Jaime Levy - UX Strategy: How to Devise Innovative Digital Products that People Want

Beijing Cambridge Farnham Kln Sebastopol Tokyo

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When I was 21 years old and taking the train into Manhattan from Brooklyn to fix laser printers and dream of a career in multimedia, I would read about Jaime Levys work hoping that one day I would get to meet her.

In the early 90s, we didnt have the Web, but we did have bulletin board systems (BBS), and new media was evolving fast. Computers had just begun offering built-in modems and CD-ROM drives, but we were a couple of years away from web browsers and broadband.

Jaime got to the digital revolution before all of us, having made a floppy-disk magazine series from 1990 to 1992 WIRED debuted its print magazine in 1993. That same year, she did this crazy interactive press kit for Billy Idol that he distributed with his album Cyberpunk .

At that time, I started a zine called CyberSurfer , my screenname online, and published five issues. The folks at PAPER Magazine gave me a gig writing a column for them called CyberSurfers Sillycon Alley, and I would cover Jaimes work often primarily because she was the only person actually doing work!

She never got rich, but she made great art and followed her vision of what the interactive world should be. In fact, she turned down her chance at being a billionaire as the third co-founder of Razorfish.

In 1996, I hosted a pitching contest called Ready, Set... Pitch! at Josh Harris famous loft for Pseudo.com. Jaime pitched Electronic Hollywood, a studio that would make cartoons and interactive experiences for the Web.

She saw casual games and YouTube a decade before they hit, and before anyone used the terms UX and IA, she was teaching all of us about experience and flows.

Ive been lucky enough to build or invest in over 100 Internet businesses, from Uber to Engadget, and I can tell you that if you want to build a product that changes the world, the first place you should begin is where you are right now in Jaimes hands.

Listen and consider what she says in this book deeply. This is the missing manual for the Lean Startup and Lean UX techniques that youve always wanted.

Nondesigners especially should continue reading, because Jaime takes the time to explain the oftentimes intimidating jargon and processes that designers throw around, effortlessly and clearly for you, the reader.

Late one night, when we were kids in our 20s dreaming about the Internet and what it might become and how to be successful with it, Jaime explained it to me concisely: Its all about the experience.

There is not better advice for building product, or living your life. Its all about the experience.

JASON MCCABE CALACANIS

APRIL 2015

S TRATEGY IS ABOUT CONNECTING THE DOTS . I T REQUIRES YOU TO LOOK at whats happened in the past and whats going on in the present to make better guesses about the future. People who do strategy need to be inquisitive, objective, and fearless. They need to be risk takers who stalk and kill their prey by going for the throat.

User experience (UX) strategy lies at the intersection of UX design and business strategy. It is a practice that, when done empirically, provides a much better chance of a successful digital product than just crossing your fingers, designing some wireframes, and then writing a bunch of code.

This book presents a solid framework on the practice of UX strategy. It is geared specifically for crafting innovative products and takes you through numerous lightweight techniques that you can use regardless of your work environment. The basic principles of business strategy do not need to be a mystery requiring somebody with an MBA to understand. Strategy, just like design, is something that you can master only by practicing it.