Advancing UX in Your Organization (Fluxible Conference, September 2013)

Advancing UX in Your Organization

Kimberley Peter User Experience Design Lead IBM Rational Software Toronto, Ontario @kpeter

Adam Archer Technical Lead, JazzHub IBM Rational Software Toronto, Ontario @agarcher

©2013!

Fluxible . September 14-15, 2013! 2!

Introductions


•  Our backgrounds •  Our work focus and

context –  In-house (large corp)

About ‘us’


•  Your name •  Your work focus and

context –  In-house (small/large co) –  Agency –  Consultant –  Other

•  Your interests today

About ‘you’


Overview


Kombi Microbus Transporter

In name …


the freedom to explore …

to try new things …

to embrace change

In spirit …

Our plan for today …


Motivation Context Solutions

Consider cause or motivation for change

in your context




Visualize context for prospective areas to

affect change


in your context




Identify potential solutions for change

to try out in your context


in your context


affect change

Our plan in detail Time Topic Duration

2:15 – 2:35 Introductions and overview 20 min

2:35 – 2:55 Topic 1 : Motivation 20 min

2:55 – 3:25 Activity 1 : Hands-on + discussion 30 min

3:25 – 3:30 Topic 2 : Context 5 min

3:30 – 3:45 Break 15 min


4:15 – 4:35 Topic 3 : Solutions 20 min


4:50 – 5:15 Conclusion, discussion and wrap! 25 min


A few disclaimers

•  Not a prescription

•  Not representing process or methods in general at IBM (but you could learn more at: http://www.ibm.com/design/)

•  Not a replay of existing sources



Topics + Activities

Topic #1




in your context

Pattern of practice (for change)


PRACTICE SHARE EXPERIMENT



Do it. Don’t sell it. – Jeff Patton

Begin anywhere.– John Cage






Share the value.

Promote practices.

Think ‘us’. – John Wiegand






Share the value.

Promote practices.

Think ‘us’.– John Wiegand

Adapt to context.

Hone your skills.

Fake it ‘til youbecome it.– Ann Cuddy






Share the value.

Promote practices.

Think ‘us’.– John Wiegand

Adapt to context.

Hone your skills.

Fake it ‘til youbecome it.– Ann Cuddy


RECOGNIZE!


Motivation & ‘inventing on principle’

Source: Bret Victor, Inventing on Principle: Living for a Cause, CUSEC 2012 (http://vimeo.com/36579366)

“Creators need an immediate connection … This principle is so important to me that when I see a violation of it, I consider it a moral wrong. And I don’t think ‘opportunity’, but rather ‘responsibility’.”

Larry Tesler – “No Modes”


Image source: http://www.designinginteractions.com/interviews/LarryTesler

“… what drove him was the belief that ‘no person should be trapped in a mode’ … and made it his life’s work to fight against.”

Motivation in context

•  Bret’s Principle: “Creators need an immediate connection”

•  Larry’s Principle: “No person should be trapped in a mode”

•  Your Principle “…”


Motivations – A designer’s perspective

1.  Engineering-driven solutions – Designer as editor

2.  Wasted time on unused design – Why is your release theme more important than mine?

3.  Problem-solving oriented – Is this the right thing to solve / do we understand the problem well?

4.  Different workflows and cadence – Silos suck

5.  Distributed teams – It’s lonely on the phone all the time


Motivations – A developer’s perspective

1.  Late breaking, unexpected changes – I was already fully committed before you came along

2.  Development teams (and product management teams) are too ‘feature’ oriented – Just give ‘em the functionality they asked for

3.  Impractical designs – Gee, I wished you’d talked to me sooner

4.  Distributed teams – What ‘page’ are we on anyway? Fluxible . September 14-15, 2013! 24!

Hmmm, these seem familiar


Design-to-Development Issue Correlation

Eng-driven solutions

Wasted time on unused designs

Too problem-solving oriented

Different cadences

Distributed teams Distributed teams

Impractical designs

Too feature oriented

Late-breaking changes

Motivation & ‘designing on principle’

•  Making software should be satisfying for everyone involved and result in quality outcomes





in your context

Activity #1

Activity #1 – Description – Part 1


•  The Breakup Letter –  Consider your organization or team to be a ‘person’

you’ve been dating –  Write that person a breakup letter. What would you

say if you were going to end this relationship? Consider:

•  Your role in the relationship •  Your reasons for the breakup, when issues occur and who is

involved

•  Time: 8 minutes •  Materials: Pen and paper


•  Share your letter –  Volunteers?

•  Time: 15 minutes




•  Highlight each issue within your letter –  This will help you pull them out later in Activity #2

•  Time: 2 minutes •  Materials: Pen and paper

Topic #2




affect change


in your context

Process in context – Model


Process in context – Players+Activities


Process in context – Issues





in your context


affect change

Activity #2


•  Find a partner –  Someone with a similar work context –  Someone you don’t currently work with

•  Welcome to My World –  Take the issues you identified in the breakup letter and sketch

out the interactions around these issues (e.g., what, when, who) – include full context and non-friction points

–  Use the post-its and shapes (circles, boxes, arrows) to make a flow diagram with annotations

–  Add new information if you think of it (beyond what you captured in your letters)

•  Time: 10 minutes •  Materials: Post-its, sharpies, large paper



•  Share and elaborate on your world –  Share your sketch with your partner – describe its

components and what it means, then … –  Clarify and discuss areas of ease, challenge and

interactions with other people. Elaborate the drawings as you like

•  Time: 20 minutes –  10 minutes: 5 minutes each to share –  10 minutes: 5 minutes each to clarify and discuss –  You can share in succession, or share then clarify

each person in turn – we will signal at 8 minutes


Topic #3






in your context


affect change

Reframing from the design perspective


Recognizing areas for change


Shifting emphasis

•  Shift of emphasis from ‘what’ to ‘how’ (in order to get to a better ‘what’)

–  From planning content to planning activities and team organization

–  From problem solving to finding and understanding

–  From independent design to co-making


Planning activities/organization

•  Partnering with technical leads (past) •  Leading cross-functional feature teams •  Working with PM + tech leads to establish:

–  Principles and vision –  Release themes –  Candidate scenarios

•  Story mapping an holistic user-centric picture •  Shared team rhythm •  Shared tools for knowledge management, design

and file sharing •  Design playbacks


Feature teams

•  A feature team is a long-lived, cross-functional, cross-component team that completes many end-to-end customer features—one by one. – Craig Larman and Bas Vodde, Feature Team Primer


Feature teams – our use

•  Our goal: Achieve common navigation across a number of integrating products

•  Our team was design-led and cross-functional (~20 members): –  Engineers (10) –  User experience designers (4) –  Product management (2) –  User assistance (2) –  Test (2)

•  Our team ran ~2 years (2010 to 2012) and delivered many changes into two release cycles


Story mapping

•  Story mapping is an Agile UX method for creating a visual backlog that provides an overall picture of the primary activities, tasks and sub-tasks of the targeted users

•  Typically done in person w/ a shared surface

•  Can be done remotely using graphical tools (e.g., Microsoft Visio, Google Draw) or a spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel, Google Spreadsheet)


Story map components

•  Big activities •  Small activities •  Tasks •  Sub-tasks •  Additional markup

–  Questions –  Ideas –  Comments


Remote story mapping

•  Before the session: –  Prepare a document –  Prime the input – business goals, user story,

personas, scope of session


Remote story mapping

•  During the session: –  One person shares screen –  Review method and show examples as needed –  Moderator introduces story mapping activity – business

goals, user story, personas, scope of session –  Timebox your activities (examples):

•  Brainstorm activities > tasks > details (10 min each) •  Share and add unique entries to map (30 min to ‘n’ hours) •  Organize timelines and add markup (15 – 30 min) •  Review and prioritize the task details (30 min to ‘n’ hours)


Story mapping – our use

•  Initially doing in person –  Experimented with one local dev team –  Shared with other local design teams –  One design team led a large face-to-face session

•  Now doing more remote –  One x-functional team experimenting w/ spreadsheet –  One x-functional team experimenting w/ graphical tool

•  Three teams have used or actively practicing


Team rhythm


Problem finding & understanding

•  Doing workshops, interviews, surveys •  Sharing synthesis value + outcomes w/ teams •  Using hypothesis-driven exploration •  Hosting regular UX evaluation sessions


Hypothesis-driven exploration


Co-making / co-learning

•  Team book club •  Story mapping •  Brainstorming and affinity mapping •  Design studio method


Team Book Club


2 1 3

Design studio method

•  Facilitated time-boxed sketching to generate, iterate, converge

•  Done individually or in groups over hours / days

•  Follows pattern:


Understand THE PROBLEM

Sketch A SOLUTION

Present THE IDEAS

Critique THE IDEAS

Benefits

•  Collaborate to understand together •  Generate ideas from different perspectives •  Solidify ideas via sharable artifacts •  Create shared ownership •  Allow for open and honest critique •  Force participants to defend concepts


Design studio method – our use

•  Weekly (at least) •  Initially doing in person

–  Experimented with one local team –  Shared with other local teams

•  Now doing more remote –  Experimented with one distributed team –  Shared with other teams via a multi-site workshop

•  From one x-functional team to 4 – and growing


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•  Everyone is keen, but …!

•  Some companies have limited to ‘0’ tolerance of 3rd party cloud-based tools!

•  Collaborating remotely without exposing intellectual property is possible …!

Remote design studio method

Components

•  Audio: Telephone for discussion

•  Screen sharing: Web conference software of choice (Citrix GoTo Meeting, IBM SmartCloud Meeting)

•  Video hardware for sharing your sketches –  IPEVO USB document camera for live capture of your sketches

•  Video hardware for sharing ‘you’ –  Webcam for live capture of ‘you’—e.g., built-in or iSight

•  Social software – for sharing a live image of yourself –  Google Plus ‘Circle’ + Google Hangout

•  Sketching media and tools – same as for in person studios


Work area setup


Sketching in action


Benefits and limitations

•  Benefits –  Inclusive – you just need the cameras! –  Low-cost – almost a face-to-face meeting w/ the travel cost –  Faster processing and sharing of digital sketches + notes

•  Limitations –  Technical difficulties are likely – test runs are critical –  Slightly more preparation time of remote participants (e.g.,

gathering materials and understanding the tools) –  More team roles needed (e.g., moderator + someone to

quickly capture and share output from one round to next)


Learn more


UIE Webinar Sketching for Understanding By Nathan Curtis Eightshapes

Blog Sharing Sketches Remotely By Nathan Curtis Eightshapes

UX Magazine Introduction to Design Studio Methodology By Will Evans Semantic Foundry

Making inroads


2 Story mapping toward a backlog (remote)

1 Collaboration w/ PM on principles, vision and release themes; feature teams for cross-cutting themes

3 Research and synthesis input to plan & hypotheses validation

6 UX activities part of team rhythm: •  design studio •  usability sessions •  story playbacks

4 Co-making in weekly design studios (remote)

5 Regular evaluation sessions to refine experience (remote)




in your context


affect change

Activity #3




•  Brainstorm solutions from a distance –  You now have some perspective on your partner’s

challenges and context –  As someone at a distance, reflect on possible

solutions to your partner’s challenges –  Use post-its to write down all the possibilities you

can think of –  Place post-its on your partner’s world maps/sketches

•  Time: 5 minutes •  Materials: Post-its, sharpies, your world

maps/sketches



•  Discuss solutions –  Take turns sharing your solution ideas with your

partner

•  Time: –  10 minutes: 5 minutes each to share (we will signal at

5 minutes)



Conclusion

How are we doing?

•  Is making software more satisfying for everyone involved and resulting in quality outcomes?

•  Observations –  Happier people – more engaged throughout cycle –  Less design – focused on shared goals and getting in! –  Quality outcomes for our customers? – so far the

feedback is positive, e.g., they appreciate the engagement, the speed, and the less-is-more UIs


Solution impact at-a-glance Planning Together

Finding and Understanding Co-Making

Late breaking changes X X

Too ‘feature’ oriented X X

Impractical designs X

Engineering driven X X X

Unused designs X X

Problem solving oriented X

Different workflows X X

Distributed teams X X


A few last take aways …

1.  Change takes time – a lot of time


Timeline example


2009 2011 2012 2014 2010 2013

Partner w/ tech leads to influence dev plans

Lead cross-functional feature teams

Plan w/ PM + tech leads

Lead design studios

Engage dev peers in synthesis activities

Book club

Change project teams

Increased emphasis on design

Review + periodically collaborate w/ individual devs



2.  Relationships matter – both bottom-up and top-down




2.  Relationships matter – both bottom-up and top-down

3.  Small changes keep you motivated To keep your momentum and motivation up, get in the habit of accomplishing small victories along the way.– Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson



Discussion


References

Sources for methods (adapted) Activity 1 : The Breakup Letter •  Hanington, B., Martin, B.,

Universal Methods of Design: 100 Ways to Research Complex Problems, Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective Solutions, Rockport Publishers (2012)

Activity 2 : Welcome to My World •  Gray, D., Brown, S., Macanufo, J.,

Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers, O’Reilly Media, 1st Edition (2010)

Activity 3 : Getting Distance •  Heath, C., Heath, D.,

Decisive: How to Make Better Decisions in Life and Work, Random House Canada (2013)


Sources for further learning Agile / Lean UX Methods •  Gothelf, J., Seiden, J. (editor), Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience, O'Reilly Media (2013) •  Ramsey, A., Designing with Agile Workshop: Fast, Effective Methods that Work (Anders Ramsey – Blog, 2011) Design Principles •  Hess, W., Design Principles: The Philosophy of UX (Slideshare, 2011) Design Studio Method •  Curtis, N., Sketching for Understanding (UIE Webinar, 2013) •  Evans, W., Introduction to Design Studio Methodology (UX Magazine – Article, 2011) •  Evans, W., The Design of Design Studio (UX Magazine – Article, 2011) •  Evans, W., Design Studio and Agile UX: Process and Pitfalls (UX Magazine – Article, 2011) •  Zaki Warfel, T., The Design Studio Method (Agile UX NYC 2012 – Vimeo, 2012) Feature Teams •  Larman, C., Vodde, B., Feature Team Primer (PDF, 2010)

General Theory, Practice, and Inspiration •  Brown, T., Change By Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation, Harper Business, 1st Edition (2009) •  Buxton, B., Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design, Morgan Kaufmann, 1st Edition (2007) •  Cuddy, A., Your body language shapes who you are, TED Talk (2012) •  Fried, J., Heinemeier Hansson, D., Rework, Crown Business (2010) •  Merholz, P., Wilkens, T., Schauer, B., Verba, D.,

Subject To Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World: Adaptive Path on Design, O'Reilly Media (2008) •  Victor, B., Inventing on Principle: Living for a Cause (Canadian University Software Engineering Conference, CUSEC 2012 – Vimeo, 2012) •  Wellings, P., Gray, C., Turning a Developer-driven Organization into a UX Company (UX Week – Vimeo, 2010) Remote Collaboration Methods •  Curtis, N., Efficient Sketching Studios With Remote Participants (EightShapes – Blog, 2011) •  Gothelf, J., Designing with remote teams (Jeff Gothelf – Blog, 2013) Strategy and Planning Methods •  Milan, M., Ladner, S., Backcasting: How I learned to stop predicting and help my clients (IA Summit – Slideshare with audio, 2007) •  Milan, M., Backcasting 101: Collaborative Strategy Development for Information Architects (IA Summit – Slideshare, 2008) •  Patton, J., The new user story baclog is a map (Agile Product Design – Blog, 2008) •  Patton, J., Story mapping for UX Practitioners: Tying Agile and UX together (UIE Podcast, 2011)

Synthesis Theory and Methods •  Kolko, J., Exposing the Magic of Design: A Practitioners Guide to the Methods and Theories of Synthesis, Oxford University Press (2011)

79!


Thank You!

Advancing UX in Your Organization (Fluxible Conference, September 2013)

Design

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