When companies adopt an agile development environment, UX teams often feel like they just lost their seat at the table. It’s never easy to change, but by adapting your UX practices to accommodate agile, you can have the impact on design you always wanted.

1. Maximizing the Impact of UX
in an Agile Environment:
Mixing Agile and Lean UX
John Whalen, Ph.D.
Principal, Strategy & User Experience
Brilliant Experience

2. Research
Stakeholder Interviews
Field Research
Competitor Reviews
Expert Reviews
Strategy and Ideation
Strategy Workshop
Design Studio
Rapid Prototyping
Iterative Refinement
UX and Design
IA & Flow
Interaction Design
Concept Realization
Visual Design & Branding

3. Agenda
‣ Part 1: The Rise of Agile
‣ Part 2: Mixing Agile & Lean UX
‣ Part 3: Lessons Learned on Adopting Lean UX & Agile

4. Part 1: The Rise of Agile

5. Problem:
!
- clients have limited UX/design capabilities
- need to move faster, (not slower) while introducing UX

6. How do cross the chasm and do more
with less?
User Insights
Great Experience,
Successful Product
Insert
Magical
Process
Here

7. Not recommended

8. Hard to find

9. Try this

10. To help you understand what “this” is,
let’s play: ‘Name that Methodology’

11. 1 2 3 4
Empathize with
the audience
you are
designing for
Brainstorm
possible
designs
Build a
representation of
one or more of
your ideas
PrototypeIdeateResearch
Test your ideas
for feedback
Test

12. 1 2 3 4
Empathize with
the audience
you are
designing for
Brainstorm
possible
designs
Build a
representation of
one or more of
your ideas
PrototypeIdeateResearch
Test your ideas
for feedback
Test
Design
Thinking

13. Design Thinking

14. Build
1
Measure
2
Learn
3

15. Build
1
Measure
2
Learn
3
Lean
Startup

16. Lean Startup

17. 1
23
User Stories
Design
& Develop
Feedback

18. 1
23
User Stories
Design
& Develop
Feedback
Agile

19. Agile

20. Foundations

21. Customer Development
‣ Steve Blank introduced the notion of
“Customer Development”
‣ He wants you to GOOB!!!
We’ll
introduce
influential
people

22. Lean Startup
‣ Eric Reis saw the value in lean thinking + extreme programming
Eric Reis

23. Lean Startup

24. What about Lean UX?

25. Lean UX…

26. Two key points

27. 1. Must balance business & user needs

28. 2. Iteration improves the product

29. Lean UX…

30. Jeff Gothelf, NEO
‣ Co-authored Lean series
book on Lean UX

31. Will Evans, TLC Labs
‣ Good source for relation between
Kanban, Cynefin, Design Thinking,
Lean UX and cognitive science.
‣ Sure to throw in a quote from
Sartre, Kierkegaard or Wittgenstein

32. Bill Scott, PayPal
‣ Developer by trade, but strong proponent
for UX/Dev partnership and dev flexibility
to accommodate user needs

33. Andrew Crow, GE
‣ Good resource for how to do Lean UX
with standards at scale (like all of GE)

34. Part 2: Mixing Agile & Lean UX

35. Do a Google Search for Agile UX and
you get…

36. Working UX into an Agile flow

37. Working UX into an Agile flow: 2

38. Working UX into an Agile flow: 3

39. Working UX into an Agile flow: 4???

40. What have we done with our clients?

41. Client 1

42. Client 1: Major Tech Company
‣ Revenue: $11.5 billion
‣ Employee Count: 70,000+
!
‣ Needed to blend UX (long term research) with Agile sprints (yikes!)

43. Client 1: Major Tech Company
Sprint 0 Sprint 1 Sprint 2Dev
UX
Sprint 1 Iteration Sprint 2 Iteration Sprint 3 Iteration
Time
Sprint 1 Support Sprint 2 Support

44. Client 1: Major Tech Company
Successes:
‣ Much better communication with developers.
‣ More influence in product design.
!
Difficulty
‣ Still cultural challenge (UX needs 6 months of research to produce wireframe).
‣ Some PMs / Dev still want all screens in advance + “spec”.
‣ Challenged to keep up when one UXer has to do both just-in-time work and
work for future sprints simultaneously.

45. Number of deaths resulting from lack of
spec document
0

46. Client 2

47. Client 2: NASDAQ/NYSE Watchdog
‣ Review 6 Billion trades daily
‣ Employee Count: 3,400 employees
!
‣ Two roles:
- Anthropological work, help build user stories.
- Work on current sprint on immediate needs of developers.

48. Client 2: NASDAQ/NYSE Watchdog
Sprint 0 Sprint 1 Sprint 2Dev
UX
Time
Sprint 1 Support Sprint 2 SupportUX Research

49. Client 2: NASDAQ/NYSE Watchdog
Successes:
‣ UX deeply integrated into process because of senior management support.
‣ Doing small tests with users for sprints.
!
Difficulties:
‣ Heavily focused on just-in-time work.
‣ Difficult to get enough “design thinking” done during a sprint.

50. Client 3

51. Client 3: Major US Government Agency
‣ Founded 1862 during the Civil War by President Lincoln
‣ Works with 144 million Americans
!
‣ Role:
- Developing prototype of new tools for individuals using an iterative, Agile UX
approach.
- Assisting Agile development of new systems for every American.

52. Client 3: Major US Government Agency
Sprint 0 Sprint 1 Sprint 2
Dev
UX
Time
Sprint 3
Sprint 0 Sprint 1 Sprint 2
Sprint 0 Sprint 1 Sprint 2
Sprint 4 Sprint 5 Sprint 6 Sprint 7
UX

53. Client 3: Major US Government Agency
Successes:
‣ Doing small tests with users within sprints.
‣ Well ahead of developers, but including developers as we go along.
‣ Prototype + Style Guide is the product definition.
!
Difficulties:
‣ Development somewhat disjointed from UX, though getting better.
‣ Crazy pace when working on two different sprints simultaneously.

54. Part 3: Lessons Learned on Adopting
Lean UX & Agile

55. Agile UX Secret 1:
Set the stage for UX’s role with
Strategy Session / Design Studio.

56. CEO: I know you had an agenda,
but let’s just sketch our ideas
anyway...

57. Strategy Session / Design Studio
Get internal focus on
what matters.
Prioritize your
audiences, define
them and scenarios.
Brainstorm ways to
satisfy 1 & 2.
IdeationAudience NeedsBusiness Needs
Get stakeholders on
board with conceptual
direction.
Sketching
1 2 3 4

58. Agile UX Secret 2:
UXers need to be prepared
to get ahead of developers
AND stay with them.

59. Client 1: Major Tech Company
Sprint 1 Sprint 2Dev
UX
Sprint 1 Iteration Sprint 2 Iteration
Time
Sprint 1 Support Sprint 2 Support

60. Agile UX Secret 3:
You need to make wireframes
“the spec”

61. Number of deaths resulting from lack of
spec document
0

62. You#don’t#need#“The#Spec”#to#keep#control
You#are#in#the#problemAsolving#business,#and#you#don’t#solve#
problems#with#design#documentation.
h"p://www.arcelormi"al.com/distribuAonsoluAons/repo/angelique/Corporate_picture_Document_Control_MR_RF.JPG
Source:?ArAcle?from?Jeff?Gothelf,?Mar?07,?2011,?
Lean?UX:?GeXng?Out?Of?The?Deliverables?Business

63. h"p://notjustalive.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/lazy:cat5.jpg
It’s#NOT#lazy#UX
You#still#gonna#work#hard!!!
Source:?ArAcle?from?Jeff?Gothelf,?Mar?07,?2011,?Lean?UX:?GeXng?Out?Of?The?Deliverables?Business

64. Prototype#communicates#everything
The#fastest#way#between#you#and#your#customers
h"p://xunyangixd.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/just:the:ux:process:large.jpgSource:?ArAcle?from?Jeff?Gothelf,?Mar?07,?2011,?Lean?UX:?GeXng?Out?Of?The?Deliverables?Business

65. Agile UX Secret 4:
Involve Developers in UX

66. Experience Map

67. Usability Test with a Developer!
PRESS GANEY
Welcome Lidia | My Account | Customize
Clinical Performer
detail
Volume By Service Line
detail detail detail
detail
detail
Southwest
ORTHOPEDICS
Pediatrics
Emergency
Surgery
Cardiology
Neurology
Oncology
Hospital Acquired Infection
9
16%
Physical Restraint Accidental OverdosagesAdverse Blood Reactions
24%
1 2 4
50% 12%
Complications
24%
2.7%
Mortality
Core MeasuresReadmissions
16%
24%
85%
24%
1.2%
24%
detail
detail
RevenuePerformanceView:Date Range: 1m 3m 1yr YTD Custom Division/Service Linequick Links:
Performance > System Wide

68. Agile UX Secret 5:
Need to conduct quick,
focused research

69. Rarely time for full affinity diagraming

70. Persona - What we used to do.
No detailed persona exercise.
This is LeanUX!

71. Persona - reality

73. Let’s Review

74. Agile + Lean UX Secrets
!
1. Set the stage with Strategy Session / Design Studio
2. UXers need to get ahead of developers AND stay with them
3. Make wireframes “the spec”
4. Conduct quick, focused research

75. Is he done?

76. Research
Stakeholder Interviews
Field Research
Competitor Reviews
Expert Reviews
Strategy and Ideation
Strategy Workshop
Design Studio
Rapid Prototyping
Iterative Refinement
UX and Design
IA & Flow
Interaction Design
Concept Realization
Visual Design & Branding
Thank you! @brlexp | brilliantexperience.com