User Needs Mapping by Rich Allen
- 1 minI took some time out of the office today, releshing the opportunity to read a good book in the sunshine.
And it’s almost as good as the view!
User needs are difficult to pin down, whether the individual is internal or external to the business. Sometimes they’re masked by complexity. Sometimes they’re hidden behind user pains. And sometimes. . . just sometimes. . . no one actually knows what they need. . . only what they want.
All combined, they result in unaligned goals across a team/org, ill defined boundaries and responsibilities, and confusion between internal needs and the actual needs of the end user. (Developer experience is important. Honest boss!)
Thankfully, Rich Allen is here to save the day!
In User Needs Mapping, Rich draws from multiple Agile-esque processes to distill the core of User Needs Mapping. It gives you the language to talk about the issues to be solved with clients and the team around you, and breaks down the process step by step with really good illustrations to support the text.
My favourite thing about this book is the examples. They’re as deep as they need to be, exceptionally well written, and not the usual. After reading a few books of this ilk, it’s nice to not see the same examples being regurgitated in an effort to draw new insights.
Highly recommended 👍
If User Needs Mapping is something you’ve been meaning to look deeper at, pick up a copy of this book and learn EVERYTHING you need to know to do the job.
Originally featured on LinkedIn.