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User-centric design is the foundation of every unique experience. We can confidently say that UX makes or break a digital solution.

In 90% of cases, new solutions that are conceptualized and tested will only have users if the solution is built with users in mind. If a solution is not built, there are no users. Even when you build a solid M.V.P. (Minimum Viable Product), gathering significant feedback can take six months to a year or building a large enough user base to conduct solid, dependable quantitative and qualitative research. While you can obtain qualitative feedback within three months, getting it from users who value the tool and are willing to pay for it is essential. These are the people who will care the most and are more likely to participate in any type of research you facilitate.

So what happens when we don’t have users?

I’ve been a user experience designer for over 16 years, a graphic designer for nearly 25 years, and a digital solution builder for a long time. Ideation revolves around conceptual design, transforming an idea into a visual, tangible product. Many of us rely on our instincts, but with the wide variety of experiences out there and user experience being relatively new in the educational space, there are many ways to approach design, which can sometimes be confusing and produce varying results.

There’s really no one correct way to research a product. Some designers may only consult with stakeholders and then rely on their gut feelings, designing to the taste of those stakeholders. They might work directly with the company’s C.E.O. or P.O. to execute digital designs, while others — primarily founders with experience in digital design — may make decisions based on industry norms. For example, if a user is building a profile experience for a digital tool, they might research trends online and copy them, which is an intelligent approach.

What if I told you there was a better way to design digital solutions without over engineering and over-designing a tool?

I’ve developed a simple methodology to help ensure your startup M.V.P. hits all the targets, regardless of whether you, the researcher, are familiar with the digital product’s subject.

Often, we come into projects without knowing anything about the industry or the field. As digital designers, we’re skilled at our craft, but some need help putting ourselves in the user’s shoes. The first step in design thinking is to empathize with the user. This is the primary directive in user research because better understanding the user’s challenges and pain points can help us better solve them.

It’s easy when users directly tell us their issues with a digital tool, but what happens when you don’t have anyone to tell you? Some say figuring out pain points without building the tool first is nearly impossible. But in my years of experience, I’ve had the opportunity to do this repeatedly, having facilitated over 20+ startup research initiatives and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s the most effective way to invent personas when you don’t have them.

So… here goes nothing.

Introduction to U.S.W.I.R.S.

I want to talk to you about the U.S.W.I.R.S. method — not “users,” but U.S.W.I.R.S. pronounced “Users.” This methodology is an acronym for, and an easy way to remember, the six easy steps to develop personas, journeys, process maps, feature finds, etc. for digital apps that currently don’t exist and for which you do not have users to sympathize.

U.S.W.I.R.S. stands for…

User. Scenario. World. Interaction. Relationship. Solution.

I’ve repeatedly used this methodology with new solutions. Sure, you can use it with existing solutions when you need access to your users. The methodology is a great tool when you simply can’t talk to people or collect crucial information to significantly impact the experience. I will walk you through it, and it’ll help you the next time you work on conceptual or startup products.

Users

How many people would use this app, and who are they? Step one is simply defining users.

We start with names, technical capabilities, roles, or anything related to the person. When it comes to the actual user, it represents your persona — who is the person most likely to use this tool? Who is the second person to use this tool? Go ahead and create digital personas. Open up a whiteboard in Figma, Miro, MURAL, or whichever tool you use, and create a persona. It doesn’t matter what they do or what they like. However, when building a tool or digital product, you have some idea — nobody is utterly oblivious to who this tool is for. If you have a startup app or a concept you’re working on, you know who will most likely use this tool.

For example, if I’m building a ride-sharing app, I would assume my typical users are people who don’t have a vehicle or are traveling, so my persona might be “Jim,” who walks to work due to his car bieng serviced, or “Sara,” who is coming back from vacation with her family. Simple assumptions based on what you know about the product are okay. We’ll never get it 100% right, but making educated guesses is fine. Always include technical capability and their roles in this step, as these will influence the world you eventually build around them.

Scenario

What would be a typical scenario or situation this user may have?
The second step is to create a scenario.

Going back to step one, when building the users, I mentioned that Sara was returning from vacation and Jim was getting his car serviced. That’s a scenario. You want to write it out, so you should document your scenario aside from your North Star and your problem statements. It should be in story format. It could be as simple as, “Jim got a flat tire on his way to work, so he called his boss to inform him he’d be late and had to drive to a service station. The service station said they couldn’t attend to his car immediately, and it would be ready in five hours.” That’s way too long for Jim to wait at the service station, so this scenario makes him use the app.

In my scenario, I detail how this person arrives at the app. Again, you can ultimately make this up. The important part is that the user defined in step one ends up in the scenario described in step two. You must always think long and hard about how the user uses this product. That’s the key part: you want to ensure your scenario correctly explains why this person would use the app you are designing

World

What is your users’ world or environment, and how will that world affect the user?

Step three is world-building — creating a world around your users.
Regardless of the tool you’re building, you want to give this user real-life problems, family members, issues, jobs, etc. The user you define in step one, the scenario you create in step two, and the understanding that drives the user to use this tool or digital solution should reflect that these people have family members and regular lives. Use the would to play devils advocate and envision all that can affect your user. This app they will eventually use in the scenario should stress this.

For example, Jim had to call his boss before heading to the shop. Jim may have a family who thinks he’s at work, so he might have to call his wife. Maybe he has a daughter who needs the car later, and it won’t be ready on time. Consider situations that will bring people who aren’t the primary users into your tool and how you would address them if there are any. Sometimes, no one else will be involved. Still, when it comes to workplace environments and digital product tools, there’s almost always some aspect of collaboration or a challange for the user to overcome.

Worldbuilding is about ensuring that you’re detailing an explicit world around this person, including the company they work for, their team, and typical things that happen in their environment, whether it’s an office or a home workspace. This will help you think of additional stop gaps and fill holes in the process you may not have thought of because you didn’t involve an environment or anyone else in this person’s life. Your primary persona is the user, the scenario they’re in, and the environment around them.

World-building fills in the gaps in your digital product and allows you to consider situations you may have missed if you had only focused on the primary concept. When external factors are considered, you start to see additional scenarios, external interference, or conflict that could impact the user of your digital product experience.

Interact

How do your users interact with the world around them in their current situation? Step four is to log those interactions if any.

Now that you know who your users are, understand their scenario, and recognize the world around them, you can start gaining insight into their interactions with external factors. Would there be an interaction? If so, would it present a challenge or pain point? Would it take the user in a direction other than the primary objective? This is where we really stretch our imagination and empathize with our users. From step one (the persona), step two (the scenario), and step three (the world-building), we must consider what interactions the user would have with the world.

For example, how would Sara interact with the driver of the ride-sharing app? How would she interact with a family member waiting for her at home? How would Jim interact with his boss, who is waiting for him at work, or wife who may need the car before he can have it returned to him? You need to define whether interactions would be benign to the the flow or impact the user.

Relationships

What relationships are formed, if any, and how will your user manage them? Step five is managing relationships.

The digital tool you’re creating must overcome any pain points caused by the user’s scenario, the world, external factors, and those interactions. Ensure that all the users can efficiently manage relationships within your tool. Remember, we’re not looking to solve every problem, but if we can simplify the user’s job, that would be great. How would I manage that interaction if it occurred within my digital product? How would I manage the pain points, external factors, and challenges that my users may face if they were to happen? How would I manage the world? How would I manage the other personas? Would there be a need for collaboration or connection with others?

Consider what’s happening and what relationships your users manage while using the tool, especially if your app is for a workplace or collaborative experience. All tools have relationships to manage, whether between external people, the personas themselves, with an automated system, or even just with the tool itself. You need to define that relationship clearly.

Solution

What impacts are the above(1–5) having on the user and how is the product solving their problem? Lastly, step six is about solving the problem.

When you clearly understand your users’ personas, scenarios, interactions, and how they would manage all these relationships, you can effectively solve their problems.

Remember, every user has challenges, and your digital product is there to solve those challenges with minimal pain points. If you follow these steps, I guarantee you will be able to build something that will help you create an M.V.P. that you can effectively sell. It’s about more than just making money but creating a valuable product that users will find beneficial, whether you have users or not. You’ll likely start with users at the beginning of this process, but if you still need to, you can create them in step one. This is how you create personas and the steps necessary to solve the pain points within your digital tool. Once you’ve solved these problems, you’ll have a complete digital product ready to go into the world.

There you go.

User. Scenario. World. Interaction. Relationship. Solution.

The next time you find yourself in a position where you don’t have access to users, or you don’t have an audience, think about the U.S.W.I.R.S. method. This methodology will help you create something better than if you just trusted your gut instincts. User-centered design is the key to creating digital products that people want to use. Following the U.S.W.I.R.S. method, you can ensure that your startup M.V.P. hits all the marks, and that your totally made up users, enjoy their made up experience on your very real app!