You are an entrepreneur, project manager or designer and you want to create a digital, user-centric, ethical and environmentally friendly ? Then you've come to the right place. Because I am offering you here to experiment with a project approach inspired by the major methods of Design Thinking, UX Design and Circular Design.
 

Step #1: The foundations of your project

Launching a project is not easy, quite the contrary. And the fear of launching (into the unknown) is completely legitimate. This makes it all the more important to properly frame your project. 
Because the framing of your project has a double function: to reassure you (firstly), and to offer a good deployment to your project (secondly).
However, before starting a new project, it is normal to ask questions. 
You still have to ask yourself the right questions. Here are a few.
# A good team
 

 
The success of your project will rest partly on your shoulders, but especially on those of your team. Hence the importance of taking your time to build it. Make sure that it is multidisciplinary and convinced by your “green” values. 
During a session – which you will lead – define together the roles, missions and areas of intervention of each. You can also appoint one or more “ethical ambassadors”. 
Their mission : be the spokespersons of social and environmental needs throughout the production of the product, just as designers are those of user needs. In order to make your session fun, I suggest you use the card game (totally new, created by me, and specially designed for you audience!) following: “Green Power Game”, which will be offered to you in a future article. You can use it as an Icebreaker at the beginning of the workshop but also as a support during a Kick-off! 
Once the roles have been distributed, it's time to get to the heart of the matter and clarify the environment of your project.
# Knowledge of the economic market at your fingertips. 
Your objective will be to understand the economic market in which your product is implemented, as well as to estimate the place taken by social and environmental ethics solutions. 
Thanks to your research, you will have access to the first insights allowing you to decipher your target and detect your first business opportunities, but also ethical ones. It is thanks to this that you formulate usage hypotheses, to be challenged with your users.
When drafting these hypotheses, don't forget to include your various constraints (devices, budgets, processes, etc.). This will save you time when making your product. Then, detect existing digital products and services close to the ambitions of your project. 
The idea is to draw inspiration as best as possible from what is already working in order to limit risk-taking as much as possible and reassure your investors, sponsors or clients about the chosen directions. 
But beware ! There is a difference between being inspired and copying. And to make sure you don't confuse the two, set up an “Inspiration Wall”. Within your premises, do not hesitate to display all your research, your questions but also to write down in black and white, what differentiates you from your potential competitors. 
 

 

Step #2: How many users does your project have? 

In order for your product to respond to many social values, it is important to detect all the people impacted by what you are creating. Each of them will emit needs and difficulties. The objective is not so much to meet each of its needs – at the risk of ending up with a catch-all site – your mission is that your product does not negatively impact others. 
And to do that you need :
# Clarify user needs and their impact on the values ​​of your project : 
 

 
Many exercises are essential to the preparation of your interviews and the first is the identification of your interviewees. And yes, your product doesn't just impact the person using it. It also has impact on a range of people who may be at different points in your value chain and those throughout the life of the product. 
Whether they are developers, employees, consumers, recyclers, it is important to understand what is essential for each of these people when they come into contact with your product.
Of course, you will not be able to identify all of these people at the start of your project.
The idea is to meet this first wave of users, those who seem the most obvious to you. Then initiate a second wave of meetings with your secondary users. Don't hesitate to map out your ideas together in order to find new waves of users. 
Once your users have been identified, write Proto personas. They will help you formalize detailed profile hypotheses. Based on fictitious data, they will make it possible to integrate empathy into the project. Once the interviews have been carried out – and the data verified – you can transform them into real personas. 
Let's move on to writing your questionnaires. The idea of ​​user interviews is to validate or invalidate your assumptions. Identify current pains and needs to take advantage of future opportunities. It is important to adapt your questionnaire to the different types of profiles in order to be as precise as possible in your results. 
If you want some additional tips, you can check out the Guide to best maintenance practices. 
Let's go ! You have all the keys in hand to meet your users! 
In order to help you convey your interviews to the members of your team, here are some tools that will allow you to present the essence of your meetings: the empathy map,  the map experience,… Their objectives: to make you converge towards the essential user needs that your product must meet. Attention, before starting to design your product, it is important to compare the user needs identified with the principles of social and environmental ethics. 
And for this, the prioritization of user needs must be done on the following criteria : 

1. Its desirability : 

– How many users expressed the same need? 
– How important is this need in achieving their daily goals? 

2. Its environmental impact : 

– What will be its carbon footprint during its manufacture, its use and its end of life? 
– In the event of a high carbon footprint, can alternatives be found to considerably reduce it?

3. Its social impact :

– What will be its consequences on society? 
– Is it detrimental to the development of certain individuals? 
– Does it favor one part of society to the detriment of another? 

4. Its business value :

– Does this need have an economic value?
– Can it be part of the values ​​of the circular economy? 
 
In order to facilitate the sorting of user needs, you can use many diagrams as a prioritization grid. As the Diagram of Kiviat.
Here ! The foundations of your project are almost complete! 
You have a great team and you know your market, your users and their needs perfectly. You have conscientiously compared everything to your ethical values. Perfect ! You are now on your way to designing your digital, user-centric and ethical product. But before you start you need a clear objective.
# Formulate your “ethical” design challenges : 
What is a design challenge? It is a problematization that integrates a single persona and a need (or difficulty) that prevents him from satisfying his objectives. Concretely, it is a questioning that will help you not to lose sight of your user, his need and the challenge of your client or company. Of course you can have several design challenges because there is not only one way to answer a problem. As part of our project, we are going to slightly modify this exercise by adding the ethical issue. 
This is how the design challenge looks : 
How could we [verb allowing] your persona [at] suffering or need to be resolved [during] his use phase [all in] integrating the ethical challenge of the client/company
Example of a B to B oriented ethical challenge design : 
How could we [help] shoe manufacturers [to] grow their online business at low cost [during] the product sales phase [while] incorporating principles of social and environmental ethics. 
Example of a B to C oriented ethical challenge design : 
How could we [help] Adidas fans [to] personalize their experience [during] the product sales phase [while] integrating social and environmental ethics principles. 
Be careful, before you start, you must be clear about what you are trying to accomplish. Your challenge must be achievable and large enough to allow you to detect a maximum of opportunities and differentiating solutions from your potential competitors. 
The drafting of these issues is done in the workshop and with your team. In order to help you in the animation of your workshop, I propose to you the explanatory sheets of the How Might We and Barrier Breakdown. Good luck ! 
 
Congratulations, you have just completed the first part of your project. 
So, satisfied? I hope so, because the hardest part is yet to come! 
And yes, you know the business, user and ethical issues of your project. But that's not enough! It's time to make your project a reality. And to do this, you will have to translate your project into a real desirable, feasible, viable and ethical product. 
 
I'll give you an appointment next week, same day, same time for the rest of this article
 
 
 
Sandra Oliveira, UX Designer @UX-Republic