The Human-Centered Design Guidebook

The most concise and actionable guide to help teams get started with practicing human-centered design (HCD).

User-centricity is the ultimate competitive advantage, but you don't have time to read 10 different books and translate how to apply the best methods to your business. The Human-Centered Design (HCD) Guidebook is everything you need to get started with practicing human-centered design (HCD), and nothing you don't.

What can understanding your users better and getting better at human-centered design methods faster do for you and your organization?

Unlike other 100+ page books, you can read this 15 page guide in one day and start practicing human-centered design (HCD) tomorrow. This short, practical & actionable guide will help you start practicing HCD tomorrow with the specific strategies, tips, and sample templates and worksheets I've shared with clients for years to surface user insights to make more human-centered products and services. While there are many articles, books, and courses out there, my goal is to help you sift through the noise and make it easier to learn by doing.

I've created a guidebook that helps you plan and conduct user interviews, synthesize findings into insights and opportunities, run effective and productive team brainstorm sessions, and ultimately put HCD methods into practice to building better products and services for users.

What's inside:
Inside this atomic guidebook, you'll find 8 guides packed with concise and actionable content on:

• Introduction to Human-Centered Design: what it is, when you should use HCD, and when you should not
• How to practice Human-Centered Design with design sprints, and how to create a research plan for a design sprint (including a sample Research Plan Template)
• Step-by-step guides for how to practice 6 HCD methods:
  • User interviews (including a sample Interview Guide Template)
  • Affinity clustering (including a blank, printable Synthesis Worksheet)
  • Insight statements (including a blank, printable Synthesis Worksheet)
  • Rapid sketching (including a blank, printable Rapid Sketching Brainstorm Session Worksheet)
  • Storyboarding (including a blank, printable Storyboard Worksheet)
  • Think-aloud testing (including a sample Think-Aloud Testing Session Guide Template)

Included in this guide to help get your team started on putting this into practice, you'll also find 6 templates and worksheets:

• Research Plan Template
• Interview Guide Template
• Synthesis Worksheet
• Rapid Sketching Brainstorm Session Worksheet
• Storyboard Worksheet
• Think-Aloud Testing Session Guide Template

FAQs:

Is this for me?

This is made for anyone who wants a primer on human-centered design, and the tools to facilitate their team through practicing it. This is for you if...

• You work at a tech company and are working to design better products for users
• You work at a government agency and are working to make public services better for users

Can I expense this to my company-sponsored professional development budget?
Yes, absolutely. Once you purchase, you'll receive a receipt that you can submit to your company for reimbursement as a professional development expense.

If I like this, can I share this with my team?
No, purchase of The Human-Centered Design Guidebook is for individual use only. If you'd like to purchase multiple copies for your team, please purchase one for each team member or contact me for pricing for a team license. If you'd like to hire me to lead an interactive workshop on this for your team, contact me for pricing.

Who are you?
I'm a product manager and designer who has coached many clients (from startups to government agencies) on HCD countless times.

Why did you make this?
At every company I've worked at in-house as an employee or with as a consultant, this is the one skill I always get asked to coach leaders on. As a leader, one problem I faced was training my team on how to get started with and get better at practicing HCD. When I first got started, I couldn't find many resources for this beyond many books that most busy professionals might not have time to read, or trainings for full-time designers.

Over the years, I built this guide to train my clients on how to practice HCD, and now, I’m making it available to help everyone more get started with HCD.