Introducing SUPA: The Service You Should Be Offering

SUPA: A strategic UX service to validate projects early. Align user needs with business goals, mitigate risks, and shape product strategy from the start.

Whether you're part of a UX team, running an agency, or freelancing, there's a service you should be offering. I include myself in this too.

This realization struck me while preparing for my design leadership workshop next week (and yes, it's not too late to sign up!). I was thinking about how most design teams are under-resourced, as I mentioned in a previous newsletter. We, therefore, need to be more strategic about how we spend our time.

One issue is that we often get pulled into projects that shouldn't exist because they don't meet real user needs. We try to advocate for discovery phases to research user requirements, but many colleagues don't grasp what a discovery phase entails. Often, the decision to move forward with a project has already been made.

The same goes for those of us working externally. By the time a client reaches out, the project is already defined and approved. We can't influence its direction as much as we should.

So, we need to take elements of a discovery phase, combine them with a SWOT, repackage them, and present them as a new service we offer.

Enter SUPA: Strategic User-Driven Project Assessment

This is where the Strategic User-Driven Project Assessment (SUPA) comes in. Yes, I know, another acronym. But bear with me – there's a method to this madness.

Why SUPA? Well, in a world drowning in jargon and buzzwords, sometimes you need to fight fire with fire. SUPA isn't just catchy; it's a trojan horse. It's designed to grab the attention of those business analysts and managers who love their TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) and make them sit up and take notice. Plus, let's be honest, who doesn't want to be SUPA at their job?

But bad puns aside, SUPA represents a critical service that we, as UX professionals, need to champion more forcefully. It's our chance to get in at the ground floor of projects, to shape them before they become runaway trains of misguided objectives and wasted resources.

What is SUPA?

In essence, SUPA is a pre-emptive strike against poorly conceived projects. It's a comprehensive assessment that evaluates the potential success of a project from a user-centric perspective, before significant resources are committed. Think of it as a health check for ideas – we're diagnosing potential issues before they become full-blown problems.

Now, I can already hear some of you thinking, "But isn't this just a discovery phase by another name?" And you're not entirely wrong. SUPA does incorporate elements of discovery, but it's more focused, more strategic, and crucially, it's packaged in a way that speaks directly to business priorities.

Selling SUPA to Your Organization or Clients

The key to selling SUPA is to frame it in terms of risk mitigation and resource optimization. Here's how you might pitch it:

"SUPA is a strategic assessment tool that helps organizations validate project ideas before significant investment. It ensures that we're not just building things right, but that we're building the right things."

Emphasize that SUPA can:

1. Prevent costly missteps by identifying potential issues early
2. Align projects more closely with user needs and business goals
3. Optimize resource allocation by prioritizing high-value initiatives
4. Improve project success rates and ROI

For in-house teams, position SUPA as a way to strengthen your role as strategic partners rather than just executors. For agencies and freelancers, it's an opportunity to add value right from the project's inception, potentially leading to longer-term engagements.

What SUPA Covers

Ultimately a SUPA is delivered as a report or presentation focusing on the following areas:

1. Audience Assessment: This is about clearly defining who we're building for. We need to ask: Is this project targeting a high-value audience for the organization? Do we understand this audience's needs and behaviors? Have we validated our assumptions about them?
2. Need Assessment: Here, we're digging into the 'why' of the project. Does it address a genuine, validated user need? How critical is this need? Are there existing solutions that users are employing as workarounds? This step helps ensure we're not building solutions in search of problems.
3. Feasibility Check: This is where we get practical. Do we have the necessary resources – time, budget, skills – to deliver an excellent user experience? Is the project scope realistic? Are there any technical constraints we need to consider? This step helps prevent the all-too-common scenario of overpromising and under-delivering.
4. Risk Mitigation: Every project has risks, but not all risks are created equal. In this step, we identify potential design risks – things like usability issues, accessibility concerns, or misalignment with UI guidelines. But we don't stop at identification; we also provide concrete suggestions for mitigating these risks.
5. Recommendations: This is where we bring it all together. Based on our assessment, should the project proceed from a UX perspective? If yes, what guardrails need to be in place? If no, what alternative approaches might better meet the identified needs? This isn't about being gatekeepers, but about steering projects towards success.

SUPA Activities: From Research to Recommendations

To create a comprehensive SUPA report, you'll need to engage in a variety of UX research and analysis activities. Here's a breakdown of key activities for each area of the SUPA report:

Audience Assessment

• Stakeholder interviews
• User interviews or focus groups
• Surveys to gather quantitative data
• Creation of user personas or journey maps
• Analysis of existing user data or analytics

Need Assessment

• UX competitive analysis
• User journey mapping
• User story cards
• Contextual inquiry
• Card sorting or tree testing to understand user mental models

Feasibility Check

• Evaluation of design complexity vs. user needs
• Assessment of potential user pain points in proposed solutions
• Review of user expectations vs. project scope
• Analysis of user tech literacy vs. proposed technology
• Identification of potential accessibility challenges
• Evaluation of current user behaviors vs. required behavior changes

Risk Mitigation

• Heuristic evaluation of existing systems or prototypes
• Accessibility audit
• Security and privacy assessment
• UI guidelines alignment check
• Usability testing of early concepts or prototypes

Recommendations

• Workshop with key stakeholders
• Prioritization exercises (e.g., MoSCoW method)
• Creation of low-fidelity prototypes or wireframes
• Development of a phased approach or MVP definition
• Presentation of findings and recommendations to leadership

Remember, the goal is to conduct these activities efficiently, focusing on gathering just enough information to make informed recommendations. The exact mix of activities will depend on the project's scope, timeline, and available resources.

SUPA and Business Analysis: Complementary, Not Competitive

I can almost hear some of you thinking, "Wait a minute, isn't this treading on the toes of our business analysts?" It's a fair question, and one we should address head-on.

Yes, there's some overlap between SUPA and traditional business analysis. Both aim to validate ideas and assess project viability. However, SUPA isn't about replacing or competing with business analysts – it's about complementing their work with a laser focus on user needs and experience.

Here's how SUPA differs from and enhances business analysis:

1. User-Centric Perspective: While business analysts excel at evaluating market trends, competitive landscapes, and financial viability, SUPA brings a deep understanding of user behavior, needs, and pain points. We're not just asking "Can we do this?" or "Should we do this?", but "Will users actually want or use this?"
2. Experience Quality Focus: Business analysis typically covers whether a project can be delivered within constraints. SUPA goes further, assessing whether it can be delivered with a high-quality user experience. We're considering factors like cognitive load, accessibility, and user satisfaction – areas where UX professionals have unique expertise.
3. Design Risk Assessment: While business analysts identify general project risks, UX professionals are uniquely positioned to spot potential design and usability risks early. We can foresee issues that might not be apparent in a business requirements document but could significantly impact user adoption.
4. Bridging Business and User Needs: SUPA acts as a bridge, translating between business requirements and user needs. We're not replacing the business case, but enhancing it with insights that ensure the final product not only meets business objectives but also genuinely serves its users.
5. Prototyping and Visual Communication: UX professionals can quickly mock up concepts or create low-fidelity prototypes to validate ideas. This visual approach can provide stakeholders with a clearer understanding of the proposed solution than written specifications alone.

The key is collaboration, not competition. Ideally, SUPA should be conducted in partnership with business analysts. While they dive deep into market analysis and business viability, we bring our understanding of user behavior and experience design to the table. Together, we create a more holistic view of the project's potential.

By positioning SUPA as a complement to existing business analysis processes, we're not stepping on toes – we're strengthening the foundation of project planning. We're ensuring that user needs are considered just as carefully as business needs from the very beginning.

Implementing SUPA in Your Work

I hope I've convinced you of the value of SUPA for us as UX professionals and for our organizations. Now, the question is, "Where do we start?"

Start small. You don't need to roll out SUPA as a full-fledged service right away. Begin by incorporating elements of it into your existing processes. For example, when you're brought into a new project, ask for a short meeting to run through these assessment points. Frame it as a way to ensure you're fully aligned with the project goals and can deliver the best possible outcomes.

As you demonstrate the value of this approach – perhaps by identifying a potential issue early or by suggesting a more user-centric direction that resonates with stakeholders – you can gradually formalize it into a distinct service offering.

For those of you working in agencies or as freelancers, consider offering SUPA as a standalone service. It could be a great way to get your foot in the door with new clients, showcasing your strategic thinking and potentially leading to larger projects down the line.

The Future of UX is SUPA

As UX professionals, we often lament that we're brought in too late in the process, forced to put lipstick on the proverbial pig. SUPA is our chance to change that narrative. It's about shifting our role from just designing interfaces to shaping product strategy.

By offering SUPA, we're not just improving individual projects – we're elevating the entire field of UX. We're demonstrating that user-centered design isn't just about pretty interfaces or smooth interactions; it's about building the right things, for the right people, in the right way.

Need Help Getting Started?

If you're excited about implementing SUPA in your organization but feel unsure about where to begin, I'm here to help. I offer coaching services to guide you through your first SUPA process, ensuring you have the tools and confidence to make it a success. For those who prefer a more hands-off approach, I'm also available to conduct SUPA assessments for your projects directly.

Whether you use me or not, don't let another project start without proper user validation.