After you have listened to all the aforementioned stakeholders the following two hardest steps are ahead: 1) Synthesize all that input into something really remarkable, feasible to implement and affordable for customers. 2) Communicate that synthesis to stakeholders and team in order to go for it.

There are (at least) two major views of this.  Design-driven organizations would likely agree with Alfaro, perhaps with the added input and agreement of a design team (artists and interaction designers) on the front side to craft the behavior of the desired product.  Others that take a more “agile” approach may guide the product owner to focus on the problems, presenting them to the team in the form of stories and allowing the team to design the solution within a pre-determined set of parameters.

Either way, the product owner’s job is to define with more or less granularity the “what,” and to guide the team to analyze and implement the “how.”

I’m sure someone has thought of this before, and there’s probably a formal name for it, but I thought I’d document it while it’s in my head….and before I delete the email in which I decided to capture it.

1) What Problem is Being Solved: The overarching product summary should start with a definition of the problem(s) being solved.  From this definition, anyone reading this package can evaluate whether the proposed solution addresses the problem or problems stated.  Much expense can be saved by not delivering a solution to market that doesn’t address the intended problem.

2) Buyer and User Personas: Who is the primary user for whom a product is to be built, and who is the buyer actually responsible for the decision to purchase?  Often times these are not the same people–a proper user persona can identify the user’s tendencies and the typical person who will be using the product, whereas a buyer persona can help to keep the buyer’s motivations in mind.

3) Value Proposition: A succinct explanation of how the product can provide tangible, financial benefit to the user.  One method is to show the value of the time saved by elimination of manual steps, which can show the value of efficiency.  Increased revenue may be harder to validate, but using reasonable estimates can help to show the exact amount of value that a user will obtain by using the product.  This evaluation is helpful when it comes to pricing the product for the market, and should take into account how the solution solves the stated problem for the buyer and users defined above.

4) Solution Workflows: For a software product, no presentation of the proposed product is complete without a robust set of wireframes weaved together with a good story.  Packaging this all together helps answer “what are we building, exactly?” and helps build the case that the solution proposed is indeed the best one, for the conditions in items one and two above.

There are other items packaged in a business case — in particular, one that comes to mind is a pricing proposal — but the items listed here are enough to deliver to business people within a large software company to make the case that a particular product is solving a real market need for real users, and to explain exactly what product is proposed to meet that need.

The entry of PIN number and selection of fast-cash amount were on the same screen.

In every previous interaction with an ATM, after inserting my card, I’ve been conditioned to (1) enter my PIN number, (2) click a button, (3) click a button for “Fast Cash,” and then (4) select an amount.  In today’s interaction, some significant experience design had been applied.  Though a single example does not demonstrate a pattern, I’d be willing to bet that my experience is not unusual: 99% of my transactions are fast-cash.  So today’s interaction was much much simpler: (1) enter PIN, (2) select fast-cash amount.  Choosing the fast-cash amount triggered the ATM to validate my PIN and dispense the cash.  That saved 2 steps, or 50% of the work required of the user.  Nice!

The only question I’m left with is: Why did this take until the year 2009?

Further, possibly because I was distracted by the unusually efficient interaction, I do not recall being forced to request a receipt.  In previous interactions I’ve been annoyed with BoA ATM machines that display a message “Retrieving preferences,” and then immediately ask if I want a receipt.  My receipt preference doesn’t change: I want one.  I realize the bank would prefer I do not, but their opinion is irrelevant.  If you’re going to store my preferences, and you insist upon asking me that question each time, the profile you’ve assembled is incomplete.  But as distracted as I was, I cannot swear that I did not have to answer that prompt: and believing I didn’t would be too impressive of an example of interaction redesign for me to handle.

How many more everyday interactions can be made dramatically better?

This RealClearPolitics.com does by focusing on a couple of simple user experience premises: content and simple presentation. For the time that I’ve been visiting the site, the articles selected are chosen from right, left and center-leaning news sources ranging from such selections as Investors’ Business Daily and Weekly Standard on the right to Slate and the New York Times on the left. That alone is worthy of merit. Deeper review might include analysis of the site’s selection of polling numbers, its editorial content, and the percentage of articles from each side. My cursory evaluation of the site’s cross-section of polling numbers showed a wide enough variance to appear solid, and I’m not reading enough of the articles to comment on the site’s own editorials. All I know is that from my marginally-interested-observer perspective, the site gives me what appears to be a balanced cross-section of opinions and facts.

As for presentation, the site is relatively well organized and easy to figure out, and the links are provided in a plain yet readable format (much like the plain text link approach of Reddit.com). The site won’t win any Flash animation awards, but it’s not intended to. What the site aims to provide, it does in a fairly attractive, functional presentation. In a field where success in “web design” typically refers to the latest AJAX or Silverlight components, sometimes what makes a good product is an ordinary-looking site with quality content. Who knew?!