Agile UX Runway

Natalie Warnert - Agile Coachwww.nataliewarnert.com@nataliewarnert

WHAT IS UX?

How a person interacts with a system● Flow

● Perception

● Accessibility

● Ease of use

● Understanding

ROLES ON UX TEAM

● User Researchers

● Information Architects

● Visual Designers

● CSS Developers

● Accessibility

CENTRALIZED VS. DECENTRALIZED UX TEAMCentralized● One UX team for an organization or

department

● High role specialization

● Resource distribution between projects – shared services model

● “Consulting”

● Can act as own Agile team

Decentralized● One UX consultant on every Agile team (or

project)

● Jack of all trades – less specialization

● More availability (?)

● Is involved in all team activities

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● Hybrid models

WHY IS IT HARD FOR UX AND AGILE TO PLAY NICELY?● UX needs to be integrated at all levels of planning and development

● It’s a balance between delayed feedback and big design up front (BDUF)

● Teams must adhere to fixed timelines and varying scope, while managing desire to change and desire to design the best thing

● UX has to work closely with both dev and product and make compromises between the two

UX’S PLACE IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PORTFOLIO LEVEL

● Perform user research activities

● Development of user personas and use cases

● Development of business case for products

● Map high-level system interactions (BDUF)

● Work ahead on initial feature deliverables and design ideas for first iterations (as

infrastructure is getting set up)

UX’S PLACE IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT CONTINUED INVOLVEMENT AT PROGRAM/TEAM LEVEL● Prioritize and plans work: UX as Scrum/Agile team

● Work with Product Owner to make wireframes, designs, and user flows to help:

○ Drive conversations and direction

○ Write requirements, stories and tasks, acceptance criteria

○ Adhere to DoD and DoR criteria

● Confer with developers to find solution options

● Style pages appropriately & accessibly (CSS)

This leads to higher quality in the application and more customizable design and less re-work

How can all work be completed in one iteration…?

It shouldn’t be…

UX RUNWAY

UX RUNWAY - PULLING WORK AND QUALITY FORWARD IN THE PROCESS

UX RUNWAY – PULLING WORK AND QUALITY FORWARD IN THE PROCESS

UX RUNWAY

● Iterating ahead but on same cadence

● Just in time (JIT) and set-based design○ “Just enough” detail provided for development team to start work

○ Multiple options to choose, validate and refine as we gain more understanding– doesn’t limit end goal

○ 80-90% completion goal for UX deliverables at “hand off”

● Continuous collaboration and feedback from business and development to get best solution in allotted

time

● Planned room for UX changes and integration○ ~10-25% capacity

POINT-BASED VS. SET-BASED DESIGNPoint-based design:

● Committing to detailed specifics at an early point in the development/design process● More empirical data will become available as the development proceeds● Discovery that design won’t work is too late in the process – opportunity cost is higher and it costs more to fix

Set-based design● Maintain multiple, higher-level, requirement and design options for longer (delay decision making to one option)● Use empirical data to focus on final design options● This helps to assume variability and preserve options● “Just enough” detail to move forward, not too much to lock into a hasty decision that will limit and bind us later

http://scaledagileframework.com/set-based-design/

IT’S A BALANCE● Maintaining multiple options while not putting too much detail into each (save the detail for JIT)● Frequent and early validation through prototyping, modeling, simulation● Specify interfaces and requirements (e.g. performance) – not exactly how an element achieves its results● Frequent integration and review points● Adaptive planning

http://scaledagileframework.com/set-based-design/ Building the right

thing

Building the thing

rightBuilding it

fast

USER RESEARCH (FEATURES/EPICS)● Problem focused design

● Get out of the building

● Rapid prototyping

● Minimum Viable Product

● Rapid feedback cycles

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE AND VISUAL DESIGN (EPICS/STORIES)

● Problem focused design

● Integration of user research up front

● Set based design to just in time design

● Design standards

● Consistent interactions and integrations

● 10 – 25% overlap capacity – rework if necessary, answer questions, address issues

● Constant communication and collaboration with Agile team

FRONT-END UI/CSS/ACCESSIBILITY (STORIES/TASKS)● Same cadence as development/it is development

● Centralized ownership of the stylesheets

● Branding standards

● Coding accessibly

● Overseers of full circle quality

● Raising up impediments and dependencies when opportunity cost is still relatively low

● Coding to accommodate changing requirements, consistency, and scalability

Backlog grooming – dependencies are identified UX backlog is developed, sized, and planned Working sessions with Product Owners and teams Frequent reviews and feedback for collaboration Demos with development teams

Determine if designs are not feasible

“Finished” UX work items help to drive work, collaboration, identify gaps, and INCREASE QUALITY without limiting options

HOW DOES IT ACTUALLY WORK?

Days 1-5: The designs

Day 5: The rough drafts

Days 5-7: The final touches and directionary decisions (set-based design decisions)

Day 7: “Hand-off” to development

Day 7-10: Last chance for adjustments during sprint

Days 10+ (next Iteration): Start over and 10-25% JIT reactionary design capacity

UX RUNWAY: ITERATION SCHEDULE (10 DAY) FOR PRODUCT ENHANCEMENT

Higher quality finished product Fewer “fire drills” Less development and UX re-work - more iteration Faster delivery time with higher visibility to all More design flexibility/options without forced and disruptive adjustment Product consistency

BENEFITS OF UX RUNWAY

Books/Resources Lean UX The design of everyday things Don't make me think Scaled Agile - Set Based Design

RESOURCES

Natalie's Work● UX Runway Blog

● Incorporating Agile UX Article -Methods and Tools

● UX Runway in Practice (Sprinting)

● Def of Ready with Dependent Teams (e.g. UX)

● UX and BA - Lviv, Ukraine

● Video of Lviv, Ukraine

● UX Runway at Agile2014

● UX Runway Podcast

● UX Runway Webinar XBOSoft