Jeffrey A. Melton said
If you're not already familiar with design thinking and research, this is a great intro to empathy-driven design and developing an experience strategy for your products/services. Even if you are, it's still a good refresher--though it doesn't offer a lot of depth or insight into Adaptive Path's unique approach. Recommended.
Regnard Raquedan said
I just finished reading Subject to Change (yeah, I just put the book down) and I think it's a great and easy read on experience design and innovation.
I'm convinced the folks at Adaptive Path sure know what they're talking about because they were able to write a book that's less than 170 pages and be able to provide very good and conscise insights on customer/user research, agile methods, strategy and experience design.
The authors submit that qualitative data and research is as important as the quantitative methods (e.g. usability testing & evaluation versus interviews and observation). My key takeaway is really the importance of context for you and your customer when developing new services, interfaces and customer touch points.
The book does cite a lot of Adaptive Path's experience in dealing with companies and it highlights how they were able to help them to be more customer-centric and adopt a design culture. I wish there were more specific examples on how they went about in doing customer research and implementing design strategies. The authors are able to make the topics "industry agnostic" and work even if you're not in the IT field.
Subject to Change reads very much like a blog because there are very short sections and chapters, but that makes it easy to put the book down when you want to reflect on the points the authors are raising.
Glenn said
I got this book about product marketing because I wanted to gain insight on the marketing of my own product http://www.code-roller.com so I was a little frustrated by the overall direction and focus of the book which is to motivate the reader into hiring Adaptive Path. All four authors either currently work for or have recently worked for that marketing company. According to the on-line edition of the book, there are twenty eight references to Adaptive Path in the content.
While light on theory, the book does give good advice. This advice is mostly in the form of what not to do. This most probably reflects Adaptive Path's pain points in earlier engagements with customers. Don't use competition as your main driver. Don't depend on novelty. Don't get stuck on research or reporting. Don't get stuck on product design. Don't over-engineer. Don't get too confident about what you think your customers want.
If there is only one important take away from this book, then I believe that it would be this. It's all about the user experience. What you should be focusing your design efforts on is the user experience. What you should be focusing your strategy on is the user experience. The only thing you do that your customers care about is their experience of your product or service.
They heavily advocate using an Agile methodology. They agree with early prototyping, failing fast, and continuous customer involvement. They are lukewarm on the SPARC model.
Clay S. Fernald said
'Subject to Change' is a valuable addition to the modern business person's bookshelf. I should note that this would be an especially great tool for marketers and publicists, research and development teams, as well as application developers.
The Adaptive Path team took a fungible approach to writing this book, as an organization that is interested in anticipation of the ever-changing needs of the expectations of their customers.
In the late Nineteenth century, inventions and innovations were largely based on new advances in technology available at the time. The kludgy inconvenience of these early technologies were simply 'part of the experience.' This book sites Eastman's Kodak Camera as perhaps the first example of a company having the foresight to anticipate a customer's needs. Until then, photographers were hobbyists, scientists, and tech geeks of the age. Eastman's brilliant vision of making technology more accessible to the rest of the populous with the philosophy of "You press the button, and we do the rest," was a great bridge between the customers who wanted to take photos and a company that could provide a service. That service being the development of the film, processing the plates, and mailing the finished photos to the customer.
The book uses this model to encourage shifting our traditional business mindset to anticipate our customer's needs while developing software, hardware, or other devises. By empathizing with the target audience, and my making yourself a part of the audience yourself, you may wish to create an experience for your users that has the potential to seamlessly integrate with their lives. When marketers or designers use the traditional mode--that people are sheep--without valuing the feedback of the audience, innovation will grind to a halt. I emphatically agree with the Adaptive Path on this theme. As a publicist, I value customer feedback as much as I value my own creative ideas.
Another great specimen, and perhaps a more modern one, is the iPod/iTunes Music store. The mp3 player was already invented, but Steve Jobs created the experience of browsing music and buying music for the device, anticipating the customer's needs. One could also argue that the iPhone is also the product of this school of thought, combining the need for a cell phone with the music player experience, all in one well designed device.
I have a niece with juvenile diabetes, and this book gave me a peek into the development of something that she uses every day to enjoy a happy life. There is a relatively new medical product developed called an insulin pump. I can testify that she is much happier using this pump than her previous regiment of daily shots. When developing this pump, diabetics tested a mock-up of the device, and offered feedback as to what would work for them. The developers of the pump changed the design of the belt used while swimming or in the shower, as well as other practical concerns. A side-note is that I was reading this section of the book while my nieces were happily making sandcastles and going in and out of the water! Without the user input, the device might be uncomfortable and unwieldy and certainly not easy to wear at the beach. This reminds me that the first undergarments for women were made by men, but the true innovations in practicality and comfort came when women started designing them!
In conclusion, this is a great book and I have started personally to rethink the feedback I am getting from my customers to be more empathetic. Empathizing with a person's needs in the present and the future will prove to be a better model to provide easy to use, and enriching technologies, customer service solutions, and ingenuity.
Grant Bissett said
In an accessible tone, Subject to Change articulates what should now be taken for granted in product design: that products designed around real peoples' needs and desires will win over those engineered to meet theoretical expectations. Using Adaptive Path's experience as examples (and perhaps emphasising the consultancy's achievements more often than necessary), the authors make an easily-digestible case for implementing an experience design strategy in favour of blindly over-engineering complex products.
The book suggests that engineering-led product optimization improves but doesn't innovate. On the other hand, placing real customers at the center of the design process is shown as a shortcut to delivering more relevant, useful and successful products.
Adaptive Path are arguably thought leaders in this space, and the style of writing here shows their desire to advertise the company's experience. The reader is perhaps reminded too often that the successes in the examples given were due to Adaptive Path's involvement, and that adopting their processes in particular can help any product designer. This doesn't add credibility to the case studies, because someone buying an Adaptive Path book is likely to already be satisfied with the authors' credentials before reading.
Subject to Change will resonate well with designers of all disciplines, but it's perhaps other departments that would benefit the most by considering the adoption of an experience-led strategy. There may not be a great deal of new thought contained here, but as an easy-to-read introduction to the merits of customer-focussed design, Subject to Change would be a useful addition to an engineer's or product manager's bookshelf.
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