Users as Groundbreakers

Presentation Abstract

Customer product information development is often difficult because the “need” information (what the users want) resides with the users, and the “solution” information (how to satisfy those needs) lies with the information developers. Understanding what users want and then responding with new products that meet or exceed their needs is a success mantra. The difficulty is that fully understanding users’ needs is often a costly and inaccurate process. Even when users know precisely what they want, they seldom transfer the information to the information developers clearly and completely. Also, there are a several layers between users and information developers, which is hardly a simple or straightforward process to know your users. Traditionally, the onus has been on information developers to know the users through various means, including information gathered from the business analysts, project discussions, and so on. The process can be costly and time-consuming because users’ needs are often complex and subtle.

This presentation talks about how our Ericsson information development group is continuously evolving to know the documentation users’ needs by adopting some Agile techniques to information development and Users as Groundbreakers approach.

What can attendees expect to learn?

This presentation is intended for technical publication groups who are intent to understand users’ needs. It talks about how our information development groups use the Users as Groundbreakers approach.

  • Presents an introduction to methods for understanding user needs in customer product information development.
  • Describes a number of techniques including identifying users personas, working with customer units, the Kano method, monitoring deployments at customer sites, Lead User analysis, etc.
  • Provides a “”how to”” for information developers, and includes theory as well as examples from our discoveries in this journey.”

Meet the Presenter

reddy-boraSiva Reddy Bora has worked in Software R&D organizations for around 12 years, including 5 years of Agile project management and technical publications management; mostly at the organization level. He is a member of CPI Agile Expert Group in Ericsson. Siva has played multiple roles including Scrum Master, Agile XG member in Agile projects and has vast working experience in Agile Methodologies. He has mentored cross-functional teams on Agile values, principles, and practices. Facilitate agile ceremonies including release planning, sprint planning, sprint demos, and retrospectives. Siva holds a couple of Master Degrees (MCA and MHRM), certified Agile Practitioner from Project Management Institute (PMI-ACP), and pursuing PhD in General Management.

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