Ioannis Feneris
UX Design Process in Agile Teams - Being Agile on Being Agile
13th Agile & Lean Meetup @ Thessaloniki

Hi :-)

I am
Ioannis Feneris

And I am a
User Experience Designer

Wait... What is User Experience?


"User experience" encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products.

The Definition of User Experience (UX)
by Don Norman and Jakob Nielsen

It's not a trend, it's... evolution

Is it worth it? UX benefits

Find/Cover User Needs

If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called 'research,' would it?

Albert Einstein
High ROI

Every dollar spent to resolve a problem during product design, $10 would be spent on the same problem during development and $100 or more if the problem had to be solved after the product’s release

Robert Pressman
Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach
Reduce Wasted Time

The amount of time that programmers spend on rework that is actually avoidable, is 50% of their time

Dr. Susan Weinschenk
The ROI of User Experience, Human Factors International (HFI)
Reduce Risk + Cost of Failure

Up to 15% of all IT projects are abandoned.

Dr. Susan Weinschenk
The ROI of User Experience, Human Factors International (HFI)
Track Goals
The resulting metrics have helped product teams
make decisions that are both data driven and user-centered

Kerry Rodden, Hilary Hutchinson, Xin Fu
Measuring the User Experience on a Large Scale: User-Centered Metrics for Web Applications
Improve Conversion

Great user experiences can lead to great results

Peep Laja
Great User Experience (UX) Leads to Conversions

What about UX Design and Agile S/W Dev Teams?

Agile

Scrum, Kanban, Lean, XP ... Developers have their agile methodologies.
Now, what about UX Design process? Can it also be agile?

Well.. There are some "special" issues in UX Design

The bigger picture

UX team has to be able to see both the "bigger picture" of the project and also focus on every kind of certain task in the development process.
Time-consuming tasks

Some UX Design tasks require a large amount of time to complete, and cannot be broken into smaller parts.
Change of product "direction"

Sometimes it happens. Ok, most times it happens. UX team has to be very adaptive in changes of product direction, lead the way and prepare all the further actions in design and development process.
Before or after development sprints?

Both! We think that design and UX tasks come first, before starting to develop. But in reality, we have to get feedback about the technical constraints from the dev teams, then re-design and test again.

Bridging the gap in Agile Development Process
Methods and Tips

Scrum with JIT Design

Design Just In Time
Integration, collaboration of dev and UX designers
No context-switch overheads of designers, as they are focused on sprint tasks
Less to almost no documentation
Can test throughout dev cycles
Adaptive in any change of product "direction"

No much time for design
Might lose sight of the bigger picture
Hard to do targeted research

Scrum with BDUF

Big Design Up Front
Time to do great research
Time to design and test properly

Still waterfall
No collaboration
Need of great documentation
Unknown technical constraints
Whatever design issue occur throughout dev cycles, cannot get solution
Not adaptive in any change of product "direction"

Scrum with Design (in) Spikes

Take advantage of SCRUM spikes, to do UX Design
Time to research and test, throughout product development
Can always see the bigger picture
Adaptive in any change of product "direction", but not instantly

Need of documentation
Can slow down the start of next dev cycles

Kanban with UX column

Time to research, design, test
Integration of dev and UX design process
Adaptive in changes of product backlog

Need of documentation
No real collaboration
Overheads, as every design issue that happens after initial design, has to re-enter column in different priority

Separate Kanbans

Time to research, design, test
Adaptive in changes of product backlog

Need of Documentation
Collaboration is challenged
Designers loose focus of current dev tasks

Scrum with Staggered Sprints

Seperate SCRUM processes, aligned sprints, UX is one sprint ahead
Time to research, design, and test, before and after development
Adaptive in changes of product backlog

Collaboration is challenged
Alignment is challenged, if (when) designers give tasks in future dev sprints
Designers loose focus of current dev tasks

Lean UX

Measure, Learn and Build, as a team. Then again. And again.
So, basically it is
Focus on
Outcome, not output
Assumptions, not requirements
Value, not features
The Process:

Consider the Context, Research
Research types, Data
Create Assumptions
"We believe that..."
Craft Hypotheses
"If... Then... We will know we're right when..."
Design/Build Experiment
Create MVP
Analyse Results
Pivot or Persevere
Collaboration, team empowered to solve the problem
Test throughout process
Deliver real value in product
Extremely adaptive in changes of product direction
Less Documentation

Hard to get buy-in
Team engagement is crucial
Must have cross functional team members

So... who is the winner?

NONE :/

Whaaat? And what can we do?

AGILE2
Be
agile
on being agile

Check what we really have, then decide... Then check again...

Do we have a UX team or ?
Is there collaboration spirit or ?
Is there true engagement or ?
Is our team cross functional or ?
Do we have a clear goal or ?

The End

Thank you :)


Read/Watch More

The Definition of User Experience (UX), by Don Norman and Jakob Nielsen
Introducing UX to Your Development Process, by Matt Lavoie
Pivot or Persevere? Find Out Using Lean Experiments, by Amanda Stockwell
Doing UX in an Agile World: Case Study Findings, by Hoa Loranger

The ROI of User Experience with Dr. Susan Weinschenk, Human Factors International

The Design of Everyday Things, Revised and expanded edition, by Donald A. Norman
Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, by Steve Krug
Lean UX: Designing Great Products with Agile Teams, by Jeff Gothelf