User Stories Without Users: The Pitfalls of Assumption-Driven Design

Where I live, every year residents receive two water bills. One is for the fresh (tap) water supply, the other is for wastewater and maintenance of sewers. The wastewater bill is a standard tariff, and I guess most people have automatic monthly payment set up. It’s the kind of thing you “set and forget about”.  I mean, it’s hard to get too excited about wastewater, right?

Recently, I’ve been receiving letters from the water company trying to get me to sign up for their online portal (or app) so that I can get my bills electronically. I can almost imagine the initial user story that was written:

“As a user, I want to access my annual statement online, so that I know how much I’ll be charged”

Yet, for me at least, this is an illusion. I really don’t need another app, I really don’t need another portal account and password. For something I receive once a year there is a good chance I will have forgotten my password by the time I need to use it, and if I’m completely honest I look at about 10% of the statement anyway (I glance at the monthly payment amount then file the statement).

These days I’m a digital native, but having to access this information via an online portal would be less convenient for me. I suspect I’m not the only consumer that thinks this…

Digitalization with Purpose

I’m not saying that portals and apps aren’t useful, they absolutely are in the right context. I use online banking apps and portals all the time, and these save me time. However, I wonder how many customers the wastewater company spoke to before building their app/portal. I wonder whether they determined whether customers actually wanted it or not?

Another possibility is that this wasn’t a customer-driven initiative at all. Perhaps the director of customer service was given a target of reducing cost. One way of doing this is to reduce the amount of letters and statements that are printed. Every statement costs money: the paper, printing, envelope, postage cost plus the cost of handling it too.

But when the change is purely driven from an internal cost-saving perspective, with little or zero customer interaction, isn’t it a little disingenuous to write a “user” story from the perspective of the customer? A customer who hasn’t been consulted? There’s the danger we jump straight to a solution, and with no customer interaction this might be a solution that has very low adoption.

Advertisement

Understand the Real Drivers

So, if the driver is cost reduction say so. Rather than jumping straight to a user story or set of requirements, a more useful starting point will be to understand the specific outcomes that are being sought. In this case, it might be:

“A reduction in cost of sending and handling outgoing correspondence of X%”

Then, it’s useful to understand any constraints. There is likely to be a regulatory requirement to issue an annual ‘statement’ (although what a ‘statement’ is may or may not be prescribed in the regulations).  With these things in mind, existing practices can be challenged.

Then, having understood why a change is necessary in the first place, we can start to work with the stakeholder team (including customers or customer representatives) to figure out ways that this can be achieved that will ideally benefit them too. Or, at least ways that they can live with.

This might create a very different set of solutions. Perhaps a solution is proposed where a customer receives a small discount for the first year when they opt in to having electronic statements. They’ll receive an SMS text message with the key details (payment amounts, dates) and an email reminding them that the statement information is there if they want it. This is just one option: it’s one that would work well for me, but I am a sample of one. It would be important to get a range of views from different stakeholder groups.

Understand Variety

When thinking about changes like this, it’s also important to consider those who can’t engage with organizations digitally. There can be many reasons for this, so thinking about accessibility not just in terms of “how can we make the digital solution accessible” but also “what are our options for non-digital engagement” is important. Understanding the variety of people, their needs and preferences is important.

In conclusion, whatever final solution is agreed upon, starting by understanding the desired outcomes (and being transparent when the primary goal is cost saving) will lead to a broader conversation. It’s important to avoid rushing towards an early solution in absence of this!