Jennifer Kumura

I'm thrilled to share that my latest product and design discovery article is live on Mind the Product! As a consultant, I've observed that the term 'Discovery' can have varying interpretations across different teams. It's not uncommon to encounter a team deeply immersed in a solution yet lacking a shared understanding of the customer opportunity they're addressing. At Lab Zero, we meet clients where they are and advocate for discovery while maintaining flexibility. We often employ lightweight methodologies to foster a shared understanding, even when work is already underway. Teresa Torres' book “Continuous Discovery Habits” is a guide to developing the mindset and practices that enable teams to discover and deliver value to their customers throughout the product development process. Her explanation of the 'Opportunity Solution Tree' helped me articulate a process for asking questions and bridging gaps when joining a new team. The first part of this two-part series looks at reversing the 'Opportunity Solution Tree' to establish a connection between the ongoing solution, customer opportunities, and business outcomes. The second part (coming soon!) will explore strategies for identifying gaps in your team's understanding of customer needs and the necessary measures to mitigate risks before launch. This series will help consultants, new team members, or a struggling team connect with that all-important why and launch valuable experiences for their customers and their orgs. Have you tried something like this with your team? Feedback is appreciated! If you haven't explored Mind The Product's extensive content library, I highly recommend it! In addition to articles about discovery and understanding customer needs, the community has shared insightful perspectives on product leadership, business, and teams. It's a great place to see perspectives on processes and theories informed by real-world use.  #ProductDiscovery #Design #Discovery #ContinuousDiscovery #Onboarding #Risk #CustomerOpportunity #Value #BusinessOutcomes

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What makes a story or presentation great? Earlier this year, I sat down with the Stripe design team to share my advice on creating effective presentations and telling engaging stories. Here’s what I shared with the team: 👇 Creating engaging presentations involves two steps: 1️⃣ Building structure 2️⃣ Adding detail -- Step 1️⃣: Building structure -- 🤨 → Start with why–Understand why your presentation exists. What are you trying to achieve? Are you explaining, motivating, or convincing? Who is your audience? ✍️ → Write it out—Writing a script helps you quickly outline possible structures and keeps the focus on the content that best meets your presentation’s purpose. 🎨 → Draw it out—If writing isn’t working, try drawing! Think about key visuals or concepts you want to convey. Sketch those out in logical order. 🔬 → Avoid jumping into detail—Add detail only when your structure can support it. Otherwise, you'll get bogged down in unnecessary content—a common issue for new designers. 📐 → Use a blueprint—If you’re struggling, use familiar story structures like Rags to Riches, Hero’s Journey, or Elevator Pitch. ⚔️ → Define your timelines and tensions—Across any good story are clear timelines and tensions. Ask yourself “what are the key events or moments of tension in my story?” Build off those. -- 2️⃣ Adding detail -- 🖱️ → Keep it simple—Simplicity helps your audience understand your message. And that's the ultimate goal. 🎯 → One thing at a time—Avoid overloading slides with information. Present concepts, images, and data points one at a time to help your audience absorb the material. 🤔 → Fidelity dictates feedback—Use a level of fidelity that reflects the feedback you want. Higher fidelity tends to prompt detailed feedback, while lower fidelity focuses on overall structure and flow. 🧑‍🔬 → Ditch the jargon—Avoid using technical jargon and acronyms without explanation. It can confuse your audience and distract from your message. Meet them at their level of understanding. 🛠️ → Make it real—Use real-world examples to help your audience visualize the context of your presentation. On the other hand, using 'lorem ipsum' in your designs can make it challenging for your audience to provide useful feedback and critique. That's it! I hope these tips help you create and present your work with greater confidence. If you'd like to see the full presentation or share your tips, let me know in the comments below! 👇 #storytelling #design

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If we're not talking about design maturity, agile process, or craft, then us designers are probably talking about ✨quality.✨ I certainly see my interviewer's eyes light up when I mention this magical word. "Design is the one that has to hold the quality bar," I tell them. But what if that didn't have to be true? For a truly high-quality product, I don't think it should be design holding the line. It has to be something baked into the organization - everyone holds the quality bar. Even though "quality" is a slippery thing to define, if we can define it and hold ourselves to it, we can reduce the tension in the org and start to think less about the mere baseline quality for the product and more about raising that bar - delighting the user. I very much enjoyed Luke Anthony Firth's take on how they folded quality into their product building process. Have a read! https://lnkd.in/g4SenmYZ #designleadership #productprocess #productdesign #productquality #designquality #opentowork

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In my latest podcast interview, Greg Petroff shares insights about the state of design and the opportunities open to designers in these dynamic times. Check it out! https://lnkd.in/gTXpQgjn #UxDesign #Ux #Design #Leadership

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Excited to dive deeper into design systems! 🌟 This article breaks down the “parent-child” relationship between design systems and style guides, showing how they work together to keep designs consistent and efficient. A great read for anyone passionate about design! #designsystem #styleguides #uxdesign https://lnkd.in/eUamsNTH

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