LEAN UXthe state of affairs

Taco Ekkel / VP Product Design at ProQuest / @tacoe / #TWAB2012

(Notes here) Show of hands: who here uses Lean UX methodologies in their daily practice?

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-lean-manufacturing.htmLean: Ford — Toyota — Toyotism — waste reduction Image http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-lean-manufacturing.htm

90% OF NEW PRODUCTS

In Software, different origin: products failed a lot. Not because the thing was built wrong, but because the wrong thing was built.

CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT

Steve Blank came along and fixed that by switching product development to customer development. Validated learning.

+ =Agile DevLean UX

FOSS

Note that the left part (the book that introduces customer development) is the important part. This middle bit is only tools.

Agile UX

Ability to respond quickly

Collaborate

Build requirements quickly

Central concept: lean ux builds on agile ux (i.e., not an either/or). The confusion between the two stems from the fact that both focus on reduction of deliverables.

Lean UX

Know what to respond to

Learn

Test hypotheses quickly

Agile UX

Ability to respond quickly

Collaborate

Build requirements quickly

Central concept: lean ux builds on agile ux (i.e., not an either/or). The confusion between the two stems from the fact that both focus on reduction of deliverables.

Lean UX

Know what to respond to

Learn

Test hypotheses quickly

Agile UX

Ability to respond quickly

Collaborate

Build requirements quickly

Waste reduction by minimizing deliverables

Communication over documentation

Central concept: lean ux builds on agile ux (i.e., not an either/or). The confusion between the two stems from the fact that both focus on reduction of deliverables.

Agile UX + Lean UX

Traditional UX

1. Lean UX 2. ????3. Profit!!

(wake-up call)

If it were so easy or fantastic, everyone here would’ve raised their hand at the beginningImage http://www.forkparty.com/11785/you-requested-a-wake-up-call-video

1. Lean UX 2. ????3. Profit!!

Questions

• If Lean UX is so fabulous why doesn’t everyone use it?• What are practical things you can do to get started with it?

Approach

• Qualitative exploratory research • interviews with teams of designers/developers/product people• startups, agencies, product teams in larger companies

• Find recurring lean patterns in daily practices• Learning over building• Waste reduction• Speed increase

maker teams: where design/development/product people bump into eachother

PATTERNS

PATTERN Agile: Been There, Done That

• Lean-using teams had fully mastered agile• Manifesto flavor, not “agifall” flavor

• Signs of having agile mastered• Little formality, lots of personal understanding of the problem space• Emergent planning and detailing of requirements/hypotheses• A feeling that fixed sprint rhythm constrains speed and flexibility• Experimentation with lighter-weight forms (like applying Kanban)

Manifesto flavor: people & communication focused. ‘Agifall’ is when everyone does the motions of scrum (standup, etc) but we still require waterfall-like deliverables and steps

RUP50,000,000 rules

Agile (Scrum)10 rules

Kanban3 rules

NOTE The less rules, the more awesome your team needs to be. I.e., you don’t start on the right sideImage http://jkneilson.wordpress.com

PATTERN Minimum Viable Anything

• Not just Minimum Viable Product, but also• Minimum Viable Personality• Minimum Viable Documentation• Minimum Viable API

• Really useful as ‘understanding device’ for stakeholders

Makes it easier to prevent stakeholders to throw in too many requirements

PATTERN Learning-focused Measuring

• Measure things that’ll help you learn• Not useful: vanity metrics, visitor count, arrival rate• Useful: next/previous action flows, funnels

• Not a replacement for getting out of the building

PATTERN Lean Experiments

problem,opportunity

brainstorm select

ideaidea idea

idea

idea

ideaidea

idea idea

functionalities A, B, C

design / builddeploy

measuretest

Keep A, CLose B

idea

start

donehypotheses A, B, C

Timeline is short: One sprint. No A/B needed for many of these!

PATTERN The Design Guardian

I’LL SAVE THIS PRODUCT FROM BECOMING AN INCOHERENT MESS

• With “constant change”, coherence needs work• Can be anyone — IxD, VD, PO, etc

• But someone has to be this• Usually, designer works a sprint ahead for this

• “design lead sprint” not necessarily a bad thing

PATTERN Physical Proximity

• Developer & UI Designer: Closer = Better• Different physical location, email: bad• Different locations/rooms, Skype: okay• Sitting next to eachother looking at same screen: fantastic• One and the same person: nirvana

PATTERN Front-End Designer

• Prototype interaction in browser• not often reused in production code

• Labels still in flux• Interaction Engineer, UI Engineer, Front-End Designer, Design Technologist

• Often takes the role of design guardian• Not necessarily formally trained either way

DesignersCoders

who know CodeDesign

If you’re considering a career switch... consider this

PATTERN Formal Wireframing On The Way Out

AxureOmnigraffle

Visio

ideation, layout, interaction

specification

ideation, layout

layout, interaction

browser-based prototypes in actual code

lower-fi collaborative sketching

• Good riddance. Wireframes did a bunch of things poorly• Since only the IxD can wireframe, slow ideation process• Since wireframes suck at interactivity, bad way to specify interaction

• Design in browser — actually code. Usually not used in prod code. Most people just start with jquery or something

The Hammer-Nail Issue

“With browser-based design, everything becomes boxes”

Photoshop

“Everything looks like Bootstrap”

Browser prototyping

“Pretty but dead pictures”

PATTERN Product Owner In The Trenches

• “If the PO isn’t passionate about the user experience, forget about it”• Signs of a PO in the trenches

• PO does a lot of sketching • Nitpicky about UI details• Leaning on a design guardian (or being it)• Getting pulled in for UI related discussions whenever possible

PATTERN Terminology Confusion

• Some teams using Lean UX patterns don’t self-identify as such• Lean, Agile etc often confused

• No one gives a damn what it’s called, as long as it works

Not giving a damn what it’s called is a good thing!

ANSWERS

Using patterns to get started with Lean UX

• Q: What practical starting points do these patterns provide?

• Get agile UX working first!• Have a design guardian who ensures consistency over time• Design-ahead is not a horrible thing (within limits)• Get designers and developers really close to eachother• If your PO is not passionately in the trenches, buy a new one • Start replacing “requirements” stories with “hypothesis” stories• Run lean experiments

The starting question

• Q: “If Lean UX is so fabulous why doesn’t everyone use it?”

• Still struggling getting Agile UX to work • Lack of awareness, terminology confusion

Learn quicklyBuild quickly

Agile UX Lean UX

THANKSquestions?

Taco Ekkel / VP Product Design at ProQuest / @tacoe / #TWAB2012