I delivered this talk at 8012 Design Center. The talk explores what kind of problems agile and design thinking help explore individually, and whether there are opportunities to combine them in solving some kind of problems?

1. Design Thinking
and Agile?
Tathagat Varma
http://thoughtleadership.in

2. Let’s explore…
• What is Agile?
• What is Design Thinking?
• Design Thinking + Agile = ?

3. Nature of work is
changing…
Craft Structure Networks

5. Agile Manifesto, 2001

6. Scrum, an agile framework

7. Agile Mindset
Source: Carol Dweck, Linda Rising

8. Agile = Single Loop
Learning?

9. Problem-solving is not a
straight line!
Source: Damien Newman

10. Design Thinking

12. Design Thinking = Double
Loop Learning?

13. Design Sprint, a DT framework
by Google Ventures
• A framework for teams to solve and test design
problems
• A five-day process to validate a prototype for a
key problem

14. DT + Agile = ?
• DT addresses developing empathy about users and
exploring innovative solutions using divergent thinking
and prototyping them iteratively and generating user
feedback before zeroing-in to a possible solution, and
might be perceived a bit too open-ended
• Agile addresses solving problems by incrementally
and iteratively building thin slices of working software
without explicitly realising how are those requirements
really created
• Can they work together? What does it even mean?

16. Innovation inside Agile?
• While nothing stops a team from experimenting ideas, agile
methodologies generally *expect* well-groomed backlog
items
• Regular backlog grooming could help improve clarity and
thus sprint planning, but it might still leave the backlog
items unvalidated
• If design is still being worked upon in a sprint, it could lead
to more rework or waste, and impact the velocity and
predictability
• Who feeds items into the backlog? How are they validated?

17. Dual-Track Scrum
• Not just the PO, but the entire team collaborates to quickly
prototype and validate the product backlog items before
committing to build them
• Valuable (PO, BA)
• Usable (UX, Design)
• Feasible (Dev, QA)
• Dual tracks:
• Discovery Track: generate validated product backlog items
• Delivery Track: generate releasable software

18. Dual-Track Scrum
http://www.slideshare.net/andreaneu/ux-in-a-dual-track-agile-world

19. Discovery vs. Delivery
https://agilemichaeldougherty.wordpress.com/2015/09/07/61/

20. Recap
• Solving “unknown-unknown” problems requires exploring
newer solutions that might have never been tried
• Design Thinking helps address the “why”. We are not
trying to answer if this product can be built, but what are
the real pain points?
• Agile helps address the “how” part by building
deliverables in short cycles that could accelerate the
feedback cycle
• Combining them could create a complementary and win-
win solution

21. References
• How to combine Design Thinking and Agile in Practice, https://medium.com/startup-study-group/how-to-combine-design-thinking-and-
agile-in-practice-36c9fc75c6e6#.cym7g2ee0
• Agile & Design Thinking: Completing or Complementing, http://www.thedesigngym.com/agile-design-thinking-competing-completing/
• Case Study: How Safeway leveraged Design Thinking and and Agile Market Research to Build a Fast and Effective Innovation Process,
http://www.gutcheckit.com/resources/case-study-how-safeway-leveraged-design-thinking-and-agile-market-research-to-build-a-fast-
and-effective-innovation-process
• Design Thinking + SAP Agile: 1+1=3, http://www.sap.com/netherlands/ms/sap-agile/agile-design.html
• Uniting Agile and Design Thinking Methods, http://www.summa.com/blog/uniting-agile-and-design-thinking
• Design Thinking and Agile Development, http://www.slideshare.net/wajansen/design-thinking-and-agile-development
• The Squiggle of Design, http://cargocollective.com/central/The-Design-Squiggle
• Elevate your Agile with Design Thinking, http://blog.deloitte.com.au/agile/2015/08/19/elevate-your-agile-with-design-thinking/
#.V2sjrpN97dd
• Dual Track Scrum, https://agilemichaeldougherty.wordpress.com/2015/09/07/61/
• Dual Track Scrum, http://svpg.com/dual-track-scrum/
• Dual track Scrum in brief, http://aaron.sanders.name/dual-track-scrum-brief/
• Common Agile Practices aren’t for Startups, http://jpattonassociates.com/common-agile-isnt-for-startups/#more-1105