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Knowledge Center Product Design ProcessJoão Lopes, UX Strategist, SDL CMT

Best practices to fit Agile / Scrum methods

Core premises• UX must never become a blocker for DEV.

Either DEV come up with their own UX Design (and UX reviews it) or UX work is postponed to a later time.

• Strive for visibility and predictability of all design work.• Minimize redesign of a user story; Remove as many design

issues as possible before implementation.• Minimize overhead and process waste.• Understand there may be work before and during development

that UX may not support (partially or fully).

Process Goal

Deliver more value from better designed products, through understanding of requirements, users, capabilities, time to iterate and measurement of what was implemented.

fruit

fruit

fruitfruit

fruit

Product Management(PM’s, PO’s, Business

Analysts, Market Researchers)

Business(viability)

Process To Bring Disciplines Together

Engineering (Architects, Developers, Testers, Ops)

Technology

(feasibility)

User Experience(User Researchers, Designers, Design

Strategists)

People(desirability)

Innovation

happens here!

SDL Product Overall Process

Customer Ecosystem

Product Line

Product LineProduct Line

Product LineProduct Line

Product LineProduct Line DevOps Leadership

Experience Design & Guidelines TeamsFocus on Design, Details, Execution, Guidelines, Documentation, Distribution

SCRUM Teams (Dev/Doc/QA)Code, Consistency, Efficiency (Reusability) & Compliancy

Experience Strategy TeamFocus on Research, Innovation, Data, Strategy

Product Management TeamFocus on Market, Direction & Roadmaps

Aligning Actors & Actions

Prod

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trategy

/

Prod

uct R

oadm

aps

Expe

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e

Strategy

Expe

rienc

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Design UI D

evelo

pmen

t /

Testi

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§ Product Objectives (Business Goals, Success Metrics)

§ Functional Specification(Prioritized list of requirements)

§ User Needs (Research, Personas, Journeys, Service Blueprints, etc.)

§ UX Strategy (Goals, Experience Metrics, IA, Design Concepts, Prototypes)

§ Interaction Design (Conceptual Models, Metaphors, Flows)

§ Interface Design (Wireframes)

§ Visual Design (Colors, Icons, Typography, Grids, etc.)

§ Design Guidelines(Screen Templates, UI Controls, Rules, Documentation)

§ UI Controls & Example Code(Catalina Controls, Reusable Code, Documentation)

PM / UX / Architects UX / PO / DEV

Prior to Project During Project

Expe

rienc

e

Guideli

nes

Integrate with Existing SCRUM

Product Release

UX / Scrum - tasks proposal

Pre-development Sprint 0

Perform foundational research to inform release.Gather knowledge about user flows, personas, context and build and communicate models that help this and future projects. Use this knowledge to inform the user stories; ensure the ‘why’ of a story is covered.

Create foundation design & UX strategy. Design storyboards, scenarios, sitemaps, prototypes that embed the user interface architecture and can serve as a reference point.

Create foundation design & UX strategy. Design storyboards, scenarios, sitemaps, prototypes that embed the user interface architecture and can serve as a reference point.

Create foundation Design & UX Strategy

• PM and UX creates high-level vision for (release) MacGyver.• PM and PO create Epics for (release) MacGyver and

determine which require UX support and what the priority* is• UX will work with PM and PO to create designs for the Epics

to translate the vision to more detailed designs, in order of priority

• UX work will be tracked as tasks for visibility and predictability

UX / Scrum - tasks proposal

Pre-development Sprint 0 Sprint 1

Perform foundational research to inform release.Gather knowledge about user flows, personas, context and communicate models that help the project. Use this knowledge to inform the user stories; ensure the ‘why’ of a story is covered.

Create foundation design & UX strategy. Design storyboards, scenarios, sitemaps, prototypes that embed the user interface architecture and can serve as a reference point.

Manage UX work in the Product Backlog. Tasks, resources and effort, issues & design decisions , progress, customer feedback. Manage all the work in the Product Backlog so UX is part of the regular process and increase visibility of dependencies and issues.

Sprint n

Design one or more Sprints ahead & Support the current SprintWork on designs that are needed in the next Sprint(s). Be one step ahead of development. Also, support implementation of a design and fixing of design issues during the current Sprint.

Design one or more Sprints ahead & Support the current SprintWork on designs that are needed in the next Sprint(s). Be one step ahead of development. Also, support implementation of a design and fixing of design issues during the current Sprint.

Design one or more sprints ahead; Support current sprint

• PO/PM plans stories 2-3 sprints ahead. Review planning every sprint and update when needed.

• UX work for stories is estimated and planned.• UX works on design tasks for upcoming sprints & UX

supports current sprint with review and feedback. New design work, incl. UI bugs, in current sprint is added as a task for a next sprint.

• If a more fundamental design change is needed, an UX spike can be scheduled to allow more time to reset direction.

UX / Scrum - tasks proposal

Pre-development Sprint 0 Sprint 1

Perform foundational research to inform release.Gather knowledge about user flows, personas, context and communicate models that help the project. Use this knowledge to inform the user stories; ensure the ‘why’ of a story is covered.

Manage UX work in the Product Backlog. Tasks, resources and effort, issues & design decisions , progress, customer feedback. Manage all the work in the Product Backlog so UX is part of the regular process and increase visibility of dependencies and issues.

Sprint n

Create foundation design & UX strategy. Design storyboards, scenarios, sitemaps, prototypes that embed the user interface architecture and can serve as a reference point.

Design one or more Sprints ahead & Support the current SprintWork on designs that are needed in the next Sprint(s). Be one step ahead of development. Also, support implementation of a design and fixing of design issues during the current Sprint.

UX / Scrum - tasks proposal

Pre-development Sprint 0 Sprint 1 Sprint n

Communicate designs early and often.incorporate feedback. Make the team aware of design progress. Involve non-designers in design sessions as well as target users.

Communicate designs early and often.incorporate feedback. Make the team aware of design progress. Involve non-designers in design sessions as well as target users.

Communicate Designs early and often

• UX holds regular reviews with stakeholders (PO, PM, Dev, UX) for tasks to ensure designs is feasible, viable and desirable and get feedback

• UX plans regular UX testing throughout development processCan be in the form of a cognitive walkthrough (which combines point 1 with this) or involving actual users

UX / Scrum - tasks proposal

Pre-development Sprint 0 Sprint 1 Sprint n

Communicate designs early and often.incorporate feedback. Make the team aware of design progress. Involve non-designers in design sessions as well as target users.

Integrate UX at the story level.

Estimate UX time for each story task and add user centered acceptance criteria into the story; user completes user story without errors, satisfaction goal. Ensure measurement and adhere to these metrics is build into development process.

Integrate UX at the story level.Estimate UX time for each story task and add user centered acceptance criteria into the story; user completes user story without errors, satisfaction goal. Ensure measurement and adhere to these metrics is build into development process.

Integrate UX at the Story Level

• All UX work is in JIRA as tasks related to a user story• Tasks includes effort estimation of UX work

Progress is captured in task (e.g. remaining effort)• Task is assigned a UX support level • Priority is assigned to a UX task• Tasks are planned 2-3 sprints ahead. If there is no time for a

particular task, it will have to be postponed to a later sprint or Dev takes ownership of the UX

UX / Scrum - tasks proposal

Pre-development Sprint 0 Sprint 1 Sprint n

Communicate designs early and often.incorporate feedback. Make the team aware of design progress. Involve non-designers in design sessions as well as target users.

Integrate UX at the story level.Estimate UX time for each story task and add user centered acceptance criteria into the story; user completes user story without errors, satisfaction goal. Ensure measurement and adhere to these metrics is build into development process.

Document the design just enough, not more.Agile is about reducing documentation. If a sketch, wireframe or screenshot will communicate your intend, that is sufficient. If something more involved is needed, provide more documentation[

Plan regular testing throughout the entire development processExpert reviews, Cognitive walkthroughs, Rapid Iterative Testing & Evaluation, Quick Pulse studies. Plan ahead for a regular cadence of evaluation, schedule participants upfront. Preferably once every Sprint.

User Centered Design: UX across 4 D’s

Design trays

Tools in the Pipeline

UX Support levels• A model to indicate what

level of UX design support a particular product backlog item or task will receive.

• Provides clear expectations to what needs to be delivered

• This is added as a field (?) in JIRA

* UX needs to be ready to let go of these designs.

UX Support level Description Estimated effort*

FULL Mock-ups, visual designs, visual specs 5 days

MEDIUM Mock-ups only 1 days

LOW Feedback and review only. 2 hours

None* Can’t support this backlog item*  

Tools in the Pipeline

UX Plan Board

• Linked to stories• Provides a clear overview

of what UX is supporting next

• Essential to guide UX designers planning and guarantee delivery on-time.

Tools in the Pipeline

UX assignee at the initiative level

Tools in the Pipeline

UX work is part of the task

Side questions

• Should process include a placeholder for evaluating the integration of any UI work in common UI framework?

• How manageable will design deliveries be in JIRA? This is already heavily time-consuming for Designers.

• The all process depends on effective / systematic pre-planning. Can we afford it?

PM / PO need to plan epics for the releaseDEV fleshes the epics into storiesDEV plans stories for next 2/3 sprints

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