To build a platform for (high, sustainable) use, we need to know what will thrill users. Finding the right concoction of technology, functionality and design to thrill and delight users takes a thousand decisions, pivots and changes. The JSTOR Labs team has been using Flash Builds – high-intensity, short-burst, user-driven development efforts – in order to prototype new ideas and get to a user saying “Wow” in as little as a week. In this talk, I’ll describe how we’ve done this, highlighting the partnerships, skills, tools and content that help us innovate.

1. REALLY, REALLY
RAPID PROTOTYPING:
FLASH BUILDS &
USER-DRIVEN INNOVATION
February 23, 2015
Alex Humphreys, JSTOR Labs
@abhumphreys
NFAIS Annual Conference 2015

2. JSTOR is a not-for-profit
digital library of academic
journals, books, and primary
sources.
Ithaka S+R is a not-for-profit
research and consulting service
that helps academic, cultural,
and publishing communities
thrive in the digital
environment.
Portico is a not-for-profit
preservation service for digital
publications, including
electronic journals, books, and
historical collections.
ITHAKA is a not-for-profit organization that helps the academic
community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record
and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways.

3. A new-ish team at ITHAKA
Mission: to seek out new concepts and
opportunities, to refine and to
validate them through research and
experimentation.
Among our methods: Flash Builds*
(or a version of them)
* We first heard of Flash Builds from Marty Cagan, describing the work of the Nordstrom Innovation Lab.

4. CASE STUDY #1:
JSTOR SNAP

5. ONE WEEK IN ANN ARBOR…
https://vimeo.com/120185616

6. THE FINISHED PROTOTYPE
http://labs.jstor.org/snap

7. CASE STUDY #2:
UNDERSTANDING
SHAKESPEARE

8. PARTNERSHIP W/ FOLGER
Folger Shakespeare Library
• Folger Digital Texts
• Shakespeare Quarterly
• Scholars and students
Objective: demonstrate the
value of Folger Digital Texts to
scholars and students and
demonstrate how it can be
cross-referenced with
Shakespeare Quarterly.
JSTOR
• The full archive run of SQ
• 2000+ other journals
• A newly-formed Labs team
Objective: validate the value of
using a primary text as a portal
into secondary literature.

9. THE FINISHED PROTOTYPE
http://labs.jstor.org/shakespeare

10. THE
INGREDIENTS

11. • A diverse team with
technical, design and
business skills
• The best products combine
technical, design and
business innovations toward
a single goal
• Barest expression of that
goal = Minimum Viable
Product (MVP)
INGREDIENTS
A TEAM
Biz Image source:
http://uxtraordinary.com/venn-pie-agram/

12. • Flexible technology that
allows for componentization,
and continuous deployment
• Ability to produce, present,
augment and query content
in a variety of manners (aka
data science)
• A safe-space to fail, either
through a Labs team, an A/B
test or in-person testing
• Comfort with uncertainty
• The time to dedicate to the
work – eliminate
distractions; timed works
INGREDIENTS
A SPACE TO
INNOVATE
CulturalTechnical

13. • The ability to show work to
users early and often, with
the whole team present.
• User-research skills and
experience:
- Listening deeply
- Having multiple tools, fit
for purpose
- Knowing what can and
can’t be learned from a user
• Hypothesis-creation skills
and the discipline to know
what you’re trying to learn
when
INGREDIENTS
USERS

14. • Seeing through a user’s eyes,
you see the ecosystem in
which your product operates
• That helps show
opportunities / challenges
that can’t easily be met
• Partners can help to fill those
gaps
• Our best partnerships have
been open, exploratory
collaborations
INGREDIENTS
A PARTNER

15. INGREDIENTS
A PENCIL

16. THANK YOU
Alex Humphreys
AVP, JSTOR Labs
ITHAKA
http://labs.jstor.org
@abhumphreys
alex.humphreys@ithaka.org
Further Reading
• Lean Startup, Eric Ries
• Marty Cagan’s Blog:
http://svpg.com/articles/
• UX for Lean Startups, Laura Klein
• Lean Analytics, Croll & Yoskovitz

17. APPENDIX