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Lean UX workshop - BMO Financial Group

Framing the problem

The project began with a clear challenge: the IVR roadmap lacked alignment. We needed to understand the business problems, surface user needs, and decide which ideas were worth pursuing.

Approach

I facilitated a Lean UX workshop with 10 participants and  2-4 hours, mapping assumptions into hypotheses and prioritizing solutions.

  • 3 ship-and-measure solutions ready for delivery

  • 6 discovery opportunities identified for validation

  • Recommendations included:

    • Creating stories for hypotheses that were ready to ship

    • Updating the phase 0 roadmap to explore whether certain hypotheses still made sense through discovery

Outcome

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1. Business Problem

What problem does the business problem have that you're trying to solve? (Hint: consider your current product/service and how they deliver value etc.)

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1b. Business Problem
How did we discover this problem/need? Sort problems into categories: Assumption, I heard it somewhere, We have some data that suggests it, We have evidence to support it 

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2. Business Outcomes
How will you know you have solved the problem? What will you measure (e.g., 75% fewer calls)?

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3. Users & Customers
What types of users and customers should you focus on first (i.e., who uses this product or service)? 

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4. User Benefits
Why would your users seek out your product/service? What benefit would they gain from using it? What behaviour change can we observe that tells us they've achieved their goals (e.g., complete transaction)?

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5. Solution Ideas

List product, feature, capabilities, or enhancement ideas that help your target users achieve benefits. Some things to consider:

  • does this pertain to all products in IVR? 

  • are there things we can do before this point in terms of transaction support?

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6. Assumptions & Hypothesis
Create a hypothesis statement for each solution idea following this template:

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We believe that <business outcome from segment 2> will be achieved if <user from segment 3> attains <benefit from segment 4> with <solution idea from segment 5>

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6b. Hypothesis Prioritization
Map your hypothesis to this grid: Ship & Measure, Test, Don't Test & Maybe/Maybe Not Do (low value, low risk), Discard

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7. Most Important Thing We Need to Learn First

For each hypothesis from Box 6, identify the most critical assumptions. This is the assumption that will cause the idea to fail if it's wrong. (Hint: In the early stages of a hypothesis, focus on risks to value rather than feasibility.)

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8. What's the Least Amount of Work Required to Learn the Most Important Thing?

Design experiments to learn as fast as you can whether your assumption is true/false.

Experiments: user testing, customer interviews, prototypes etc.
 

Next step: run with the tests and evaluate whether hypothesis still makes sense. 

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Retrospective

What worked

  • Strong facilitation kept the group engaged

  • Prompts guided participants to think broadly

  • Participants provided useful input and discussion

  • Supplemental note-taking captured valuable details


Challenges

  • The concept of “transaction guidance” wasn’t clear to participants

  • Some solutions reflected existing biases rather than fresh ideas

  • Limited time constrained exploration

  • Differentiating business vs. user problems proved difficult


Opportunities

  • Start sessions with more meaningful context-setting

  • Research participants’ perspectives in advance to better tailor prompts

  • Involve technical stakeholders at the right stage

  • Strengthen facilitation prep with clearer framing for the group

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