Lean UX by Jeff Gothelf

Jeff Gothelf

Lean UX, the book.

NUMA, the coworking space dedicated to startups, innovation, and the dissemination of digital culture. The entrance is through the cafeteria and you go up to the 4th floor. The room is full – few UX Designers, at first glance, the audience is more startup. Claudio Vandi presents Jeff Gothelf, the speaker who has just hosted a workshop day. Jeff is a consultant at NEO and the author of Lean-UX, a book that is a continuation of the seminal work ofEric Ries : The Lean Startup.


He starts with a Raccoon problem in his garden, which prompts him to set a trap (a cage that closes when the animal has entered). He then shows a photo or finally, his dog was caught, illustrating here the fact that the solution does not produce the expected result.

He then evokes the idea of ​​measurement, to measure effectiveness of the solution, warning against "Vanity metrics". For example: 600 page views for a startup is a pseudo success indicator that flatters the ego of the team but has little value if it does not bring the goal closer. Thus, it is essential to define indicators that are truly aligned with the strategy in order to assess whether the actions taken are bringing us closer to the objective.

In Lean UX, the notion of measurement is essential: it is a question of entering into a permanent learning approach through permanent experimentation. Think/Make/Check. Of course, the “delivery” must be permanent. For exemple: Amazon uploads a new item every 11,6 seconds. This makes it possible to validate/invalidate the hypotheses and gradually develop an extremely efficient UX. Jeff reminds us that the “requirements” (specs) are ultimately only assumptions about user needs and that the Lean UX approach makes it possible to check in real time the adequacy between the product and market expectations.

According to him, Design Thinking is based on 3 pillars:

  • Empathy : understand the context and the user painpoints (the difficulties encountered)
  • Creativity : imagine solutions to problems
  • rationality : measure and discard if it does not produce the expected result.

Jeff Gothelf then exposes 3 case studies where a lot of energy was wasted by working on bad solutions or by not addressing the real problems. This makes it possible to bring the difference between output et outcome.

  • Un output, it's a deliverable, a feature, it's what our clients expect from consulting services.
  • In reality, what should be aimed for are the outcomes, i.e. end-user behavior transformations.

The industry has long focused on outputs because they are binary and contractual, while anything to do with change is much longer and more difficult. Yet this is where new sources of added value reside.

No doubt, we have to change the way we work.   

Antoine Visonneau