Menlo High-Tech Anthropology® Workshop: Designing User-Centered Solutions

This workshop takes anthropology, "the science of humanity," and shows you how to apply its tools to the business world. Originally developed to identify the goals of software and technology users and design solutions for them, Menlo’s High-Tech Anthropology® (HTA) approach is just as effective at identifying key places to adjust a non-software process that isn’t working or at discovering new business opportunities. Core elements include in-depth examinations of relevant people and places, immersion in the area of interest, and the importance of using observations to inform both discovery and design. By studying end-users in their own environment and using workflows and mind-maps to capture and distill the information they gather, our High-Tech Anthropologists® mitigate the risk of failure at the end of a project's life by ensuring solutions are designed to effectively meet end-users' goals from the get-go.

In this two-day workshop, you will be immersed in all pieces of our HTA process. With a pair of Menlo’s High-Tech Anthropologists® to guide you, you will learn how to think like your customers and users in order to design a joyful experience that will delight them. You'll achieve this by gaining hands-on experience with interviews, observations, writing personas, and prioritizing users, as well as iterative design and the evaluation of solutions.

During this workshop, note that you will work on a real challenge faced by an organization in our or your community (based on workshop location) while you practice this crucial piece of The Menlo Way™. You will likely be presenting your findings and designs to a real project sponsor!

You will come away knowing how to:

• Use interview and observation data to unearth the critical and often hidden goals and needs of your users
• Synthesize findings from the field through workflows and mind maps
• Use persona mapping with business stakeholders to get consensus on project direction and goals
• Craft multiple design options geared towards uncovering what would best meet users’ needs and elicit critical user feedback to assess design options
• Utilize the iterative design process to create effective designs that delight users

While originally built around in-person work, we have found ways to adapt our HTA process to work both 100% remote and hybrid while maintaining the integrity, goals, and values achieved with our in-person processes. We're happy to answer questions and discuss what the adapted versions look like.

This workshop is great for team members at any level of your organization and for organizations of any kind. Completing this workshop satisfies the PMP® requirements for earning 16 Professional Development Units (PDUs).

Public workshops are dependent on a minimum number of attendees to run and are subject to cancellation in the case that this number is not met.

Have a group of 6 or more people? Check out our options for a virtual or in-person private workshop.