Customer-Centric

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Map direct and indirect system users across organizational layers to clarify who affects or relies on product outcomes.

Use it when: Use during early product discovery, service redesign, or requirements gathering when a team only focuses on immediate operators and risks missing downstream users.

Skip it when: Skip when the focus is purely internal code architecture, when user roles are already verified through fieldwork, or when teams need quantitative backlog sizing rather than role discovery.

Group arrangement: Small working groups of 4 to 6 people at separate concentric circle charts, or one shared chart for groups under 8

Timing: Source recommends 1 hour for 5 to 8 players. UWT provides a 45-minute structured design to fit multi-table discovery workshops.

Materials and tools

• 1 large poster paper or whiteboard space per working group
• Marker pens (2 distinct colors per group: black for notes, blue or red for arrows)
• Sticky notes (3 pads of 3x3 inch notes per table)
• Timer

Before participants arrive

1. On each poster or whiteboard section, draw four concentric circles.
2. Label the zones from inside to outside: 1. Product (center), 2. System (direct users), 3. Containing System (operational roles who do not touch the interface directly), 4. Wider Environment (external customers, regulators, suppliers).
3. Write the chosen target product or service clearly in the center circle.

Say this to open

Most systems fail because we design only for the person clicking the screen, ignoring the people who rely on the data or hand off the work. Today we will build an onion diagram around our focal product. We will identify direct users, operational roles in the containing system, and outside beneficiaries, then trace how work flows between them.

How to run it

1. Clarify layers and central product 5 minutes

   Introduce the four zones on the pre-drawn chart: Center (the product), Ring 2 (direct hands-on users), Ring 3 (containing system roles who interact with the outputs or feed the inputs without touching the tool), Ring 4 (wider environment such as external buyers, regulators, or end consumers). State the specific product in the center.

2. Silent persona generation 8 minutes

   Each participant works silently to write distinct roles or personas on sticky notes, one role per note. Prompt them to consider who configures it, who enters data, who audits it, who receives reports, and who pays for the end result. Stop when the timer sounds.

3. Place and cluster roles 12 minutes

   Table members take turns placing notes into Ring 2, Ring 3, or Ring 4. If someone places a role in Ring 2, they explain what that role does with the product. The team consolidates duplicates and debates roles whose layer is unclear until consensus is reached.

4. Map interaction lines 10 minutes

   Using a colored marker, participants draw directional arrows between related roles to indicate who sends information, hands off tasks, or delivers outputs to whom. Focus especially on links crossing from Ring 2 out to Rings 3 and 4.

5. Debrief system insights 10 minutes

   Each table shares one previously overlooked role and one critical cross-ring handoff with the room. Review the debrief questions as a whole group.

Debrief questions

• Which role in Ring 3 or 4 receives critical output but has zero say in interface design?
• Where does information break down or require manual translation between two connected roles?
• What requirement must we add to satisfy an indirect stakeholder's need?

Finished output: A four-ring ecosystem diagram populated with role sticky notes and directional interaction arrows.

Remote

Set up a digital whiteboard with four concentric circular frames. Provide digital sticky notes beside the board. In steps 2 and 3, participants place digital notes into the rings. In step 4, use digital connector lines with arrowheads to map handoffs. Run whole-group debrief in the main video channel.

Hybrid

Pair in-person tables with remote participants using a mirrored digital whiteboard on a shared screen. Assign a designated table scribe to mirror physical sticky notes onto the digital board, or run all role creation directly on the digital board so remote and in-room participants have equal visual presence.

Access and participation choices

• Offer typed digital sticky notes or spoken role suggestions recorded by a scribe for participants with motor or writing limitations.
• Allow participants to contribute without speaking aloud by writing notes and placing them on the board silently during step 3.

If the session gets stuck

Participants place everyone in Ring 2 claiming everybody touches the software.

Clarify that Ring 2 is strictly for hands-on, day-to-day operators. Ask: 'If this person went on vacation, would they personally log in, or do they merely read a printed report?' Move report-readers to Ring 3.

Disagreements over whether a vendor or client belongs in Ring 3 or Ring 4.

Remind the group that Ring 3 is within the operating organization. External parties outside organizational control belong in Ring 4. Place the note on the border line if ambiguous and keep moving.

Terms used here

• Containing System: The immediate operational organization or workflow surrounding the product, including roles that supply inputs or consume outputs without directly operating the tool.
• Direct Stakeholder: A person or role that directly operates or configures the product interface.