UX Strategy for Driver-Assist Feature
Client:
ZEEKR/ CEVT
Industry:
Electric cars
Workshop for clarity
At one point in the development process, the team, including managers and myself, lacked clarity about our objectives and end goals. I voiced this concern, which everyone shared, and led a workshop where the team could raise questions, thoughts, and suggestions. After organizing and analyzing the input, we concluded that we needed a clear vision and a product roadmap to move forward.
Vision
Our product includes multiple innovative features, but the workshop made it clear that we needed to focus on just one feature. It also revealed that even this feature should be developed in clear, staged phases.
Defining the development of a product
It was important for us to define the approach for developing our product. For that, it is necessary to define how we are going to build individual features that make up the product. Defining a product feature block in terms of Aarron Walter's hierarchy of user needs made the most sense to us.
Instead of dividing the product horizontally by features, I proposed a vertical division, as shown above. This approach ensures that each feature is developed as a complete slice - technically and in terms of UX, so it becomes fully functional, reliable, usable, and enjoyable on its own.
Approach: Sequential Back-Casting
To support this development, I worked closely with the Product Manager to create a Feature Roadmap. We first defined the long-term vision for the feature and the target release year, then used backcasting to map the path from that future state to the present. We divided the development into four stages, with each stage achieving a specific UX improvement, technical milestone, or both.
We further divided each stage into Development Modules. We identified what the Functional, Reliable, Usable, and Enjoyable components of each Module are. This was done both from a UX and Technical perspective.
Results
The UX strategy and the Product Roadmap were well appreciated within the team as well as in the larger design team. The project however got scrapped because of management decisions and budgeting.
Highlights
The initial thought of doing the workshop was a turning point in our project.
Challenges
Creating the product roadmap needed a lot of discussions with the team, dealing with many uncertainties.
Learnings
It is always important to raise concerns and question what we are doing. Sometimes that could lead to a much better & well-defined product.
