At the same time, though, there is a certain role that I’m sometimes put in that I really don’t enjoy quite as much. And that’s when the team I support doesn’t want to do the dirty work of making decisions, but instead punts the ball to me.
Now, typically, I’m actually just fine with that role. The team can’t decide on which version of some widget to use? No problem. I’ll run a comparative test and get you some good feedback.
The team does need to be aware, though, that what I often find in these tests is that there is no clear favorite. In fact, the most common result is that each design has its pluses and minuses. So, it may not be exactly what you were looking for going in, but it’s still pretty darn valuable stuff.
Sometimes, though, I run across a situation where the team really is doing some major waffling. You can typically tell when they, for example, want to test 10 different designs, with the differences between them amounting to things like underlining, or capitalization, or which shade of green to use.
I exaggerate, of course. But I do believe that, when a team does something like that, they may be confusing usability testing with A/B testing or with a marketing survey. So, what I try to get them to do is to sit down, make some decisions, and narrow things down for me just a little bit.
Now, it’s not just a matter of making my life easier. I also try to get across the idea that they’re really not gaining anything from all that either. So, what I do is try to focus them on a handful of designs that really emphasize the things that are genuinely different, allowing us to focus on those, get some great feedback, and make the testing worthwhile for both of us.
Does that always make me popular? Well, no. But it typically is a pretty easy discussion to have, and the team’s almost always totally happy with the results.
Not a usability type, Mahoney was a very successful business exec
and the author of Confessions of a Street-Smart Manager
