Hire Your Users: a brainstorming tactic

As I was preparing for a brainstorming session, I started thinking about how to start discussion about a business’ users without explicitly asking “who do you think your users are?” That approach seemed rife with canned answers; I was looking for something different.

So, I put together a post called “Hire Your Users: a brainstorming technique” over on the Capstrat blog. To whet your appetite, here’s a snippet:

“Hire Your Users” is technique that would be applied in early discovery to start defining these boundaries. Using the metaphor of a hiring process, it helps design strategists and stakeholders collaborate on who the users are, in what order they should be considered, what they need to accomplish, and how they might do so.

Go check it out, if you have a moment. I’d like to hear your thoughts about this too.