Interview Debrief Pairs

Find a partner (not someone in your problem space)

  1. Take turns sharing (3 min each):"The most surprising thing I heard was..."
    "The thing that challenged my assumptions was..."
    "The thing that confirmed my hypothesis was..."
  2. Partner asks: "Based on what you heard, do you feel confident your idea solves a real problem?"
  3. Switch and repeat

Prayer

Lucy L., will you pray for us today?

Unit D: Neue App

Your data tells a story — today you learn to read it and commit

Today

Interview Debrief
Synthesis: Reading Your Data
Decision: Confirm Your Direction
Competitive Analysis
Work Session — Begin D3

By the end of today...

Synthesis

You'll know how to extract patterns from interview data and identify strong vs. weak signals

Validation

You'll know whether your interviews validated your idea — and what to do if they didn't

Landscape

You'll understand who else is solving your problem and how to differentiate

D3 Started

You'll have identified competitors and begun your competitive analysis

Why this matters

You've talked to real people. Some confirmed your assumptions; some didn't.

Skipping synthesis is how designers build products that are slightly worse versions of things that already exist.

Today you'll interpret those signals, make a confident decision, and understand who else is solving this problem.

Synthesizing Your Interviews

From quotes to patterns

Look for patterns, not quotes

  1. Frequency: How many people mentioned it?
  2. Intensity: How much did it bother them?
  3. Behavior vs. opinion: What people do matters more than what they say they'd do.

Weak signal

"I would totally use that!"

Hypothetical. They're being nice.

Strong signal

"I spent 2 hours last week trying to solve this."

Real pain. Actual behavior.

From notes to insights

  1. Review all your interview notes together
  2. Extract 3-4 key insights (patterns across multiple interviews)
  3. Determine: Was your hypothesis validated? What did you learn?

Which quotes describe actual behavior? Which are just opinions?

Strong or weak signal?

Let's evaluate some interview quotes together.

  1. Read each interview quote
  2. Identify: Is this a strong or weak signal? Why?
  3. What pattern would you look for across multiple interviews?

Let's try a few together...

Confirming Your Direction

Was your hypothesis validated?

How to know if your idea is validated

  1. Frequency: Did multiple people describe this problem?
  2. Intensity: How much does it actually bother them?
  3. Current solutions: Are they already trying to solve it? (Good sign — proves the need)
  4. Willingness to act: Have they spent time/money/effort?

The goal is NOT to find a problem nobody has — it's to find a problem people actually care about solving.

By the end of class today:

Confirm your direction — or decide to pivot.

If your interviews validated the problem, proceed with confidence.
If they didn't, that's valuable data — consider adjusting your approach.

Share your decision with a neighbor. Saying it out loud makes it real.

Competitive Analysis

Understanding the landscape before you design

If your idea is truly novel...

That's often a warning sign.

Maybe nobody needs it.

Good ideas exist in a space with competitors — your job is to understand them and differentiate.

The Scaffolded Approach

Don't start with the positioning matrix. Start with experience.

Step 1

Experience the competitors (hands-on)

Step 2

Mine user reviews

Step 3

Strengths & weaknesses

Step 4

Positioning matrix

The axes emerge from your research — not from guessing.

Step 1: Experience the Competitors

Download and actually use 2-4 competitor apps. Spend 15-20 min with each.

  1. First impressions: What's the onboarding like? How do you feel?
  2. Core flow: How easy is it to accomplish the main task?
  3. Friction points: Where do you get stuck or frustrated?
  4. Delights: What's surprisingly good or clever?

You cannot analyze what you haven't experienced. App store descriptions aren't enough.

Step 2: Mine User Reviews

Read 10-15 app store reviews per competitor. Look for patterns.

What to extract

Common praise: "I love how simple it is"

Common complaints: "Crashes constantly"

Unmet needs: "I wish it had..."

AI can help here

"Summarize the top 5 complaints from these reviews"

"What features do users praise most often?"

⚠️ Always verify — AI can miss nuance

Note the specific language users use — this is how your audience talks.

Step 3: Strengths & Weaknesses

For each competitor, synthesize what you learned.

Template

[Competitor Name]
What it is: One sentence

Strengths (3-4 bullets)
What they do well

Weaknesses (3-4 bullets)
What users complain about

Key insight: One sentence

Be specific, not generic

❌ "Good UI"

✓ "Calming color palette reinforces meditation brand"

❌ "Users like it"

✓ "Structured courses make it easy for beginners to start"

Step 4: Positioning Matrix

Now — and only now — create your 2x2 matrix. Axes emerge from Steps 1-3.

Finding your axes

Look at your strengths/weaknesses. What trade-offs did you notice?

Simple ↔ Feature-rich
Habit-focused ↔ Goal-focused
Social ↔ Individual
Guided ↔ Self-directed

Test your axes

Do competitors spread across quadrants?

Would interviewees call this a meaningful trade-off?

Does the whitespace represent a real opportunity?

If all competitors cluster in one quadrant, pick different axes.

AI Throughout the Process

AI accelerates research, but cannot replace hands-on experience.

Where AI helps

Finding competitors you missed

Processing 50+ reviews quickly

Suggesting dimensions that differentiate apps

Drafting initial summaries (you edit)

Where AI fails

Doesn't know what it feels like to use an app

Can hallucinate features or competitors

Reflects existing content, not your interviews

Can miss nuance in user sentiment

AI supplements your research. You must download and use the apps yourself.

Let's build a positioning matrix together

  1. Pick a problem space (e.g., fitness tracking)
  2. Name 4 competitors — what do we know about each?
  3. What trade-offs do we notice? What axes emerge?
  4. Plot them on a 2x2 matrix
  5. Where's the whitespace? Is it a real opportunity?

What competitors come to mind? What makes them different from each other?

D3: Competitive Analysis

Due Mon, Mar 9 @ 11:59pm  ·  Submit PDF to Learning Suite

  1. Competitor overview — 4 competitors with one-sentence descriptions + why you chose them
  2. Strengths & weaknesses — Per competitor: 3-4 strengths, 3-4 weaknesses, key insight, 2-3 screenshots
  3. Positioning matrix — 2x2 with labeled axes, all 4 plotted, annotation on why these axes, your app's position
  4. Summary — 2 paragraphs: competitive landscape + your opportunity
  5. AI usage — What tools you used, what AI helped with, what you did yourself

Next up

Work session (110 min)

  • First 20 min: Final synthesis — write 3-4 insights, confirm or adjust direction
  • Next 30 min: Find & download 2+ competitor apps, start using them
  • Remaining 60 min: Mine reviews, draft strengths/weaknesses, sketch matrix

D3: Competitive Analysis — due Mon, Mar 9 @ 11:59pm

Follow the scaffolded approach  ·  Document AI usage  ·  Submit PDF to Learning Suite

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