The goal of Lean UX is to answer how to fit design into the product development process along with Customer Development and Lean Startup practices. Here are my top 3 takeaways after participating in the 2 days of awesome known as the Lean User Experience Intensive (LUXi).

Do UX like the pro’s
There’s a world of difference between reading about UX techniques (sketching, personas, scenarios, etc.) and doing it. The workshop provided the guidance and opportunity to learn some of these techniques. The value of learning and applying these techniques with UX pro’s cannot be underestimated. Whether you’re flying solo or part of a larger team, your product will be better with these techniques at your disposal.

Divide and conquer
Sometimes design can seem like an intractable mountain when you’re trying to accommodate all the wonderful ways you imagined your product can be used. Get the ideas out of your head and externalize it into useful and actionable items. Intractable problems become a lot more tractable when you can divide them into smaller ones.

Make it Lean
Lean systems are about reducing waste, which is defined as any effort that does not contribute to the product efficiently. All design incorporates a set of hypotheses that we believe to be true. Invalid hypotheses is wasteful as it leads to redesign or failure in the market. Lean UX encourages you to identify your hypothesis and opportunities to validate them with a handy mantra: Think. Make. Check.

The workshop has opened my eyes to new ways to incorporate design into product development. If you care about creating great products, then you should keep an eye on Lean UX. Big thanks to Janice Fraser (@clevergirl) and Tim McCoy (@seriouslynow) for hosting the workshop.