This document describes The Economist's process for developing a new mobile website using Lean/Agile principles. They held a two-day design studio workshop with stakeholders from different departments to sketch out and make decisions on 12 design challenges and create a product backlog. They then created prototypes, conducted user testing, and iterated on the prototypes based on feedback before implementing the new mobile site. The process emphasized collaboration between teams and involved UX from the beginning.

1. What does Lean/Agile look like
at The Economist
Danny Setiawan, Senior UX Designer
11 November 2014

2. Introduction
Photo by Chris Glass on Flickr

3. CASE STUDY
Mobile web site

4. Background
• 2012: Significant rise in mobile traffic
• Customer feedback : bad experience, hurting
conversion (bounce rate close to 100%)
• Subscribers couldn’t access paid content

5. What we knew
• Editorial workflow and CMS would not change
• Only for smartphones
• Project start date (less than a month from
workshop date)

6. What we did not know
• Everything else
• Content scope
• Monetization
• Features
• More…
Photo by Merlijn Hoek on Flickr
How we felt

7. Design studio workshop
• Locations: In London and NY, connected with
video conference
• Length: 2 consecutive days, 4 hours each
• Facilitation: Led by UX team and Scrum Master
• Participants : Representatives from stakeholders
( Product, Editorial, Commercial, Dev and UX
1/2

8. Design studio workshop
• Scope: 12 design challenges based on core user
scenarios
• Format: Sketch (5m), present (3m), critique (2m)
; individually then collectively as a team
• Outcome:
• Sketches with decisions from key stakeholders baked-in,
• Outline for product backlog,
• Potential technical challenges to investigate
2/2

9. DESIGN STUDIO WORKSHOP PICS

14. Consolidate solutions

15. Prototype
To play around with it yourself
on your phone
bit.ly/ec_mob_proto

16. RITE (Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation)
study
• 8 participants
• At London office
• Facilitated by UX
• Iterate on prototypes
between sessions
• Goal: Uncover major
usability issues
• Outcome: No major issue
• Video recordings were made
available for entire team
Screenshot from one of the recordings

17. Implementation
Photo by Curtis Pennell on Flickr

18. Lessons learned
• Collaboration is key
• UX is NOT a step in product development
process
• Free breakfast encourages people to come early

19. Thank you
dannysetiawan@economist.com
linkedin.com/dnystwn
dribbble.com/dsetia
@dsetia_1
"Anyone who has never
made a mistake has
never tried anything
n- Aelbwer.t "Einstein
Photo by Juhan Sonin on Flickr