A person explaining a hand-drawn screen flow on a glass wall as three colleagues look on

Our approach

Understand the context. Create next steps your team can act on.

Every engagement starts with understanding your product’s target market and users, and the problems your team needs to solve now. We look at how local users work and what they expect, then turn the gaps we find into improvement priorities and concrete design.

Second Context’s six-step approach tests assumptions about the market and turns them into outcomes your team can act on.

6 steps

Six-step approach

Each step’s deliverable informs the decisions in the next. Select a step to jump to its details.

  1. Step 1: Understand the market and context of use

    DeliverableMarket and context-of-use brief

  2. Step 2: Review the product experience and localization assumptions

    DeliverableUX review and list of localization assumptions

  3. Step 3: Agree on direction and priorities

    DeliverablePriority matrix and design direction

  4. Step 4: Design for the local context

    DeliverableImproved user flows, plus designs and prototypes within the agreed scope

  5. Step 5: Plan execution and connect to development

    DeliverableDesign handoff materials and an execution plan

  6. Step 6: Validate and carry into the next iteration

    DeliverableValidation results and a follow-up improvement backlog

Validation results from step 06 feed the next round of improvements.

Step-by-step description, deliverables, and expected outcomes

  1. Step 1: Understand the market and context of use

    Together we define the target market, core users, work environment, and business goals.

    Deliverable
    Market and context-of-use brief
    Expected outcome
    Clarity on the problems to review and the scope of collaboration

  2. Step 2: Review the product experience and localization assumptions

    We review onboarding, core workflows, navigation, and UI copy, and identify the assumptions to test from a local user’s perspective.

    Deliverable
    UX review and list of localization assumptions
    Expected outcome
    Friction in the product experience and items to validate, identified

  3. Step 3: Agree on direction and priorities

    We decide which problems and goals to tackle first, based on user impact, business importance, and implementation effort.

    Deliverable
    Priority matrix and design direction
    Expected outcome
    Clear criteria for where to focus your team’s time and resources

  4. Step 4: Design for the local context

    Focusing on the agreed core problems, we design user flows, information architecture, screens, and copy.

    Deliverable
    Improved user flows, plus designs and prototypes within the agreed scope
    Expected outcome
    Product direction confirmed as a concrete experience

  5. Step 5: Plan execution and connect to development

    We document design intent, requirements, edge cases to consider, and next tasks, and carry them into development.

    Deliverable
    Design handoff materials and an execution plan
    Expected outcome
    Less uncertainty and fewer misinterpretations during implementation

  6. Step 6: Validate and carry into the next iteration

    Within the agreed scope, we review user feedback or usage data and define follow-up improvements.

    Deliverable
    Validation results and a follow-up improvement backlog
    Expected outcome
    Evidence-based support for your next product decisions

The overall process and deliverables depend on the scope of the engagement. Short consultations and UX reviews focus on the steps you need; user research, prototyping, development support, and follow-up validation are carried out within a separately agreed scope.

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Priorities

We agree together on what to solve first, and how to decide.

The more there seems to fix, the more you need clear criteria. Using user impact, business importance, and implementation effort, we choose which problems and goals come first and agree where to focus the team’s time and resources.

Four people looking over screen sketches spread out on a table
Example deliverable Prioritization matrix

  • Do first

    High impact · Easy to build

    • A Explain value on the first screen
    • B Clarify button labels

  • Plan and schedule

    High impact · Hard to build

    • C Redesign the approval flow

  • When there’s time

    Low impact · Easy to build

    • D Tidy up icons

  • Revisit

    Low impact · Hard to build

    • E Full dashboard overhaul

Business value

Product design that supports your team’s decisions and execution.

  • Clear improvement priorities

    We define which problems to solve first, and why.

  • Understanding of local users

    We bring users’ expectations and real work context into product decisions.

  • Smooth design and development collaboration

    We turn the agreed direction into buildable requirements and designs.

  • Continuous improvement through validation

    We carry feedback and usage evidence into the next round of improvements.

Contact

Start with a 30-minute call.

Book a 30-minute call Send a project inquiry