holding a design sprint is a classic way of working with idea and concept development. If time and resources are limited, we can work with the sub-elements that will give us the most knowledge, eg user journeys, wireframes, mock-ups, prototypes, thinking aloud testing, user insights via data analysis and online testing.

Produce

Development of a prototype or product that solves the business need.

How and where is the solution implemented? Plan, prioritize user stories in backlog, function test during implementation.

How do we hand over the solution to development?

User journeys, interaction, design elements and components are described and designed so that the developers have a visual presentation of what is to be implemented. At the same time, a backlog is built up for prioritization and planning of the development of the individual functionalities and sub-elements.

It is an advantage if the backend and frontend developers can be involved in the design phase, to specify where and how the solution can be implemented. Regardless, it is necessary to continuously prioritize and adapt when development of the solution is initiated.

Communicate

Introduce and launch the solution for users.

How do we communicate about the solution and to whom? Dissemination of value propositions via news, social media, cases, webinars, conferences.

How do we communicate the solution to users?

We should make a plan for the communication early in the process, so we know to whom, where and when to communicate. An important part of the communication is also to document the product or solution, there is control of product sheets, metadata and instructions.

A significant part of the communication also takes place in the solution via information, help texts, naming, use of technical terms and "tone of voice". Every place where the language is used can affect how users experience, perceive and understand the organization's message and brand. But language is also crucial to the ease of use of the solution.

Evaluate

Collect feedback from the target groups through tests and analyzes. Evaluate solution ideas and their use value with the target groups and stakeholders.

What works and what does not work, measure success and consider improvements. Choose, conclude, prioritize and decide. What is the smallest possible version of the solution that will provide value for the users?

How do we evaluate the solution?

Every time we test a prototype or launch a new solution, we evaluate the experiences with the process and the solution. User testing always ends with one or more KPIs as a common reference:

Effort (how easy is the solution to use)
Trust (can the solution be recommended to others)
Value (gives the solution value for the user)

Selected cases

The work I do...

Is you answer yes to one or more of the questions below?

Do you want to,

get to know your users better?
involve your users more in the development of your solutions, but do not know how?
try out new concepts and solutions (no-code), without spending IT developer hours?
have a better link between business and development?
have that your solution was more user-friendly?

... then let's have a talk, maybe I can help.

If you want to hear more, please feel free to contact me.

Send e-mail: gis.bente@gmail.com

Call me: +456140 7173