A · Professional problem solving and implementation

Product discovery and experience design

Using user research, prototypes, and experience design to clarify problems and validate solutions.

Classification boundary

Include: Include craft practice in user research, recruitment, interviewing, information architecture, interaction, and experience validation.

Choose a neighboring leaf when: Use C product judgment for deciding whether a problem or solution creates value, including design trade-offs.

This capability may appear in standards across different stages. Explore stage expectations

16 questions

Choose a group based on the evidence you need. Groups follow existing question formats, not difficulty or mandatory prerequisites. Each batch has up to eight questions.

Judgment and options16

Compare goals, constraints, options, and trade-offs.

Questions 1–8

A workspace contains hundreds of items that people find by customer, status, owner, or date. Its navigation follows the company org chart, so users struggle to find things. How would you reorganize it and test findability?
A study was commissioned to validate a new dashboard. Most users say current reports are sufficient; a few advanced users want more. The project lead wants to highlight supportive interviews. How would you summarize the findings?
In research for a new feature, a small group of frequent users strongly supports the concept, while novice participants repeatedly fail the core task and the analytics show no clear difference. How would you interpret what each piece of evidence can tell you and decide whether to proceed, revise, or run more research?
In a usability session, the moderator repeatedly asks whether the design is clearer, and users agree. Video shows repeated hesitation during tasks. How would you handle the evidence and next study?
Interview participants are almost all power users and community members. Feedback on the latest redesign is positive, but retention continues to fall. How would you redesign recruitment and research questions?
During user interviews, people repeatedly suggest buttons, filters, and reminders but rarely describe their goals or blocked situations. How would you adjust question order and wording to distinguish real experiences, stated preferences, and proposed solutions?
The team believes a new flow is simpler, but usability tests show only familiar users succeed; newcomers get stuck on permission explanations and next steps. How would you recruit, design tasks, and define observations to judge whether it is actually usable?
Researchers can recruit only active users but need to understand why occasional or churned users leave. How would you identify sample bias, adjust recruitment, and limit the reach of conclusions?

Questions 9–16

An operations table uses red, yellow, and green for risk. Some users cannot distinguish the colors, and screen readers announce only values. How would you redesign the information?
A feature targets people who have never used the product, but all usability participants are core users. Which design decisions can the current evidence support?
After submitting a form, users see “validation failed,” with no field identified and no entered data preserved. How would you redesign the error and recovery path?
A desktop admin table has 14 columns, while mobile users need to handle exceptions in the field. How would you decide what to retain, hide, or move to details?
A dashboard flags anomalies but shows no magnitude, baseline, or related events. Users export data to interpret it themselves. How would you improve diagnosis?
Review feedback centers on “not premium enough” or “I dislike this color,” but the team has no shared user goal. How would you run the next review?
Operators, managers, and auditors share a workspace but need different information and permissions. How would you design default views and personalization?
The product serves professionals and must use industry terms, but new users often stop or choose incorrectly. How would you design comprehension support?

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