Part of the Squads: working Agile within Thomas Cook

1. DEPARTMENT
PART OF THE SQUADS:
WORKING AGILE WITHIN THOMAS COOK
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS

2. ›About Thomas Cook and our platform
›Where we were: Scrum
›Where we are now: Squads
›UX Researcher Squad life
›Learnings
AGENDA
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS

3. About Thomas Cook and our platform
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS
IN STORE ONLINE APP
HOW MIGHT WE…

4. MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS
Where we were:
Scrum

5. Where we were: Scrum
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS

6. Where we were: Scrum
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS

7. Where we were: Scrum
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS

8. Where we were: Scrum
› PO’s were owners of their bit of the site
› Regular releases that added value to
website and app
› Clear vision and goal for the Scrum
teams
What worked well
› Commitment and time from team
members that were not part of the
Scrum teams (ie Analytics, UX
Researchers, Designers, Optimization)
› Communication between Scrum teams
› Communication to Markets
What could be better
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS
TIME FOR OUR NEXT ITERATION

9. MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS
Where we are now:
Squads

10. Where we are now: Squads
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS

11. Squads: Case
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS

12. Squads: Case
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS

13. Squads: Case
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS
"It's great to get some super-early
user testing insights, even before
implementing the flow!
Now we (hopefully) need less pivots
to make the things right and we
gonna meet customer needs quicker"
- Scrum Master

14. MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS
UX Researcher
Squad life

15. UX Researcher Squad life
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS

16. UX Researcher Squad life
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS

17. UX Researcher Squad life
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS

18. Usability
Testing
Guerrila Research
Diary Study
Contextual
inquiry
Interviews
Co-creation
workshops
Focus
groups
Card Sorting
Tree Testing
Surveys
Hall testing
UX Researcher Squad life
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS

19. UX Researcher Squad life
What might happen in a single Sprint:
› Squad Reviews (full Squads)
› UX Team Time (UX Designers and Researchers)
› User testing (Designer and Researcher)
› Guerilla research (paired up in teams, i.e. UX Researcher with Designer or PO)
› Research Labs (full participation)
› Analysis
› Share results in next Squad Review
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS

20. MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS
Learnings

21. How do we learn as a company
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS
• Individual teams: testing and iterating
• Scrum teams: Retrospectives
• Product: Releasing iteratively
Now we are inspecting higher level ways of working and
collaboration, and iterating on that.

22. Learnings: Within the Squad
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS
Bi-weekly Squad Reviews
Communication Channels

23. Learnings: Cross-Squad
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS
› Cross-Squad workshops
› PO meetings
› People assigned to more than one Squad
SQUAD A SQUAD B SQUAD C
Working in Silos Breaking Silos

24. Learnings: next iterations
Next iterations will focus on:
› Improve cross-Squad communication
› Hipchat / Slack / Skype / Skype for Business / Teams -> one single tool
› Squad Health Check: and now?
› Do both Research and Design need to be embedded in the Squads?
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS

25. Thank you!
MARIEKE MOL; PART OF THE SQUADS
Questions?