The Lean UX Process and How It Can Help Cut Waste

Lean UX stands for Lean user experience design, which is a system for developing products such as websites or software. In Lean UX, you work in cycles of thinking about the needs of your end user, creating something to help solve their problem, getting feedback about your design, and repeating the process. Lean UX helps design teams create better products, eliminate waste, and create a more creative and learning-centric company culture. 

Discover more about the Lean UX process, how it differs from Agile UX, and entry-level careers in user experience design. 

What is Lean UX?

Lean UX is an approach to developing products in short cycles of planning, taking action, and gathering feedback. User experience design centers all aspects of the design process—planning, designing, developing, testing—around creating the best possible experience for the end user. Lean UX also focuses on the end-user's experience but organizes the development process in short, iterative cycles, similar to Agile project management methodologies. 

Agile organizes projects into short, iterative cycles of collaborating, building prototypes, and constant improvement—repeating the steps until the product is ready for the end user. Lean UX applies this approach to user experience design to create a minimum viable product (MVP) as quickly as possible and then gather feedback and user research to direct the project. 

What is a minimum viable product? 

A minimum viable product is the most basic version needed to test whether or not the product is a good design that solves a problem for its end user. When you're designing a minimum viable product, you understand it will not be complete and polished, so you allow customers to interact with it to discover areas for improvement. The goal of Lean UX is to get something out to start testing your idea quickly and then improve the product incrementally until it provides the best customer experience.

The Lean UX process

The iterative process of Lean UX design boils down to three main steps: Creating a hypothesis about what would benefit the end user, designing and creating a minimum viable product or feature, then evaluating the product and checking results. A simpler way to describe these steps is to think, make, and check. 

Think

The first step of the Lean UX process is to take the data about your target users and think about what would benefit them. Whether you are creating a brand new product or a feature for an existing product, this stage asks you to decide what problem you want to solve or how the end user benefits from the product. In this step, you will use tools like competitive analysis, A/B testing, and user surveys to gain data to help you hypothesize what users want. 

Make

In the second step of the Lean UX design process, you will determine the minimum viable product you can make to test your hypothesis. What is the most basic version of the feature, update, or product you need to test whether your idea will solve a problem for the end user? The key point to remember is that you will repeat this process as often as needed. The goal is not to create a perfect first attempt but to create something to serve as a jumping-off point you can gather feedback from. As you repeat this process, you will incrementally improve your product and design.

Check 

The last stage of the Lean UX process is to check your work: Gathering feedback from stakeholders and data from user testing and research. You created a hypothesis, you created a product to test that hypothesis, and now is the time to follow through and find out if your hypothesis was correct or not. Once you collect raw data through testing usability, website analytics, or A/B testing, you can go back to the first step of the process. Using the data, you can determine what your team might improve in the next iteration. 

Lean UX vs. Agile UX 

Lean UX stems from Agile methodology, but Agile UX is a slightly different approach to design. Both design philosophies focus on collaboration and communication. Both offer a framework for organizing work into an iterative process. 

The key difference between Lean UX and Agile UX is that Agile UX functions more as a philosophy, while Lean UX is an actual methodology with steps. Agile UX focuses on managing uncertainty and delivering a polished end product to the user, while Lean UX focuses on multiple product versions that are polished throughout the cycles. Ultimately, Lean UX produces the best results when combined with the Agile approach to product development.

For example, Agile UX can be used to break down a project into sections called sprints in which the goal is user experience while you utilize Lean UX to produce an MVP of the product for testing and feedback.

Benefits of using Lean UX

Your development team may choose to use Lean UX to create a better end product, save time and money, and improve employee engagement. 

Allows for better end products

Lean UX helps create better end products by focusing on the customer's needs and building user research into the process. In every iteration, your team attempts to improve upon the last cycle using data and feedback from users. The result is a higher-quality product tailored exactly to customer needs. 

Saves time and money 

Lean UX eliminates waste by focusing only on activities directly contributing to product creation. Lean UX focuses on experience rather than documentation. By learning from the product you’ve already built, you can save time and overall costs.

Improves culture

Lean UX improves culture by helping you get your whole team on board with a philosophy of collaboration and communication. A clear understanding of the Lean process will help your team work together. This can also help lead to increased engagement and a team with more job satisfaction. 

Who needs to learn Lean UX? 

Essentially, if you work in the UX field, it is beneficial for you to learn the Lean UX methodology, especially if you plan to work for a company that adheres to the Agile philosophy. 

UX designer

Average annual US salary (Glassdoor): $79,343[1]

Job outlook (projected growth from 2022 to 2032): 16 percent [2]

Education requirements: Rather than earning a college degree, you can become a UX designer with certification training, although many UX designers choose to earn a bachelor’s degree in computer science, psychology, human-computer interaction, or a related field. 

As a user experience designer, you will plan and design websites, applications, and software to curate the best experience for the end user. You will work with a team of developers to create the product and assist the users with any issues after release. Throughout the design process, you will gather data to measure user experience. 

UI designer

Average annual US salary (Glassdoor): $93,549 [3]

Job outlook (projected growth from 2022 to 2032): 16 percent [2]

Education requirements: Most UI designers have earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design, computer science, or a related field, while a much lower percentage have either a master’s or an associate. 

As a UI designer, you will focus on individual user interactions. You will consider how humans and computers interact with each other and define interaction models. In this role, you may work with other design professionals as a team. 

Software project manager

Average annual US salary (Glassdoor): $120,448 [4]

Job outlook (projected growth from 2022 to 2032): 6 percent [5]

Education requirements: To become a software project manager, you will need to earn a bachelor’s degree, commonly in business, project management, or the technical field in which you choose to work, such as computer and information technology 

As a project manager, you lead the development team as it designs software. In this role, you monitor the design process, check in with team members, and offer assistance to help the project stay on time and within budget. You might also interact with the client to update them on the project's status.

Getting started in UX design

Earning a certification or certificate in UX design can help you demonstrate your skills to potential employers. For example, with the Google UX Design Professional Certificate, you can learn skills such as: 

• User experience (UX)

• UX research

• Wireframe

• Prototype

• User experience design (UXD)

• Usability testing

• Figma

• Adobe XD

Get started with Coursera

Lean UX can help you cut waste and focus on activities that bring you closer to your minimum viable product, creating a better product, saving time and money, and helping your team become more efficient. If you are considering a career using Lean UX, you might consider a role as a UX designer, UI designer, or software project manager. 

If you’re ready to begin a UX or UI design career, you can earn your Google UX Design Professional Certificate on Coursera. You could complete this beginner-level program in as little as six months, gaining a Professional Certificate to share with potential employers. You will also gain access to Google’s Employer Consortium, with over 150 companies interested in hiring professionals with these Professional Certificates.