One of the fun chores about my profession is explaining to family and friends, basically, non-designers, what I do for a living. (Many) years ago, it was easy to call myself a "Web Designer." People nodded in understanding, and basically, that was it. I'm sure that the talented and gifted people who repair engines or fly planes get a similar reaction.
Several years ago, I was working with a company in Manhattan. They had embedded me in St.Louis with one of their biggest clients, and one afternoon after work, I treated myself to an air-conditioned feature of The Founder (2016), starring Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald's. Full disclosure: I love Michael Keaton.
The film was okay and reasonably entertaining and checked all the usual boxes, but one scene (link embedded below) made me jump out of my seat and yell, "A-Ha!" in the theatre.
The scene I'm referencing is when the two McDonald brothers, played by Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch, describe to Ray Croc (Keaton) how they devised the "Speedee System."
What that scene did so beautifully through Hollywood-style storytelling— was highlight a complete end-to-end design thinking exercise! And it was on the big screen right in front of my face. Ecstatically, I screamed, "This is exactly what I do!"
Let's break down some key moments in this scene, and let me explain why I love this particular cinematic moment.
I saw the relationship between the two McDonald brothers as that of a Product Owner and Designer. The Product Owner (PO) categorized and displayed everything from their initial station audit. The Designer organized it in a system that made sense from their initial point of view or understanding of a basic kitchen design that fit their current needs. If you notice that the prototype was drawn using chalk directly onto the face of a tennis court, that allowed for multiple revisions. Low-fidelity at its finest!
The next step was to test this concept with their users. In this case, it was the station workers, and they had to go through the motions of making pretend burgers and fries. The moderators watched their users through a mock shift while working their stations.
The users work on this scenario repeatedly while the PO and Designer take notes, monitor progress, and call out blockers and inefficiencies. They also look for key moments of efficiency and a streamlined approach. The use of chalk allowed the PO and Designer to rapidly iterate. Based on the research notes, they could quickly implement the next iteration of designs and test with the users again. Product and design are aligned in this process, and research is collaboratively conducted, influencing later design iterations.
In this example, the PO and designer changed the chalk color from white to pink to symbolize which version of the prototype was being used. Yet, they left the previous iteration slightly visible to show where an item or station was previously situated.
The scene in the movie shows that after six hours of prototyping, they finally have a "symphony of efficiency." Now, asking your users to stick with you and your process for six hours is a stretch, but as a product team, we conduct our findings through this system. The main difference is these sessions or sprints are broken down and conducted over a few weeks.
I can draw some additional conclusions here. In this case, the exercise in the movie succeeded because the product owner and designer aligned throughout the research session. The PO or designer did not necessarily tell the users how to do their jobs but merely observed them working in their faux natural environments. Sure, some barking came from realizing and identifying their current inefficiencies. Still, by having a holistic view of the process, they could better understand the problem space.
After their designs were mutually agreed upon and approved, they took the layout to a builder and custom-built the kitchen to their specs. Now, think about that for a second. Think about the immense cost of a fully custom commercial kitchen. If the McDonald brothers had just built their kitchen to their original concept or specs, it not only would have cost an enormous amount of money, but as we just watched in the clip, it would also have been inefficient, clunky, and most likely could have contributed to the restaurant's failure.
By taking the time to research and iterate, they created a system that best suited their needs, thus creating the concept of fast food.
I have never built a product that didn't embrace this methodology, and yet this way of doing things isn't relatively standard practice across all industries, and even if you have the most fantastic product on the market, it could still fall flat if you don't have an efficient way to get it to your customers. The McDonald brothers may not have had the best product at the time. Still, good or bad, they could get it into their hungry customer's hands quicker than any competitor, and their brand is still at the top of the fast food chain regarding global presence and volume.
I was only a few years into the UX journey when this movie came out, and since then, product teams have become much more refined and complex. Unlike my simple role as a web designer, the UX world is not as ambiguous, and now, roles have become staffed with specialists whose sole purpose is strategy, copywriting, or research. However, as diverse as these teams become, the principles presented in that movie scene remain tried and true. Whether or not that scene happened in real life is anybody's guess, but as a designer, I'd like to think it did.
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