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WORKSHOP TO
EXECUTION:
HOW DESIGN SPRINTS
& AGILE WORK
TOGETHER
Luana Ramcharran
September 1, 2021
UXPA
Luana
Ramcharran
3
WHY THIS TOPIC?
There’s a lot of material out there on Design Thinking and Agile, but not a lot about how they work
together in between a Design Thinking workshop ending and an Agile Scrum Sprint starting.
STARTING DEVELOPMENT
AFTER DESIGN SPRINT
4
TODAY I’LL BE COVERING…
Talking and thinking about design
wouldn’t accomplish much if it
didn’t show up in our products.
— Brad Smith,
CEO of Intuit 2008-2018
Harvard Business Review, 2015
“
1. An overview of the process
2. Breakdown of the tools and techniques
3. Three (3) case studies where this process was put into
action
For your reference, the appendix has a reference list
of software used
DESIGN THINKING & AGILE
DEFINITIONS
5
DESIRABILITY
(Human)
FEASIBILITY
(Technical)
VIABILITY
(Business)
6
DESIGN THINKING
INNOVATION
Design thinking is a human-
centered approach to innovation
that draws from the designer’s
toolkit to integrate the needs of
people, the possibilities of
technology, and the requirements
for business success.
— TIM Brown, IDEO
“
7
AGILE
In software development, Agile is a set of practices intended to improve the effectiveness of software
development professionals, teams, and organizations. Scrum is an applied methodology of Agile.
Individual and Interactions Over Process and Tools
Working Software Over Comprehensive Documentation
Customer Collaboration Over Contract Negotiation
Responding to Change Over Following a Plan
The 4 Values of the Agile Manifesto
8
DESIGN SPRINTS
A 6-phase design framework for validating ideas and big challenges (Jake Knapp’s Sprint version)
Dig into
the problem
Define the key
Strategy & focus
Understand Define
DAY 1
Rapidly develop
as many
Solutions
as possible
Diverge
DAY 2
Choose the best
Ideas so far
Decide
DAY 3
Build something
fast that can be
shown to users
Prototype
DAY 4
Show prototype
to users and
Learn what
works
Validate
DAY 5
9
BUT AFTER THE Design
sprint IS OVER?
We’re left with long-term vision and no plan to execute
1
0
DESIGN THINKING + SCRUM
Design Thinking
Sprint
Execution
Shippable
Increment
Sprint
Review
Backlog
Sprint
Planning
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Testing
Agile Scrum
1
1
Design Workshop into
Execution…
Design Thinking
Sprint
Execution
Shippable
Increment
Sprint
Review
Backlog
Sprint
Planning
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Testing
Agile Scrum
Affinity
Mapping
Impact vs
Effort
Scoping
PRDs
Incremental
Design
Validation
Testing
Revisit
Journey Maps
1
2
HERE’S a playbook
to connect these
These tools have successfully gotten me (and our team) from Design Workshop to Execution:
• AIG
• Affinity Mapping
• Impact vs Effort Scale
• Validation Testing
• GoExpedi
• Incremental Design
• Scoping PRDs
• Zenput
• Revisiting Journey Maps
Case Studies &
PlayBook
1
3
AIG | Valic
Web & Mobile Design
1
4
An iterative process
XXX
• Pre-Design System
• Minimal information up front
• Lots of clicks to dive into data
Legacy PSO
June 2018
• Modern design
• Incorporates Design System
• More high-value content up front
SponsorFIT
1
8
AFFINITY Mapping
Examples of live affinity map documenting positives and negatives during each interview, as well as HMWs and opportunities.
1
9
HmwS & Opportunities
HMW = How Might We…
• Categorize your findings into opportunity statements
• One statement per sticky note
• Place it next to relevant trend finding
Example HMW statements
2
0
IMPACT VS EFFORT SCALE
Take HMWs and decide their relative impact to customers vs effort to the company
High
Low
High
HMW…
HMW…
HMW…
HMW…
HMW…
HMW…
HMW…
HMW…
Impact
to
Users
Effort to Team
2
1
IMPACT VS EFFORT SCALE
Then decide what to tackle first:
Impact
to
Users
Effort to Team
Low
High
HMW…
HMW…
HMW…
HMW…
HMW…
HMW…
HMW…
HMW…
High
March 2019
• Introduction of actionable KPIs
• Smaller card design
• Updated overview card
Plan Health
Feb 2020
• Incorporates Business
Intelligence tool
• More content above the fold
Power BI
2
4
DESIGN VALIDATION TESTING
Once the feature is released, measure
how it’s doing out in the wild through
analytics tools like:
• Session Recording
• Heatmaps
• Behavior Flows
• Qualitative Interviews
Examples of analysis tools
March 2018 to February 2020
• NPS score increased to +6.54 (from -32.68)
• Corporate Insight grade went up to A- (from C+)
• Won Dalbar Award for Customer Excellence
IMPACT
Applied learnings to B2C site and repeated the process
GoExpedi:
3D PRODUCT
CONFIGURATOR
2
7
IMPROVING BUYING
EXPERIENCE
• Problem: Users had to guess cost and
performance of parts they were buying
• Hypothesis: A 3D Product Configurator
could combine the right data & ML to
predict these
2
9
Incremental designs
Start with blue-sky vision and work on
incremental mock-ups to get there
“How do UX practices fit with agile development practices”, Erkan Öğümsöğütlü
3
0
Incremental designs
BLUE SKY STORYBOARD MVP Design Next Iteration
3
1
Scoping prdS
PRDs =Product Requirement Documents
• Designers work with Product Managers to
help inform incremental design acceptance
criteria (AC) for the scope of each design
iteration (MVP
, V1, V2, V3, etc.)
Version
MVP
MVP
V1
V2
Example of PRD in Confluence from Google Images
3
3
For Users:
• Reduced procurement time from two (2) weeks
to a few minutes
• Cost savings for part configurations
For Business:
• Customer retention for new features
• Increased demand for Part RFPs
For Technology Team:
• On-Time Deliverables, UX practice established, renewed morale
IMPACT
ZENPUT
Web app delight
3
4
Operations Execution, Elevated
3
6
Revisit JOURNEY MAPs
Track changes in sentiment as a dynamic journey map – revisit what you started with and
check where the needle was moved
Example revisited journey maps for 2 of our Zenput user personas
3
7
OUTCOMES We’re
Looking Forward to…
In addition to the application of the other plays mentioned, we will see:
• A method to prioritize both VoC and business goals
• MVP into Production faster
• Design Workshop outputs seen as RO(D)I by peers
• Better collaboration with Engineering and Product Managers
3
8
Workshop to Execution
Design Thinking
Sprint
Execution
Shippable
Increment
Sprint
Review
Backlog
Sprint
Planning
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Testing
Agile Scrum
Affinity
Mapping
Impact vs
Effort
Scoping
PRDs
Incremental
Design
Validation
Testing
Revisit
Journey Maps
THANK YOU 🙏🙏
QUESTIONS?
Luana Ramcharran
Send me a message: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luanaram/
I’m Hiring!
Check out job board on: https://www.zenput.com/careers
APPENDIX
4
1
Software for Plays
Here are the tools again that helped us get from workshop to execution:
• Affinity Mapping, Impact vs Effort, Journey Mapping
• FigJam
• Miro
• Mural
• Impact vs Effort Scale
• Productboard (built-in feature)
• Design Validation Testing
• UserZoom
• Fullstory
• Google Analytics
• Incremental Designs
• Figma
• Sketch
• InVision
• Scoping PRDs
• Confluence
4
2
Worth Mentioning…
Design Thinking
Sprint
Execution
Shippable
Increment
Sprint
Review
Backlog
Sprint
Planning
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Testing
Agile Scrum
Affinity
Mapping
Impact vs
Effort
Scoping
PRDs
Visual
Hardening
Incremental
Design
Validation
Testing
Revisit
Journey Maps
4
3
Visual hardening
Designers pair up with engineers to build a feature side-by-side during the development process
“The QA Process in UX Design”, Angela Delise