During the process of design LinkedIn new mobile app - Voyager, we led a design war room effort to help archive UX goals, build a collaborative design culture and get shit done.
A FRAMEWORK FOR A BETTER ETHNOGRAPHIC TEAM SPACE
THE ETHNOGRAPHIC TEAM-WORK-ROOM IS THE UNSUNG HERO OF FIELD RESEARCH. OFTEN CALLED THE “WAR-ROOM”, I SUBMIT THAT THIS TOOL IS AS
IMPORTANT TO RESEARCHERS AS THE SCREENER, PROTOCOL, CAMERA AND NOTEBOOK AND IS A VITAL COMMUNICATION AND THOUGHT TOOL FOR
ETHNOGRAPHERS, TEAM MEMBERS AND CLIENTS.
THE WAR-ROOM IS A 3-DIMENSIONAL INFORMATION AND STORY-TELLING FRAMEWORK THAT IS BOTH A WORK/COLLABORATION SPACE AND A VITAL COMMUNICATION ROOM FOR COLLEAGUES AND CLIENTS. THIS SPACE IS AN ON GOING “DELIVERABLE” THAT COMMUNICATES NOT JUST OUR WORK, BUT WHO WE ARE, OUR PROCESS AND EVEN OUR COMPANY BRAND. CLIENTS OFTEN DEMAND PROJECT CHECK-INS AND UPDATES THAT GO BEYOND MERE WRITTEN REPORTS AND TEMPLATED PRESENTATIONS. THEY WANT TO SEE REAL PROGRESS AND INITIAL FINDINGS. THE WAR-ROOM IS A GREAT DEVICE FOR THESE PURPOSES.

Designing an efficient IT operations war room/Command Centre Enamul Haque
Need planning for an IT Operations war-room?
Check this out
The key objective of the IT war-room is to facilitate communications between all relevant parties in the event of a system go-live ..
Experiments to create your own Innovation War Room - created by @boardofinno ...Board of Innovation
Based on our experience, we've created a list of things that might inspire your innovation room. Some of these items are already in our office, others will follow soon. Make sure to let us know if you have other great suggestions.
This is a guide to building a solid real time marketing plan for live events using Netflix at the 2014 Oscars as a case study.
I presented this at Upload Lisboa 2014, Portugal's largest digital and social media conference. If you are interested in me presenting at your event please shoot me an email: aehorsburgh@gmail.com
This presentation proposes that brands should build real-time marketing into their every day practice through smaller events that align well with brand values. (Slides 4 - 13)
It then looks at the inner workings of a social media war room, sharing how to plan for real-time opportunities with Netflix at the Oscars. (Slides 14 - 38)
Finally it shows how to scale a war room for teams as small as one person with the required free tools. (Slides 39 - 46).
Best Practices in Major Incident ManagementxMatters Inc
This report examines the challenges and best practices
for automating the communication process to resolve
major IT incidents as quickly and effectively as possible.
A FRAMEWORK FOR A BETTER ETHNOGRAPHIC TEAM SPACE
THE ETHNOGRAPHIC TEAM-WORK-ROOM IS THE UNSUNG HERO OF FIELD RESEARCH. OFTEN CALLED THE “WAR-ROOM”, I SUBMIT THAT THIS TOOL IS AS
IMPORTANT TO RESEARCHERS AS THE SCREENER, PROTOCOL, CAMERA AND NOTEBOOK AND IS A VITAL COMMUNICATION AND THOUGHT TOOL FOR
ETHNOGRAPHERS, TEAM MEMBERS AND CLIENTS.
THE WAR-ROOM IS A 3-DIMENSIONAL INFORMATION AND STORY-TELLING FRAMEWORK THAT IS BOTH A WORK/COLLABORATION SPACE AND A VITAL COMMUNICATION ROOM FOR COLLEAGUES AND CLIENTS. THIS SPACE IS AN ON GOING “DELIVERABLE” THAT COMMUNICATES NOT JUST OUR WORK, BUT WHO WE ARE, OUR PROCESS AND EVEN OUR COMPANY BRAND. CLIENTS OFTEN DEMAND PROJECT CHECK-INS AND UPDATES THAT GO BEYOND MERE WRITTEN REPORTS AND TEMPLATED PRESENTATIONS. THEY WANT TO SEE REAL PROGRESS AND INITIAL FINDINGS. THE WAR-ROOM IS A GREAT DEVICE FOR THESE PURPOSES.

Designing an efficient IT operations war room/Command Centre Enamul Haque
Need planning for an IT Operations war-room?
Check this out
The key objective of the IT war-room is to facilitate communications between all relevant parties in the event of a system go-live ..
Experiments to create your own Innovation War Room - created by @boardofinno ...Board of Innovation
Based on our experience, we've created a list of things that might inspire your innovation room. Some of these items are already in our office, others will follow soon. Make sure to let us know if you have other great suggestions.
This is a guide to building a solid real time marketing plan for live events using Netflix at the 2014 Oscars as a case study.
I presented this at Upload Lisboa 2014, Portugal's largest digital and social media conference. If you are interested in me presenting at your event please shoot me an email: aehorsburgh@gmail.com
This presentation proposes that brands should build real-time marketing into their every day practice through smaller events that align well with brand values. (Slides 4 - 13)
It then looks at the inner workings of a social media war room, sharing how to plan for real-time opportunities with Netflix at the Oscars. (Slides 14 - 38)
Finally it shows how to scale a war room for teams as small as one person with the required free tools. (Slides 39 - 46).
Best Practices in Major Incident ManagementxMatters Inc
This report examines the challenges and best practices
for automating the communication process to resolve
major IT incidents as quickly and effectively as possible.
Design studio: A team alignment secret weapon - Modev MVP ConferenceJohn Whalen
Design studio: A team alignment secret weapon - Modev MVP Conference
We all want the best user experience, but often other priorities get in the way: “Bob from Marketing wants it to…”, “The developers don’t like that approach...”, “That feature is a ‘nice to have’”.
What if you had a tool that can help folks sharpen their UX skills, get them prioritizing the users and their goals, and align everyone on a common vision that revolves around a great user experience?
This hands-on tutorial will walk you through a design studio and how it can be a great tool to align product owners, developers and UX teams on an approach that balances user and business needs. We’ll also show you how to conduct a “mini design studio” before an agile sprint.
You’ll gain hands-on experience with different aspects of running a design studio through individual and group exercises throughout the tutorial.
John Whalen (CEO at Brilliant Experience):
John Whalen has a PhD in Cognitive Science with over 15 years of User-Centered Design experience. He currently leads Brilliant Experience – a consultancy that supports intra- and entrepreneurs to ensure the success of mission-critical innovation projects by using our unique blend of user-centered design, psychology, design thinking and lean startup techniques.
John’s specialty is to provide businesses with competitive advantages using a mix of user research insights and expert knowledge of human vision, attention and memory. He has experience (and great stories to tell from) working with Fortune 500 clients in the ecommerce, financial, healthcare and government verticals. John’s currently focusing on helping large enterprises integrate brain science into agile, design thinking, and UCD projects.
Real world experience from Microsoft - Deniz ErcoskunAgileSparks
Microsoft developer division has implemented SCRUM while developing Visual Studio 2012, and TFS 2012. In this talk we will cover information on this implementation. You will learn about why Microsoft has decided to implement SCRUM, best practices that was helpful for us. How implementing SCRUM has changed our cadence and product delivery cycle. The content will be our developer division SCRUM journey. We are not pure SCRUM put at future leavel we are. I will also discuss which part of our process is SCRUm which part still is not.
User Focused Rapid Prototyping with small budgets using DrupalCrispin Read
At White Fuse we have found that many of our clients do not have the budget for rigourous and repetitive user testing. We have been experimenting with various techniques in our design and development process in order to get the best user focused designs for websites using tight budgets and small timeframes.
In the world of agile, there is theory and then there is practice. We like to talk about self-organizing teams, asynchronous execution, BDD, TDD, and emergent architecture. We also talk about cross-functional teams: how analysts, testers, architects, technical writers, and UX designers belong on the same team, right next to programmers. It all sounds nice in theory, but how does this work in reality? What do these people actually do? How do they interact? What does it look like? Is there really a pragmatic way to make this work?
In this simulation, a cross-functional team will actually build a piece of software. Every specialist will have a hand in the process. Every specialist will also act as a generalist. Everyone will add value. And as a team, we’ll get something DONE.
This is your opportunity to see agile development in practice, and to bridge the gap between what agilists say and what teams do. And it’s not as new or as difficult as you think – affinity between testers, BA’s, coders, and other team members has really been at the root of effective development practices all along. Let’s just finally acknowledge that it works, demonstrate its capabilities, and encourage it going forward.
This IS agile development.
Building and Maintaining Effective Teams (who want to work for you)Hileman Group
To us, building an effective team is like building a house. You can’t build a reliable house without a sound foundation. Review this webinar presentation to see Tom Hileman's tactics to building and maintaining an effective team.
Work breakdown structures (WBS) in project planning. What are work breakdown structures, why use them and how to create them. Includes example image of a wbs and links to resources. Slides used for project planning workshop. For more guides to creating a WBS and examples of work breakdowns see https://www.stakeholdermap.com/plan-project/example-work-breakdown-structures.html
Enterprise Dojos: Values, Principles, and Cultural PerspectiveCprime
When we talk about dojos there’s a tendency to focus on the mechanical aspects of the model — the workflow, method, short iterations, and immersive learning. Perhaps more important is understanding what models and principles actually make the dojo innovative and successful. In this webinar, our dojo experts will unpack the foundations of the dojo — the underlying models that make it work, the principles that guide our behaviors and choices, and how dojos help shift cultures from fixating on delivery to leveraging learning.
You will learn about:
- Theories and research that make the dojo model work: deliberate practice, spaced repetition, etc.
- What are the values and principles that are common to successful dojos
- How dojos help shift an organization from a culture of delivery to a culture of learning
Bryan Berger on Distraction Free Design Sprints at Design Driven NYCBryan Berger
I lead a team of 5 Product Designers. We build platforms and solutions for online and in-person learning experiences.
I talk about wow we paused all work for 2 weeks across all teams to get back to the basics.
Why we needed to do it, what we did, and what we learned as a design team.
We’re all doing Agile nowadays, aren’t we? We’ll all delivering software in an Agile way. But what does that mean? Does it mean sprints and stand-ups? Kanban even? But what about Extreme Programming? If as a development team we’re not using pair programming, test driven development, continuous integration, and other XP practices, then we’re not really doing Agile software development and we may be on a march to frustration, or even failure.
I’m going to look at why the current trend of companies and projects adopting Scrum, calling themselves Agile, but not transitioning their development to XP, is a recipe for disaster. I’d like to cover the main practices of XP as well as other good practices that can really help a team deliver quality software, whether they’re doing two-week sprints, Kanban, or even Waterfall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZgnY9fAHOA
Design studio: A team alignment secret weapon - Modev MVP ConferenceJohn Whalen
Design studio: A team alignment secret weapon - Modev MVP Conference
We all want the best user experience, but often other priorities get in the way: “Bob from Marketing wants it to…”, “The developers don’t like that approach...”, “That feature is a ‘nice to have’”.
What if you had a tool that can help folks sharpen their UX skills, get them prioritizing the users and their goals, and align everyone on a common vision that revolves around a great user experience?
This hands-on tutorial will walk you through a design studio and how it can be a great tool to align product owners, developers and UX teams on an approach that balances user and business needs. We’ll also show you how to conduct a “mini design studio” before an agile sprint.
You’ll gain hands-on experience with different aspects of running a design studio through individual and group exercises throughout the tutorial.
John Whalen (CEO at Brilliant Experience):
John Whalen has a PhD in Cognitive Science with over 15 years of User-Centered Design experience. He currently leads Brilliant Experience – a consultancy that supports intra- and entrepreneurs to ensure the success of mission-critical innovation projects by using our unique blend of user-centered design, psychology, design thinking and lean startup techniques.
John’s specialty is to provide businesses with competitive advantages using a mix of user research insights and expert knowledge of human vision, attention and memory. He has experience (and great stories to tell from) working with Fortune 500 clients in the ecommerce, financial, healthcare and government verticals. John’s currently focusing on helping large enterprises integrate brain science into agile, design thinking, and UCD projects.
Real world experience from Microsoft - Deniz ErcoskunAgileSparks
Microsoft developer division has implemented SCRUM while developing Visual Studio 2012, and TFS 2012. In this talk we will cover information on this implementation. You will learn about why Microsoft has decided to implement SCRUM, best practices that was helpful for us. How implementing SCRUM has changed our cadence and product delivery cycle. The content will be our developer division SCRUM journey. We are not pure SCRUM put at future leavel we are. I will also discuss which part of our process is SCRUm which part still is not.
User Focused Rapid Prototyping with small budgets using DrupalCrispin Read
At White Fuse we have found that many of our clients do not have the budget for rigourous and repetitive user testing. We have been experimenting with various techniques in our design and development process in order to get the best user focused designs for websites using tight budgets and small timeframes.
In the world of agile, there is theory and then there is practice. We like to talk about self-organizing teams, asynchronous execution, BDD, TDD, and emergent architecture. We also talk about cross-functional teams: how analysts, testers, architects, technical writers, and UX designers belong on the same team, right next to programmers. It all sounds nice in theory, but how does this work in reality? What do these people actually do? How do they interact? What does it look like? Is there really a pragmatic way to make this work?
In this simulation, a cross-functional team will actually build a piece of software. Every specialist will have a hand in the process. Every specialist will also act as a generalist. Everyone will add value. And as a team, we’ll get something DONE.
This is your opportunity to see agile development in practice, and to bridge the gap between what agilists say and what teams do. And it’s not as new or as difficult as you think – affinity between testers, BA’s, coders, and other team members has really been at the root of effective development practices all along. Let’s just finally acknowledge that it works, demonstrate its capabilities, and encourage it going forward.
This IS agile development.
Building and Maintaining Effective Teams (who want to work for you)Hileman Group
To us, building an effective team is like building a house. You can’t build a reliable house without a sound foundation. Review this webinar presentation to see Tom Hileman's tactics to building and maintaining an effective team.
Work breakdown structures (WBS) in project planning. What are work breakdown structures, why use them and how to create them. Includes example image of a wbs and links to resources. Slides used for project planning workshop. For more guides to creating a WBS and examples of work breakdowns see https://www.stakeholdermap.com/plan-project/example-work-breakdown-structures.html
Enterprise Dojos: Values, Principles, and Cultural PerspectiveCprime
When we talk about dojos there’s a tendency to focus on the mechanical aspects of the model — the workflow, method, short iterations, and immersive learning. Perhaps more important is understanding what models and principles actually make the dojo innovative and successful. In this webinar, our dojo experts will unpack the foundations of the dojo — the underlying models that make it work, the principles that guide our behaviors and choices, and how dojos help shift cultures from fixating on delivery to leveraging learning.
You will learn about:
- Theories and research that make the dojo model work: deliberate practice, spaced repetition, etc.
- What are the values and principles that are common to successful dojos
- How dojos help shift an organization from a culture of delivery to a culture of learning
Bryan Berger on Distraction Free Design Sprints at Design Driven NYCBryan Berger
I lead a team of 5 Product Designers. We build platforms and solutions for online and in-person learning experiences.
I talk about wow we paused all work for 2 weeks across all teams to get back to the basics.
Why we needed to do it, what we did, and what we learned as a design team.
We’re all doing Agile nowadays, aren’t we? We’ll all delivering software in an Agile way. But what does that mean? Does it mean sprints and stand-ups? Kanban even? But what about Extreme Programming? If as a development team we’re not using pair programming, test driven development, continuous integration, and other XP practices, then we’re not really doing Agile software development and we may be on a march to frustration, or even failure.
I’m going to look at why the current trend of companies and projects adopting Scrum, calling themselves Agile, but not transitioning their development to XP, is a recipe for disaster. I’d like to cover the main practices of XP as well as other good practices that can really help a team deliver quality software, whether they’re doing two-week sprints, Kanban, or even Waterfall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZgnY9fAHOA
Transforming Brand Perception and Boosting Profitabilityaaryangarg12
In today's digital era, the dynamics of brand perception, consumer behavior, and profitability have been profoundly reshaped by the synergy of branding, social media, and website design. This research paper investigates the transformative power of these elements in influencing how individuals perceive brands and products and how this transformation can be harnessed to drive sales and profitability for businesses.
Through an exploration of brand psychology and consumer behavior, this study sheds light on the intricate ways in which effective branding strategies, strategic social media engagement, and user-centric website design contribute to altering consumers' perceptions. We delve into the principles that underlie successful brand transformations, examining how visual identity, messaging, and storytelling can captivate and resonate with target audiences.
Methodologically, this research employs a comprehensive approach, combining qualitative and quantitative analyses. Real-world case studies illustrate the impact of branding, social media campaigns, and website redesigns on consumer perception, sales figures, and profitability. We assess the various metrics, including brand awareness, customer engagement, conversion rates, and revenue growth, to measure the effectiveness of these strategies.
The results underscore the pivotal role of cohesive branding, social media influence, and website usability in shaping positive brand perceptions, influencing consumer decisions, and ultimately bolstering sales and profitability. This paper provides actionable insights and strategic recommendations for businesses seeking to leverage branding, social media, and website design as potent tools to enhance their market position and financial success.
7 Alternatives to Bullet Points in PowerPointAlvis Oh
So you tried all the ways to beautify your bullet points on your pitch deck but it just got way uglier. These points are supposed to be memorable and leave a lasting impression on your audience. With these tips, you'll no longer have to spend so much time thinking how you should present your pointers.
Between Filth and Fortune- Urban Cattle Foraging Realities by Devi S Nair, An...Mansi Shah
This study examines cattle rearing in urban and rural settings, focusing on milk production and consumption. By exploring a case in Ahmedabad, it highlights the challenges and processes in dairy farming across different environments, emphasising the need for sustainable practices and the essential role of milk in daily consumption.
You could be a professional graphic designer and still make mistakes. There is always the possibility of human error. On the other hand if you’re not a designer, the chances of making some common graphic design mistakes are even higher. Because you don’t know what you don’t know. That’s where this blog comes in. To make your job easier and help you create better designs, we have put together a list of common graphic design mistakes that you need to avoid.
1. Voyager Design War Room Recap
6.22 - 7.15. 2015
By Joann Wu & Corine Yang
2. PROBLEMS & CHALLENGES
- 7 teams, 9 tracks had been designing in parallel
- UI looked similar but not as a family, nor ONE APP
- We had been meeting weekly but tight alignment was not happening fast
enough
4. STORMING STORMING NORMING PERFORMINGFORMING RECOGNIZING
Bringing the teams together and have them
work on a single goal.
5. What we did
• Design Managers set up the war room
goals and objectives
• We plan ahead, in detail, on timelines,
priorities, deliverables and
responsibilities
• Provide direction on how to approach
it (eg. Started with IOS - Android -
Mobile Web)
• Establish roles (eg. Landing page
team - sub-page team)
• Take risks, Iterate fast and make rapid
decisions
6. Establish process and structure on how to
accomplish that goal
FORMING STORMING NORMING PERFORMINGSTORMING RECOGNIZING
7. What we did
• Include all ideas and opinions (start with
group discussions)
• Identify stakeholders and determine
their interests and needs (eg. Art Deco
team was embedded in the process)
• Define operational agreements (eg.
Assigned POC for each task & pattern)
• Raise difficult issues and coach team
through struggles (eg. Parking lot, follow
up)
8. FORMING STORMING NORMING PERFORMINGNORMING RECOGNIZING
Solidify ideas, resolve differences and
leverage each other’s strengths to execute
towards the common goal.
9. What we did
• Establish daily routines and
milestones
• Hold open forums on tasks and
relationships
• Build appropriate feedback loops
with external relationships (eg.
Engg, Art Deco)
• Work toward consensus on
overarching issues
• Negotiate and navigate where
appropriate
10. FORMING STORMING NORMING PERFORMINGPERFORMING RECOGNIZING
Culmination of all the previous stages.
Team Members coming together,
executing towards the goal.
11. What we did
• Continuously seek to improve tasks
and relationships
• Assess and evaluate results against
team purpose and external needs
• Celebrate success - reward and
recognize both team and individual
wins
• Continuously test for better methods
and approaches
12. FORMING STORMING NORMING PERFORMING RECOGNIZING
Take the time to recognize the heroic effort
put in by the team and celebrate.
13. What we did
• Celebrate small wins, every
step of the way (weekly)
• Team building event at the end
to celebrate our
accomplishments.
15. ACHIEVEMENTS
- 17 business days, 20 designers
- Designed and aligned +350 screens
- Established Art Deco component library: can be leveraged not only by
designers, but also by Eng, Devs
- Created 3 inVision prototypes: IOS, Android, Mobile Web
- Proposed solution for Phone landscape and Tablet.
16. TAKEAWAYS for improvement
- Setting up design principles to guide design decisions
- Using the right set of tools to bring team efficiency
- Leveraging war room’s physical space better to mark down all decisions
made through the whole progress.
- “Parking lot” was useful, but should resolve “Left overs” as soon as possible
Editor's Notes
As the leadership team, we went to the war room with the great attitude as “move fast, act fast, fail fast”. We prepared ourselves as “just do it” and “we will figure out and justificate everything on the way”
Direct the team, and establish clear objectives, both, for the team as a whole, and for individual team members.
Daily to-do list and decisions on white boards
Identify key POC for each task
Establish a clear folder system to share all works
Create google spreadsheet to document all alignment decisions which leads us to build a component library for both design and eng.
10:00 morning stand up to go over daily tasks/assignments
Alternate between big group discussions and smaller group working sessions
Daily 4:00 recap of decisions and achievements of the day
Leverage Thursday Show & Tell as milestones