This document discusses user experience (UX), agile product management, and delivering software that meets user needs. It advocates for an iterative development process that incorporates UX research and testing. Product managers are advised to work closely with UX designers to validate assumptions through usability testing, measure outcomes, and prioritize addressing UX issues. An agile, lean approach that rapidly builds and learns from user feedback is presented as the best way to deliver innovative products that customers want and provide a competitive advantage.

1. UX,AGILEAND
PRODUCTMANAGEMENT
Phil Barrett. Associate director XD, Deloitte Digital Africa

3. DELIVERINGSOFTWARETHAT’S
ACTUALLY GOOD
For your customers’ hearts and heads
For you business’s profitability
That stays the course and gets better

4. SOFTWAREPRODUCTS=INNOVATION
Finding better ways to do what we already do.
Finding worthwhile new things to do.

5. “
Tim Brown, IDEO
INNOVATION=COMPETITIVEADVANTAGE
In today's fluid business environment,
innovation has become nothing less than
a survival strategy.

6. SEETHECORPORATIONS!THEY’REDYING!
Average lifespan of corporations in the S&P 500.

7. THISCAN’THAPPENTOYOURCOMPANYRIGHT?
But maybe you can make it happen to a competitor?

8. INTHEBEGINNINGSOFTWAREWASNOTGOOD
80% of changes made to a project after
launch are because of “unmet or
unforeseen user requirements”.
Claire Karat,
Software Engineering in Dollars and Cents (1993)
63% of software projects exceed theirbudgets. The top reasons: requests forchanges by users, overlooked tasks, users’ lackof understanding of their own requirements.
James Martin and Carma McClure,Software maintenance, the Problem and its Solution, Prentice Hall

9. USER-CENTREDDESIGNBROUGHTBETTERSPECS
ISO9241-210
LAUNCH AND
MEASURE
CONCEPT
RESEARCH
DESIGN AND
BUILD

10. UCD+WATERFALLISBETTER! EXCEPT…
Awesome design
Build
Market feedback
Budget
Developers start
approximating
here.
Competitor
leapfrogs you here.
No-one adopts it.
But the budget runs
out here.

12. THEDIGITALTIMELAPSE
The evolution of a software product follow patterns that we do see in
architecture and business and evolution. But happening so much more
quickly…
• A race.
• With a moving finish line.
• Keep improving to stay ahead - and survive.
Mastering this is a key competitive edge.

13. AGILE
• Design and build stuff quickly.
• Let people use it for real.
• Extend and change it as you learn what works.

14. GETAROUGHIDEAOFWHEREYOUWANTTOGO

15. SOLVETHEDETAILSWHENYOUENCOUNTERTHEM

16. AGILEISBETTER. EXCEPT…

17. AGILEISBETTER! EXCEPT…
Market feedback
Budget
Did we really have to build
all that to find out it was
the wrong thing?

18. AGILEISBETTER! EXCEPT…
Build
Budget
Ummm…?

19. Where do
backlogs
come from?
Where do
backlogs
come from?

20. THEPRODUCTMANAGER
• Managing business stakeholders
• “Look and feel” of the product
• Adding features and keeping the
backlog up to date
• Marketing
• Business case
AKA “Digital proposition manager”

21. “Neither intuition nor
expert opinion are good
gauges of the value our
ideas have for users.

22. YOU’REMUCHBETTERATUSINGSOFTWARE
THANMOSTOFYOURUSERS
Website tasks:
the slowest 25% of
users take
2.4 times
as long
as the fastest 25%
of users
Your usersYou

23. DANARIELYDIDANEXPERIMENT.
WITHORIGAMIFROGS.
They were hard to make and most people did a bad job.
How much would people bid for their own frogs?
And the frogs of others? And expert -made frogs?
Flickr:ToddJordan/Tojosan

24. Flickr:Nanimo
WEOVERESTIMATETHEVALUEOFTHETHINGSWEMAKE.
• Average bid for expert-made frog: 27¢
• Average bid for own frog: 23¢
• Average bid by someone else for that same frog: ¢5c

25. LOBSTERSBOILINGINKOOLAID
Flickr: Lars ploughman
• Succumbing to their own/organisational hallucination
• Adding complexity: “And we could also…”
• Forgetting customer contact and even analytics.

26. COUNTERACTFANTASYWITHEVIDENCE

27. THEPRODUCTMANAGERAKA “Digital proposition manager”
Measurement - Gathering
and analysing the product
outcomes to prove it’s
delivering customer value.
+
Research - understanding
what users are doing with
the software, and what
they need.
+

28. LEANUX
BUILD
MEASURE
LEARN
Lean uses small
batches.
Test out each
assumption as you
go.

29. Would you use this?
The most important thing you can’t find out in a usability test

30. DESIGNANDRELEASEITERATIVELY to deliver innovation and measure impact

31. THISSTUFFREALLYWORKS
Lean
Agile
Iterative
Ad hoc
Traditional
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Successful Challenged Failed
Ambysoft/Dr Dobb’s 2013
http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/the-non-existent-software-crisis-debunki/240165910

32. STAGESFORGOODPRODUCTMANAGEMENT
Ship #1Discover Extend and optimise
Clarify customer,
needs and behaviours,
technical solutions,
business viability.
Release a small
but valuable
product.
Build and learn
towards a great
product.

33. ACTIVITIESFORGOODPRODUCTMANAGEMENT
Learn
Design
Plan
Build

34. AUNIFIEDPRODUCTMANAGEMENTMODEL
Extend and optimise
Design
Learn
Build
Plan
Discover Ship first release
Establish product market fit Release a small but valuable product Build and learn towards a great product

35. THEPRODUCTMANAGERNEEDSUXHELP
TECH
UX

36. •• Use UCD tools to discover product market fit
• • Define assumptions and hypotheses
••• Participate in all the ceremonies
• • Include UX in the definition of done
••• Log and prioritise UX debt
•• Integrate user research
•• • Use analytics to (dis)prove hypotheses
UXINALEANPRODUCTMANAGEMENTPROCESS
Learn
Design
Plan
Build

37. RAPIDPROTOTYPINGANDUSERRESEARCHISSUPERLEAN.
Our batches are smaller.
••

38. IMMERSIONANDOBSERVATION:SOLEAN!
••

39. USEACANVASTOCAPTUREASSUMPTIONS
••

40. PRIORITISEFEATUREIDEASWITHIMPACTMAPS
Goal
How
How
How
Who
How
What
What
What

41. Use social proof
stats and stories to
drive action
Make calculator
easier to
understand
Add a video
More
customers
choose to invest
with us
More customers
complete
purchase
Customers
choose to invest
more
Customers
disinvest less
First time
investors
R100m
of customer money
invested

42. TURNREQUIREMENTSINTOHYPOTHESES
ABOUTOUTCOMES
We believe that
building this feature
for these people
will achieve this outcome.
We will know this is true when we see
this quantitative measure
AND this qualitative response.
••
We believe that
building A SOCIAL PROOF PANEL
for NEW, inexperienced investors
will achieve An increase in customer
acquisition from the landing pages.
We will know this is true when we see A 20%
increase in people starting and finishing
signup AND All users show a neutral or
positive response in user testing.
>60%FAIL

43. UXDESIGNERS:FULLPARTICIPATION
Design and analysis
Implement
Evaluate
Implement
Design and analysis Design and analysis
Implement
Evaluate Evaluate
• Refinement: Interface
design and hypothesis
creation for upcoming
stories.
• Sprint Planning: The
interface is put along side the
user stories as they go onto
the sprint backlog.
• Evaluation: Evaluation
workshops and user
testing observation
• Sprint review: Review what
was built and discuss latest
analytics and hypotheses.
• Retrospective: Discuss
how to optimise the
design process, not just
the dev process.
•••

44. UXCRITERIAINTHEDEFINITIONOFDONE
Definition of done (universal)
• the code is well-written.
• the code is checked in.
• the code comes with automated tests at all
appropriate levels.
• the code has been reviewed.
• appropriate documentation has been
completed.
Acceptance criteria (per story)
• user is logged in only when proper
credentials are provided
• a "remember me" option is available
• user can request a password reminder
• user is locked out after three failed
attempts
Interface conforms to:
• the product’s design principles
• the style guide
• your selected UX heuristics (Norman,
Cooper, Deloitte Digital… )
Interface conforms to the wireframe
and UI notes.
+ +
••

45. LOGANDPRIORITISEUXDEBT
Unintentional debt
“We didn’t know people did that/
wanted that/needed that.
Intentional debt
“People can live with it. Let’s spend
the time on this other new
feature.”
Consequences
Designers have to work harder
to make the system intelligible.
Users see increasing
complexity or diminishing
utility.
•••

46. WHATTODOWITHUXDEBT
Debt
Story
Story
Debt
Story
There’s a wonderful place to
put all the UX issues that
haven’t been addressed.
The product backlog.
Get UX debt in there and
help prioritise it
appropriately.
issues

47. DOUSABILITYTESTSINEVERYSPRINT
Just tell the recruiter to
“bring us 5 users every second Thursday.”
Evaluate
Implement
Design and analysis Design and analysis Desi
Implement
Evaluate Evaluate
Design and analysis
Implement
••

48. TESTAMIXOFSTUFFWITHUSERS
PAST FUTUREPRESENT
Interviews about
past experiences
Testing working
software
Testing mockups
and concepts

49. MEASUREBETAUSEROUTCOMES
ACQUISITION
ACTIVATION
ACTIVITY
RECOMMENDATION
REVENUE
•••
PIRATE METRICS
GOOD FOR MEASURING PRODUCT
MARKET FIT

50. MOMENTUM,TEAM,HECTIC,AWESOME

51. THECUSTOMERINTERFACEGOESFASTEST
SYSTEMSOFINNOVATION
SYSTEMSOFDIFFERENTIATION
SYSTEMSOFRECORD
Gartner’s pace layers application strategy
It’s your job not
to let the slower
layers stop you
innovating.

52. “It’s good to be first.
It’s better to be good.
It best to be both.

53. THANKS.pbarrett@deloitte.co.za