Here at Furthermore we've been huge proponents of the hypotheses driven design methodology for a long time now. We've used hypotheses driven design collaboratively with our clients to deliver on multiple projects, always with great success. Using this framework has allowed us to have an evidence based design approach that's easy to deliver collaboratively and allows all stakeholders to come along on the journey with us.

If you're not familiar with hypotheses driven design our very own Steve Johnson has written an excellent Introduction to Hypothesis Driven Design.

Over the years that we've been using this approach we've refined how we implement it when working with clients. One of the new tools we've developed is the hypothesis driven design Canvas. This structured document allows us to introduce the core ideas of hypothesis driven design and lay a solid foundation for the start of a project by starting to form hypotheses collaboratively with the team.

Download the Furthermore Hypothesis Driven Design Canvas

Our hypothesis driven design canvas has four sections...

The hypotheses: To document the hypotheses we use the format We believe that..., So if we..., Then we will see.... These three sentences are a great way to detail your informed guess about a user behaviour. We've found this structure to be simple to understand and easy to talk around for all stakeholders. 

The experiment: In this section we imagine and document an experiment that could be used to prove or disprove the hypotheses. When we the canvas with clients we focus on creating experiments that are low effort to run whilst still returning concrete results. 

Why: Here we detail the reasons that led us to form the hypotheses. In this section we would add any research, data, or previous experience that sparked the hypotheses 

Measures of success: What would be the positive outcomes for our customers if the hypotheses is validated? 

Our preferred way to use the canvas is to run a collaborative workshop in which we fill in large print-outs of the canvas with our client. Working physically like this makes collaboration easier and the immediacy of doing the work together at the same time allows people to be spontaneous with their ideas.

Putting it into practice

We had the opportunity to present our hypothesis driven design canvas to other UX professionals at the recent UX live conference. We led a workshop introducing the concepts and then ran an exercise using the canvas. The participants responded well to the experience and we left with some great ideas to incorporate into our future workshops. We got a lot of great feedback for everyone how attended and we've updated the way we deliver the canvas workshop. 

Using the canvas has been a massively positive experience within our hypothesis driven design practice. We found that having a structured document we can work through with clients makes the whole concept and the process clear for everyone and can get all of the stakeholders involved and invested right from the start of a project.

We're always excited to talk about hypothesis driven design so if you'd like to hear more about how this approach can benefit your business then please get in contact.

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