Designing Human-Centered Data Products (Video Course)

A self-guided video course that will give you the practical UX & human-centered design skills you need to create indispensable analytics product, machine learning applications, and data-driven  SAAS products.

Markers in front of white board

If your data product relies on successful human interaction to create value, then the outputs of your data science and analytics must be simple, intuitive, and useful. It's that simple if you want to turn reactions like 🤷‍♀️🤔 into 🙂🙏🙆🏻‍♂️.

The secret lies in designing a compelling last-mile UX that focuses on outcomes over outputs. 

This course—designed for data scientists, analytics practitioners, and product leaders—will teach you how to approach designing data products that put the last mile, and the humans in the loop, first. Without meaningful customer engagement, you won't produce any business value.

Are you tired of building data solutions that don't get used or are undervalued?

Is low user engagement preventing your data initiatives from generating their full potential business value?

  • ~85% of AI, data, and analytics projects fail to deliver value or make it into production. Your company or team can contribute to that, or you can join the 15% who are creating useful, usable solutions that customers need.
  • Are you sick of hearing customers say, “So what? What do I do with this data?” when they see your solutions?
  • Are you afraid your budget or team might be facing cuts because your solutions are having little impact?
  • Is it frustrating when all of your technical work ends up never getting into production, perhaps due to model trust?
  • Do you frequently get inflated requests to "use AI" or "ML" because the project sponsor doesn't understand what's possible with data?

Wouldn't it be amazing if users felt your data product was a “game changer?”

  • Imagine knowing what is going to get adopted by users before you start building instead of after you're done.
  • Imagine hearing, “This is amazing! Can we start using it now?” when customers see your solution.
  • Imagine management doubling your budget because your solutions are delivering enormous value.
Cover Image - Designing Human-Centered Data Products by Brian T. O'Neill (cover image for the curriculum book)

My video course—Designing Human-Centered Data Products—can help. Here's how:

Whether you're leading a commercial software data product (i.e. SAAS/cloud decision support, market intelligence, IOT analytics) or you oversee an internal AI/ML initiative where simplicity, user engagement, and successful operationalization are critical to value creation, you're in the right place.

If your data product relies on humans to engage with it, then success boils down to the UX you deliver in the last mile. Doing this requires more than technical or business skills. Design is the glue that connects the stats, analytics, AI, ML, and engineering work with the value and outcomes the business and customers seek. In short, users don't want data; they want clear answers and actionable insight.​

In the course curriculum, you will learn how to:

  • Understand what users and stakeholders actually need
  • Avoid building the wrong solutions through better problem definition
  • Ensure stakeholders understand the value your data product will bring
  • Identify the unspoken needs, desires, and whys in your customers' minds
  • Turn vague “AI” requests into clear problems you can address
  • Getting alignment on what to build before you build it
  • Validate if customers will use your solution before overcommitting on the tech
  • Navigate the organizational obstacles that might keep your data product from getting incorporated into production
  • Lead a cross-department design jams (ideation sessions) to generate solution ideas
  • Learn to rapidly sketch evaluate, and revise a data product prototype/design/idea
  • Design vs. just doing design thinking!

Finally there is now a method to make data products that folds together the problem solving, the UX, and then ties it back to money.

As a company, our people really need to get value from the data products that are being produced. We have had users who thought they knew exactly what they wanted from the data, but our solutions were not exactly solving their problems. Finally there is now a method to make data products that folds together the problem solving, the UX, and then ties it back to money. The simplicity of the curriculum has made it easy for me to reframe things in simple terms to the core stakeholder requesting the tools from my team. I absolutely would recommend this course.

Rebecca SlaterRebecca Slater
Digital Transformation Lead | Data & Insight Evangelist
Lockheed Martin

A very solid framework to get started on design for data solutions

It's a quick and accessible snapshot of how to think about user design for data solutions products. You can go deep in UX design, you can talk about data solutions, but how do you combine the two in a very digestible way? I think it’s a very solid framework to get started. I would definitely recommend the seminar.

Wendy RobertsWendy Roberts
Principal
Manifold (AI Engineering Consultancy)
[Seminar Participant]

Who's this course for?

If you're leading the creation of a data product—commercial or otherwise—and you have responsibility to ensure the solution is useful, usable, and valuable to your customers, this course can help. You may be a:

  • Data scientist, analytics leader, or analytics translator
  • Software product managers focused on data  products
    (e.g. intelligence, decision support, analytics, IOT, or monitoring products)
  • Consultants and services firms providing data science, analytics, or design/engineering consulting for data-driven products
  • ...and somebody who wants to work at their own pace, on their own, without video and Slack access to Brian and a cohort of other students (as is the case in the Online Seminar version of this course)

Try or Buy Now

Cover Image - Designing Human-Centered Data Products by Brian T. O'Neill (cover image for the curriculum book)

Purchase the Course

Get full access for (1) person to all the modules (8 videos and 8 written supplements) sent to your inbox within minutes. See the money-back guarantee and curriculum.

Download Free Trial

Get access to first module's video and text supplement sent to your inbox now. I'll also tell you more about what's in each module.

Need my help, accountability, or prefer learning in a group setting?

This Self-Guided Course is also available as a multi-week Instructor-Led Seminar that I personally teach. Available for private teams and open to public twice a year.

100% Money-Back Guarantee

The course comes with a 100% money-back guarantee. If you aren't happy with the training within the first 2 weeks of purchase, just let me know and I'll refund your money in full.

Curriculum (What's Included)

  • Includes: a curriculum of (8) recorded video and text modules, plus special templates and cheat-sheets for creating project briefs, journey maps/service blueprints, UI cheatsheets, and usability studies. Videos are hosted on Vimeo and written content. Note: this is a self-guided course. If you're looking for an instructor to hold you accountable and provide answers to your questions, check out my Instructor-Led Seminar for data teams.

Time Commitment

  • You Choose: you can put in as much time or little as you want; the course is primarily designed around "learning by doing;" skills you can apply to real projects. Module videos tend to be between 5-25 minutes each, and written module texts are 3-10 pages typically.

Brian's process was holistic and internally consistent

"I never had fully appreciated the level of integration and the number of different disciplines required to arrive at a thoughtful piece of analysis that properly communicates the evidentiary support for my argument…What I like about Brian's seven step process is that it is holistic and internally consistent. Each piece builds off of the previous pieces…and Brian presents it as a repeatable process…There are a lot of things about designing UI things I just never would have thought of. I think the people who will probably get the most benefit out of Brian's seminar will be people who are more senior level people. Junior people are just not being asked to deal with the entire lifecycle, which is what the seminar is about."

Brian ClancyBrian Clancy
Managing Director
Logistics Capital & Strategy
[Seminar Participant]

Prospects were wowed by Brian's work; I wouldn’t hesitate to call him if I needed design strategy for another analytics product…

Brian’s questioning of our business and user objectives for a new video analytics SAAS–prior to any discussion of design solutions–was a bit unusual for me. In fact, I’ve rarely met anyone with a process like his. That said, by the time we started negotiating with Brian, we had already decided to work with him. One of the key capabilities Brian brought to the table was the ability to help us distinguish between "vanity" analytics and "actionable” analytics, so that our service’s data was always presented in a way to help users actually make better business decisions. In the end, the prospects to whom we showed Brian’s designs were wowed by the extremely clean and elegant presentation of our video analytics, and we got excellent feedback that this design was much better than the existing, highly established players in this space. At that point, we knew our main business challenge would be sales access, and not product quality. If I needed to develop a design strategy for another analytics product or service in the future, I wouldn’t hesitate to call Brian first.

Rohit SharmaRohit Sharma
Managing Director, North America
kPoint Technologies

Transformation begins by focusing on viewing the business from the outside-in

Internal customer-focused transformation begins by focusing on viewing the business from the outside-in — that is, from the customer’s point of view.

Curriculum: (8) Core Modules

My curriculum is a mix of UX design, product management, consulting and other applicable skills from domains as far away as FBI hostage negotiation—but always focused on skills you can put into practice immediately. There are no grades or certificates. Most modules also include a section on "Key Considerations for AI," which explain the special design considerations for machine-learning applications that may differ from traditional (descriptive) analytics applications.

The modules are:

FAQ

Who is Brian?

My name is Brian T. O'Neill, and I am the founder and principal of Designing for Analytics, a consulting firm that helps companies apply human-centered design to data science and analytics. I have worked with companies including DellEMC, Tripadvisor, Fidelity, JP Morgan Chase, ETrade and numerous SAAS startups so my perspective working in business, product, and UX design spans multiple industries and everything from tech companies to banks.

In addition to hosting the Experiencing Data podcast and consulting, I also frequently give talks at conferences including O'Reilly Strata, Enterprise Data World, the International Institute for Analytics Symposium, and Predictive Analytics World. After these talks, attendees started asking me if I had a training offering, and I said no. Until now.

100% Money-Back Guarantee

The course comes with a 100% money-back guarantee. If you aren't happy at the end, just let me know and I'll refund your money.

1 course, 1 person

Please note: purchasing this course entitles you to a license for (1) person only. Sharing of the videos and written modules is not permitted. Please see the FAQ re: sharing for details and using the course with teams.

Questions?

Just email me at brian@designingforanalytics.com.

Try or Buy Now

Cover Image - Designing Human-Centered Data Products by Brian T. O'Neill (cover image for the curriculum book)

Purchase the Course

Get full access for (1) person to all the modules (8 videos and 8 written supplements) sent to your inbox within minutes. See the money-back guarantee and curriculum.

Download Free Trial

Get access to first module's video and text supplement sent to your inbox now. I'll also tell you more about what's in each module.

Need my help, accountability, or prefer learning in a group setting?

This Self-Guided Course is also available as a multi-week Instructor-Led Seminar that I personally teach. Available for private teams and open to public twice a year.

Note: Pricing and details are subject to change without notice, however my subscribers are first to know about changes, additions, and special offers.  

Photo by Mark Rabe on Unsplash