I gave this talk at UX Riga 2015, and presented a slightly adapted version to the Masters course in content strategy at the FH Joanneum, Austria. Here's the abstract from the conference: It's been 15 years since Jesse James Garrett first published his The Elements of User Experience diagram, and 14 years since a group of practitioners signed the Agile Manifesto. User Experience and agile approaches to software development have gained traction, and these days many of us work in collaborative, multi-disciplinary teams. Collaboration between business, design and development helps us to build complex products that are useful to our customers. But collaboration can be hard. We have to achieve a shared understanding, figure out how to work together effectively, agree, compromise. In this talk, Johanna will outline the opportunities and challenges UX designers face when working in an agile context, share some of the best practices to make Agile and UX work well together, and discuss why the Lean Startup approach is opening doors for UX. Johanna will introduce you to practical tools that allow teams to agree meaning and structure, and attendees will walk away with: - An understanding of key challenges faced by practitioners who want to include UX on agile projects. - Tips for addressing these challenges. - Practical collaboration tools that help to get everybody on the same page. - An understanding of UX in the context of Lean Startup.

1. Photo
by
Mar+n
LaBar
h/ps://flic.kr/p/ovHV4t
Untangling
complexity
together
Effective
collaboration
for
multi-­disciplinary
teams
Johanna
Kollmann ~ @johannakoll
UX
Riga,
26
Feb
2015

2. Agile
is
becoming
standard
!
“57%
of
respondents
said
their
organization
has
5+
agile
teams.
This
number
has
nearly
doubled
in
the
last
two
years
(48%
in
2012,
33%
in
2011).
”
!
8th
Annual
State
of
Agile
Survey,
VersionOne,
2013

3. Photo
by
Nigel
Howe
h/p://www.flickr.com/photos/40939157@N03/5315358341/
Sprint
Scrum
User
story
Retrospective
Stand
up
Scrum
master
Sprint
Zero
Backlog
Kanban

4. The
Agile
Manifesto
(2001!)
!
Individuals
and
interactions
over
processes
and
tools
Working
software
over
comprehensive
documentation
Customer
collaboration
over
contract
negotiation
Responding
to
change
over
following
a
plan

6. Planning
Data
gathering
Implement
high
dev
low
UI
features
Design
for
sprint
2
Gather
customer
input
for
sprint
3
Test
sprint
1
code
Design
for
sprint
3
Gather
input
for
sprint
4
Test
sprint
2
code
Design
for
sprint
4
Gather
input
for
sprint
5
Implement
designs
Implement
designs
Developers Interaction
Designers
Sprint
0
Sprint
1
Sprint
2
Sprint
3
Customer
data
Customer
data
Code Design
Code Design
adapted
from
a
diagram
by
Lynn
Miller

7. Photo
by
Anne
Worner
h/ps://flic.kr/p/on6uCz
Challenges

8. While
basically
silent
about
UX
design,
Agile
thinking
offers
a
fundamental
paradigm
shift
about
how
to
interact
and
communicate
with
your
project
team
and
beyond.
!
~
Anders
Ramsay
@andersramsay

9. UX
is
everyone’s
business
!
1)
Understand
each
others
worklows
2)
UX
techniques:
communication
tools
!
3)
Deine
goals
and
care
about
data

10. Photo
by
Alex
h/ps://flic.kr/p/45qaP
UX
is
everyone’s
business

11. 1)
Understand
each
others’
workMlows
Photo
by
Mar+n
LaBar
h/ps://flic.kr/p/hZgn9Q

12. h/p://www.flickr.com/photos/45581782@N00/8035308650/
Rituals:
standup

13. Information
radiators

14. h/p://www.flickr.com/photos/menlopics/3928252631/
Pairing
across
disciplines

15. Teach
&
learn
!
Be
present
at
stand-­‐ups,
demos,
retrospectives
Make
your
work
visible
!
Responsibilities
over
roles
!
Cross-­‐functional
pairing
!
Where
can
your
skills
be
most
valuable?
Photo
by
Sean
Winters
h/ps://flic.kr/p/7bueZr

17. 2)
UX
techniques:
communication
tools
Photo
by
Treesha
Duncan
h/ps://flic.kr/p/d2C29s

18. Mental
Model
System
Model
Conceptual
Model

19. Collaboration
problems
arise
when
teams
lack
the
tools
to
agree
meaning
and
structure.
Photo
by
Stephen
Begin
h/ps://flic.kr/p/6uFE62

20. Photo
by
Stephen
Begin
h/ps://flic.kr/p/6uFE62
Thinking
VS
Making?

22. Experience
Map
by
Chris
Risdon,
from
h/p://adap+vepath.com/ideas/the-­‐anatomy-­‐of-­‐an-­‐experience-­‐map

23. Use
UX
tools
to
agree
meaning
!
Controlled
vocabularies,
content
guidelines
Taxonomies,
navigation
structures
Mental
model
charts,
personas
!
User
journey
diagrams,
service
maps,
experience
maps
!
Whatever
artefact
you
use:
share
it,
check
it
Photo
by
Sean
Winters
h/ps://flic.kr/p/7bueZr

25. Photo
by
Thangaraj
Kumaravel
h/ps://flic.kr/p/9skAQB
3)
DeMine
goals
and
care
about
data

26. Lean
Startup
is
about
learning
through
experiments
with
customers.

27. Build
Measure
Learn

28. Photo
by
Jorgen
Kesseler
h/p://www.flickr.com/photos/58544688@N03/5393485546
RESEARCH!
DATA!

29. Instead
of
“how
do
we
know
if
it’s
done”,
ask
“how
do
we
know
if
it’s
good”.
!
~
Lane
Halley
@thinknow

30. Triangulate!
Usability
testing
(lab)
Web
Analytics
Unmoderated
study

31. h/p://www.flickr.com/photos/hannahdonovan/5900445189/
Analysis
is
a
team
effort

32. Research
is
a
team
sport
!
Deine
hypothesis
and
assumptions
together
Pick
the
best
methods
for
getting
data
Make
qualitative
research
a
habit
!
Combine
different
data
sources
to
gain
insight
!
Analysis
is
a
team
effort
Photo
by
Sean
Winters
h/ps://flic.kr/p/7bueZr

34. Photo
by
*Psycho
Delia*
h/ps://flic.kr/p/fetYwn
UX
is
everyone’s
business
!
Understand
each
others
worklows
UX
techniques
are
communication
tools
!
Deine
goals
and
care
about
data

35. Photo
by
*Psycho
Delia*
h/ps://flic.kr/p/fetYwn
😍
Agile
&
Lean
😍
!
Working
on
products
!
My
understanding
of
UX
My
skill
set

36. Change
takes
time
!
“24%
of
respondents
attributed
failing
agile
projects
to
an
opposing
company
culture
or
some
other
form
of
cultural
resistance.”
!
8th
Annual
State
of
Agile
Survey,
VersionOne,
2013

37. Resources
Agile
and
UX:
Two
tastes
that
taste
great
together,
Lane
Halley,
UX
Week
2013,
http://vimeo.com/74944431
Sustainable
pace,
Agile
&
The
Big
Design
Refactor,
Jonathan
Berger,
Balanced
Team
Conference
2013,
http://
design.pivotallabs.com/jpb/jpb-­‐balteam2013-­‐talk/deck/
Case
Study
of
Customer
Input
For
a
Successful
Product,
Lynn
Miller
(2005)
5
Users
every
Friday,
Tom
Illmensee
&
Alyson
Muff,
Agile
2009
Proceedings
Learning
to
play
UX
rugby,
Anders
Ramsay,
http://slidesha.re/GPfK0w
Beyond
Staggered
Sprints:
Integrating
User
Experience
and
Agile,
Jeff
Gothelf,
http://slidesha.re/9Pq3qb
Designing
the
user
experience
in
an
agile
context,
Johanna
Kollmann,
http://bit.ly/p3NmWI
Design
Pairing,
Samuel
Bowles,
UXLX
2012,
https://speakerdeck.com/shmuel/design-­‐pairing-­‐uxlx
Test
everything
you
got
regardless
of
its
polish
or
Jidelity,
Jeff
Gothelf,
http://bit.ly/n6qjTI
It’s
Our
Research:
Getting
Stakeholder
Buy-­In
for
UX
Research
Projects
,
Tomer
Sharon
Introduction
to
Design
Studio
Methodology,
Will
Evans,
http://uxmag.com/articles/introduction-­‐to-­‐design-­‐studio-­‐
methodology
The
KJ
Technique:
A
Group
Process
for
Establishing
Priorities,
Jared
M.
Spool,
http://www.uie.com/articles/kj_technique/
The
new
user
story
backlog
is
a
map,
Jeff
Patton,
http://www.agileproductdesign.com/blog/the_new_backlog.html
Collaboration
games:
http://gogamestorm.com,
http://innovationgames.com/resources/the-­‐games/