Use cases go beyond the person’s needs, objectives, and outcomes to include describing how the people and systems involved interact with each other through the flows and engagements that are necessary to achieve the goal.

Use cases are a way of determining what the design requirements should be when delivering a product or service, including mapping these requirements back to user goals and actions, interface behaviours, and organizational needs and objectives.

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Personas are example profiles of customers, based on characteristics identified in user or market research. They help organizations paint pictures of how different characteristics may impact how users experience a product or service by identifying common goals, needs, and behaviours for a given user group.

Personas at their best are the result of user research, including qualitative and quantitative data from talking to and observing users. Organizations use personas to identify the needs of their customers and understand broader user group characteristics.

At their worst, personas are focused on demographic data that implies an average set of customers to target or engage with that does not help improve product or service delivery. It is always best to begin with jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) and use cases to craft an understanding of how customers will engage with your product or service, before considering other aspects of a customer such as demographics.

Implementing personas in the strategy or concept stage of a project can identify gaps and uncover new business opportunities, while personas considerate of intersectional factors can build a rich understanding of the nuance and diversity of a user base.

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This framework is applied in product strategy, service design, and user research to help organizations understand what motivates a person so that the organization may align a product or service to that person’s objective and desired outcome.

In its purest sense, a person will consider an outcome they wish to reach in order to satisfy a need. That is the job-to-be-done. This could be turning on the TV to decompress after a long day. It could be drinking a milkshake while driving to work to feel full enough to get through the morning.

Understanding this foundational need allows an organization to consider alternatives, competitors, and opportunities to fulfill the foundational user need, or JTBD.

In this video, Clayton Christensen talks McDonald’s, milkshakes, and JTBD.

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One example of an OKR would be:

Objective: “Increase the engagement and inclusivity of our internal team structure”

Key result 1: “Employee turnover down 10% over the next two quarters”
Key result 2: “Implement a diversity team and at least 3 events or initiatives to boost inclusion”
Key result 3: “Raise employee engagement ratings by 30% over the next two quarters”

From these larger, big-picture OKRs, your organization can define smaller indicators of success within initiatives using KPIs (key performance indicators).

In a marketing OKR framework, a KPI for a website might be something like “maintain a bounce rate below 70%”, while the key result this would inform is “Hit 100% of each quarter’s goals for closing new business”. There would be a series of KPIs that would inform this key result so that you could both validate how the KPIs impact the key result in order to refine them and check on the KPIs on a more frequent interval to understand how you’re trending toward the larger quarterly goal.

Both OKRs and KPIs are key for setting measurable goals and growth plans in organizations in order to achieve impactful, transformative organizational objectives.

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This type of qualitative data helps teams better understand user behaviour, especially in cases where it isn’t practical to observe users directly. A diary study enables organizations to see how the usage of a product or service varies depending on different contexts and over time.

A public transit user recording when they took public transit, along with their experiences, thoughts, conversations, and differences about each trip over a period of two weeks would be an example of a diary study for a public transit agency.

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For example, an ethnographic study for a research question for a pharmacy would involve observing and speaking to pharmacists in situ at the pharmacy. This kind of unobtrusive approach to research within the natural environment aims to gain genuine data about how someone behaves and direct insight into a process.

This is especially vital in understanding people and processes where it may be impossible or difficult to accurately document, reflect, or draw insight from other, non-observational research methods such as user interviews or surveys.

A complement to an ethnographic study, or a best compromise where this kind of direct observation may not be possible, could be a diary study.

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Evaluative research is key to identifying specific issues with a product or service that is in development or already in market. As such, evaluative research practices typically occur once a product or service is in development, rather than during early exploratory phases.

Research methods used as part of evaluative research include usability testing, A/B testing, and first-click testing, all aimed at gaining insights into participants’ behaviour while using a product or service and on an ongoing basis.

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Through generative research, teams can find ways to innovate from the building blocks of a comprehensive understanding of user pain points, contexts, and potential use cases of a product or service.

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The current state of a service includes everything from the processes in place, to the current customer journey, to the people and other elements operating “behind the scenes” that allow a service to be fulfilled.

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