I'm taking a class in user experience at my nearby junior college. And some of it seems really practical; but other parts of it don't.
For instance, a few weeks ago we spend a good amount of time creating personas for our target users. And then we created storyboards and scenarios. And so on.
In a few weeks, according to the syllabus, we're going to do user research methods I've never heard of: card sort, unfocus group, collage groups, and such.
My question is: is my class representative of what the average startup goes through when designing a user experience? It seems to me that most startups don't do most this process.
You should also keep in mind that all these are methods and not goals. You do not need personas/card sort/whatever to build a product, but they can help prevent or solve a problem. Startups often wait to the 'solve a problem' phase before they invest in these methods. That is fine, as long as you a) can detect your problem early, and b) once you have identified your problem, do not waste time doing stuff that does not help solve it. For these, you have to know what methods exist and what kind of problems they are useful for. That is what you should take away from this class.