Beyond Staggered Sprints: Integrating User Experience and Agile

Beyond staggered sprints
How TheLadders.com integrated UX into Agile

Who is this guy?
With a hat like that, he must know his shit.
Jeff Gothelf
Currently:
Director of UX at TheLadders.com
Previously:
Publicis Modem, Webtrends, AOL, Fidelity and an assortment of startups
Blog:
www.jeffgothelf.com/blog
Twitter:
@jboogie
Email:
jgothelf@theladders.com

Job site for professionals earning $100k or more and the recruiters/employers looking to hire them.

Execution team made up of product managers, developers and user experience folks.

UX team made up of Interaction Designers, Visual Designers and Copywriters.
Work spans both pre-paywall acquisition and conversion marketing as well as post-paywall product design.

User Experience is a shared service
Biz Line
Biz Line
Biz Line
Biz Line

Everything was butterflies and rainbows in our waterfall world
I couldn’t find a pic of a waterfall, a rainbow AND butterflies….sorry.
3-9 month release cycles
Thick functional specs
In-depth wireframe decks
Long visual design cycles
Late-stage user validation and testing
Explicit hand-offs
http://www.niagarafallscanadapics.net/Niagara-falls-Canada-rainbow-pdam2.jpg

We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock…
In fact, we had no idea we were going for a ride.
Bottom-up decision
No heads-up or discussion with UX
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/museum_info/press/images/nature1_lg.jpg

We were told tales of glamour and victory!
Improvements galore!
Better!
Faster!
Tighter!
Nimbler (is that a word?)
http://membres.multimania.fr/frodon9/hpbimg/oliphant.jpg

But instead were treated like Hobbits.
We can come along, but figure out your own way.
Many stories of failure
No existing experience
No clear path to success
But The Precious was out there….we were sure of it
http://quizilla.teennick.com/user_images/T/tohrupenguin/1112394240_ryfrodosam.jpg

So we set out on a quest to find the unicorn!
And this was no ordinary unicorn.
Preliminary research made it clear that no one had really nailed this problem.
http://www.boingboing.net/gimages/patrick.jpg

We had some very thorny issues to tackle.
These became clear very early.
What to do with Big Upfront Design?
How do you maintain focus on a bigger vision?
Can we maintain product quality?
How do you produce creative work faster?
How do you keep the engineering teams busy each iteration?
Will lighter product iterations be accepted by the business?
Will we be blamed if they don’t?
http://www.africandreamadventuresafaris.com/thornbush-arusha-national-park.JPG

The journey of 1000 miles starts with one step.
Our first step was research.
Agile and user experience
http://www.africandreamadventuresafaris.com/thornbush-arusha-national-park.JPG

And more research…
This time with humans.

We even sought out The Oracle…
He was very oracle-ish.
http://www.xqa.com.ar/visualmanagement/wp-content/uploads/XQA_9437.JPG

Add up all the research to get…..ideas!
An idea and $.75 and you’re on your way to that cup of coffee.
http://legacy.lclark.edu/faculty/jsmiller/objects/idea_bulb.jpg

Our first attempt:
Just get it all done in 2 weeks.

We took our 9-month waterfall process…
Which was mighty and massive
http://www.julia-mathewson.com/photos/usa_2005_photos/8niagara1.jpg

And jammed it into a 2-week timeframe.
We kept all the pieces and processes the same.
http://www6.worldisround.com/photos/29/323/524_o.jpg

We became chairmen of the boards.
It got a little silly, actually.
“The whiteboards do not help organize the UX team’s work at all. Instead, they block out natural light from the windows and create a harsh and uncreative visual environment.”
- Internal survey respondent

Functional specs were now banned.
The story card had taken the spec’s place. And it multiplied.

The boards took on multiple purposes.
Functional spec. Project plan. Resource allocation. And status indication.

But, hey, the UX team got its own board.
Which is nice.

Wireframes picked up the heavy lifting specs had left behind.
Annotations galore!

Dreams of a “vision” document never materialized.
You can dream in one hand and poop in the other. See which one fills first.

Learnings from our first attempt:
UX morale in the crapper
Feeling of “going for the bronze”
Perceived quality of work was much lower
No time to design
No ownership or pride in the work
Summary: FAIL

Our second attempt:
Introduce two secret weapons

Secret weapon #1: Style guides
The cause of, and solution to, all of UX’s problems.
Re-usable components defined once
Housed in centralized, accessible KM system
Asset library for designers and developers
Reduced number of design cycles
Reduced dev time

The cause of, and solution to, all of UX’s problems.

Now, everyone’s a designer. Yay?
http://iyokobat.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/village-of-the-damned.jpg

Secret weapon #2: Prototyping
Show me. Don’t tell me.

Learnings from our second attempt:
Style guides make life easier
Re-usable components FTW!
“Everyone is a designer” buys more UX time
Prototyping reduces the need for most documentation
Summary: We’re making progress

Our third attempt:
Put everything in-line.

Wait! You forgot usability testing!
How else will we know how awesome we are?
Every other week (2 weeks sprints)
Mid-way through the sprint
Enough time to reach
Show whatever you have ready
No more than 3 participants
Clear the boulders
Validate and iterate
http://stevejencks.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/usability.jpg

Great, the customer likes it. What about the product owner?
Opinions are like belly buttons. Belly buttons on cats.
Design reviews
2 reviews per iteration
Initial review mid-way in the sprint, directional alignment
Second review is final – 95% done
Ad hoc reviews in between
Decision at second review is made to move forward or spend another iteration designing
http://www.flickr.com/photos/janekeeler/4677093058/sizes/l/

Great, the customer likes it. What about the product owner?
Opinions are like belly buttons. Belly buttons on cats.
“Design reviews have made the biggest difference. Having all the decision makers in one room has been crucial to getting projects approved on time.”
- Internal survey respondent
“Design reviews have helped reduce the “endless email thread” reviews we used to have.”
- Another internal survey respondent

Learnings from our third attempt:
In-sprint user testing provides continuous user feedback in advance of coding
Lightweight and cost-effective testing
Formal, fixed design reviews provide mileposts for everyone to strive toward
Unified approval processes buy more UX time
Summary: Win!

Our fourth attempt:
Bring everyone together and then separate

Can you guess who sketched this?
The answer will shock you!

The whole execution team did in a modified “design studio.”
You can also call it collaborative sketching.
Design studios
Cross-functional team
Everybody draws, presents and critiques
Refine ideas through 3 rounds
Generate tons of raw ideas
Huge headstart for UX
Early team-wide alignment
Team-wide feeling of ownership

Start small.
6 of your best ideas as fast as possible.

Refine to 3 or 4 better ideas.
Add detail.

And once more to one, final, detailed idea.
Let your one best idea shine.

User Experience is a shared service
Biz Line
Biz Line
Biz Line
Biz Line

UX
UX
UX
UX
Biz Line
Biz Line
Biz Line
Biz Line

Learnings from our fourth attempt:
Collaboration works
Anyone can contribute ideas
Focusing teams on one workstream proves effective
Camaraderie, communication benefit from aligned teams
Summary: Win! (that’s two, but I’m not counting)

Where we are today:
We’re changing our mind. Slowly.

Designers love ritual.
Trying to pull them out of established ruts is a Herculean task.
http://www.strongcopssavelives.com/images/Air%20Plane%20Pull%202009.jpg

Designers are used to being heroes.
Agile is distinctly, anti-hero.
http://www.abegoodman.com/Images/greatest-american-hero.jpg

What about estimates?
Deadlines or points?
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FfetiF7C9vo/SEeOU0ew8KI/AAAAAAAAILU/CE_tq46wDYM/S600/Washington+DC+auto+mechanic,+1942.JPG

Is it viable?
Yes, but does anybody actually want it?
Minimally viable
Minimally desirable

Evolution continues through the breaking of old norms.
Moving towards parallel pathing development and design.
http://www.greatoutdoors.com/files/imagecache/display/files/images/articles/Wong%20leading%20a%20Powder%208%20win%20%20photo%20-%20Wong%20Collection.jpg

Thanks!
Ask me some questions. Here. Now. Or later: jgothelf@theladders.com / @jboogie

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Beyond Staggered Sprints: Integrating User Experience and Agile

by Jeff Gothelf on Aug 12, 2010

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