Many UX designers struggle to work within a Scrum environment and see Scrum as a framework mainly for programmers. Working in time-boxed Sprints and delivering small pieces iteratively and incrementally might force designers to focus on a single story at a time. This in turn can lead to tunnel vision, losing focus of the big picture and resulting in a fragmented user experience. Come to this presentation to learn where design fits in Scrum and how to apply design principles in Agile environments and work effectively with Scrum teams to produce a great user experience.

1. UX in an Agile World
Fadi Stephan

2. What is your
experience
with design on
Scrum teams?
What worked?
What didn’t work?
What challenges have
you experienced?

3. Technology Consultant
Agile Trainer & Coach
Founder of Kaizenko
Transform | Innovate | Deliver
Fadi
Stephan
www.kaizenko.com
in/fadistephan
KAIZENKO
KAIZENKOLLC
KAIZENKO
KAI.ZEN.KO
@FadiStephan

4. Making design work
with Scrum can be
hard.

5. Scrum
Framework to deliver quality valuable
products early and often while responding to
changing customer needs
User Experience Design
Approach to solving problems by
understanding what our users need, expect,
and how they behave during interactions
between product or service
Focus of Scrum
Frequently deliver working product
Constantly deliver value
Continuously improve
Focus of UX
Usable and accessible
Help user achieve something meaningful
User satisfaction

6. How Scrum and UX Intersect
Viable Feasible
Desirable
Usable

7. Build the right thing
and build it right.

8. Design is essential
to success in
satisfying your
users.

9. Early & Continuous delivery
Scrum
Building iteratively & incrementally
How Scrum and UX Might Clash
UX
Design end-to-end experience
Time up front to research
Cohesive, quality user experience
Working Product

10. How do you align
Scrum and UX?

11. Three ways to organize your teams
Separate &
parallel
Integrated &
cross-functional
Separate &
sequential

12. Separate and
sequential teams
Long design cycle
Delay in ROI
Design team + development
team
Big design up-front
Design hands-off to
development
Runway needed for design
Cohesive end to end
experience

13. Requirements
Design
Coding
Testing
Deployment
Thinking Scrum is just for coding
Waterfall
Waterfall

14. Separate and
parallel teams
Hand-offs
Knowledge gaps/lack of shared
understanding
Lack of collaboration/finger pointing
Design team + development
team
Design 2-3 Sprints ahead
Enough of a runway for design
Closer correlation of design &
dev

15. The hand-off

16. Integrated and cross-
functional teams
Not enough time for research activities
Non-cohesive user experience/end to
end design
Hard to balance skills/manage team size
Everyone embedded on one
team
Design & development are
ongoing
Shared understanding
Shared ownership of
outcome
Collaborative approach

17. How do we
succeed at
UX in an Agile
World?

18. Try integrated and
cross-functional
teams.

19. Key difference
between integrated
vs. parallel
One product backlog vs. multiple
Entire team is engaged in design vs.
handoff
UX skills vs. UX roles
Focus is on measurable outcome vs.
output

20. How do you
do it?
Cross functional team
Shared responsibility
Mutually accountable for
the delivery of a valuable,
useful, usable, quality
product

21. Key ongoing
activity
Implementation design
Notional design
Generative research

22. A Product Backlog
consists of
problems for the
Scrum team to
validate and solve.

23. Key ongoing
activity
Solutions
Problems

24. A Sprint is not just
about
implementation or
delivery.

25. A Sprint is about
research, learning,
discovery,
validation, and
delivery.

26. Planning ahead and looking back
Ensure top Product Backlog Items are ready for the next Sprint
Plan out research activities for new Product Backlog Items or
items moving up the Product Backlog (strategically)
Validate product matches design as product increments are being
developed
Help out wherever needed
Validate previous product increments deliver value and are usable
Help PO reprioritize Product Backlog based on learnings, insights
and measurable outcomes

27. Participation in events
Advocate for the user
Help clarify designs in Sprint
planning
Help address
questions/impediments in daily
standups
Address design questions from
stakeholders in Sprint reviews
Contribute to team continuous
improvement in retrospectives

28. Design Thinking
Solution-focused approach to
problem solving
Timeboxed activities, scale as
needed
Open ended prototype as output
Empathy, ideation,
experimentation

29. Co-creation activities
Design studios
Cross-functional research trips
Journey mapping
Co-sketching sessions

30. Design Sprint
Timeboxed activity
5-day process
Close-ended
Working prototype as output
Representation from different
skills
Contributions from different
teams

31. Lean UX
Ongoing activities
Principles based on DT, Agile,
Lean Startup
Artifacts used to move team’s
learning forward
Collaborative design, MVP,
experimentation

32. Style guides & pattern libraries
Atomic design system (Brad
Frost)
Validated patterns
Co-owned between design and
development
Eliminate need to recreate what
already exists

33. How to succeed at UX in Agile
Designers embedded
Refinement is ongoing
Problems to Solutions
Participation in events
Planning ahead and
looking back
Co-creation activities
Design Thinking
Design Sprints
Lean UX
Style guides and pattern
libraries

34. UX in an Agile World
Fadi Stephan
With thanks to Designers
Brad Lehman & Daphne Puerto