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Lean UX

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Chester Yiu-Lam Ip
Chester Yiu-Lam Ip

Lean UX integrates UX design into Agile development by following a process of declaring assumptions, creating minimum viable products (MVPs), running experiments with users, and incorporating feedback into subsequent sprints. The process involves cross-functional teams collaborating to understand problems, develop initial solutions, test prototypes with users, analyze results, and refine ideas. User feedback is gathered continuously to guide iterative design improvements within each 2-week sprint cycle.

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Lean UX How to integrate UX design into an Agile Development Environment
Content! 1. Three foundations of Lean UX! 2. Core Principles! 3. The Process! i. Step 0: Preparation! ii. Step 1A: Declare Assumptions! iii. Step 1B: Initial Understanding! iv. Step 2: Create an MVP! v. Step 3: Run an Experiment! vi. Step 4: Feedback and Research! vii. Building Lean UX into Agile/Scrum! 4. Summary
Three foundations of Lean UX! 1. Design Thinking: thinks like a designer, drive the business direction by observing what people want and need, like or dislike and refine accordingly 2. Agile Software Development: Lean UX applies the four core principles of Agile development i. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools ii. Working software over comprehensive documentation iii. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation iv. Responding to change over following a plan 3. Lean Startup Methods: build the Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) for rapid learning of market response 3
Core Principles! 1. Build a Small, Colocated & Cross-functional Teams: build a team of less than 10 core people, everyone is engaged in every step for team efficiency, team work is highly valued, lessons learned in a collective manner with the team as a whole, the deeper into the process, the better the team at guessing what the market actually needs. 2. User-Centered Design Process: get feedback from real users as a way of learning, ideas and designs are tested against real users for new discovery and refinement, ideas can be proved first before scaling. 3. Lightweight and Fast Actions: the team should try to use the shortest duration to build products (MVP) for testing, the more the testing, the faster to find the right direction. 4. Performance is Assessed by Output Outcomes: teams are assigned problems instead of output specifications, they are given the free hand to try different solutions for maximum impact, outcomes are business goals (like increased conversion rate), the team must be safe to fail which can breed a culture of experimentation. 5. Designers should Work in Small Steps: resources are scarce, designers should laser focus on the most important tasks by creating designs that are crucial for the current MVPs and avoid presenting a large-batch polished design upfront, designers should also use sketches and wireframe to discuss their ideas early in the design process before building the design. 4
The Process! The above steps describes a typical cycle of formulating assumptions, building, testing and learning. Lean UX is a discovery process. User feedback is collected, analysed and utilised continually throughout the whole design/development process. Declare Assumptions / Initial Understanding Create an! MVP Run an! Experiment Feedback! and! Research 1 2 3 4 5
Step 0: Preparation! • Build a measurement system (e.g. digital analytics) into the current service/product to collect data for benchmarking • Define and prfioritize the personas for the service/product, personas represents the typical users (maybe up to 10 personas with 1-2 primary personas), personas must be derived from actual user profiles but given fictitious details (name, age, photo, occupation, needs and problems with the service/product) • Create and maintain a style guide which contains the most updated design components and patterns ever used (e.g. buttons, graphs, navigations, forms), usually with sample code and style. Updates should be communicated to all users. 6
Step 1A: Declare Assumptions! Lean UX is concerned about testing and learning. We have to test the validity of hypotheses and make adjustments accordingly. Who: All team members What: Create and prioritize the problem statements (goals, a current problem and an explicit request) and test with hypotheses statements. 7
Step 1A: Declare Assumptions! An example of problem statement: [Our service/product] was designed to achieve [goals]. We have observed that the service/product isn’t meeting [these goals], which is causing [this adverse effect] to our business. How might we improve [service/product] so that our customers are more successful based on [these measurable criteria]? ! 8
Step 1A: Declare Assumptions! An example of hypotheses statement: We believe [doing this] for [these personas] will achieve [this outcome]. We will know we’re [right/wrong] with [qualitative feedback/quantitative feedback/KPI changes]. ! 9
Step 1B: Initial Understanding! Goal: Mutual understanding between all members, in particular designers and developers, is crucial. Who: All team members What: The designer leads a meeting with all team members to discuss and come to agreement with some initial ideas to the problem. The meeting can be in the form of stand-up meeting or design studios (everyone brainstorm, discuss and choose the initial solution by consensus) by using low fidelity sketches on whiteboard or paper. 10
Step 2: Create an MVP! Goal: MVP stands for Minimum Viable Products. They are not the finished marketable products but rather complete products ready for testing. Who: Designers and/or developers What: Decide what to learn and how to learn the quickest. Define the signals/metrics in advance. Since we are mostly concerned about testing and learning in this stage, the MVPs can range from low-fidelity prototypes, high-fidelity mockups to fully functional demos as long as they serve the purpose. 11
Step 3: Run an Experiment! It’s show time. Who: Designated Testers and/or The Team What: Ask people come to your place to test out the new features or bring the product/service to places with your defined personas. 12
Step 4: Feedback and Research! While the primary feedback is collected from field testing of the MVPs, more feedback can be found in on- site search data, third party review sites, customer service calls, enquiry emails, and from the social media networks. Who: The Team What: To make sense of the feedback by i) looking for patterns, ii) finding an explanation for outliers, iii) double verify the patterns with other sources. 13
Typically, Scrum employs a 2 week sprints model. Several related sprints may be grouped into a theme. Declare Run an experiment (Step 3) and Feedback and Research (Step 4) can be added to each sprint with a “3-12-1″ cycle (3 users, by 12 noon, 1 a week) Building Lean UX into Agile/Scrum! 2 Week Sprint Step 1 IPM Step 3/4 2 Week Sprint Step 1 IPM Step 3/4 2 Week Sprint Step 1 IPM Step 3/4 Theme 14
Building Lean UX into Agile/Scrum! Typically, Scrum employs a 2 week sprints model. Several related sprints may be grouped into a theme. Declare Run an experiment (Step 3) and Feedback and Research (Step 4) can be added to each sprint with a “3-12-1″ cycle (3 users, by 12 noon, 1 a week) 2 Week Sprint Step 1 IPM Step 3/4 2 Week Sprint Step 1 IPM Step 3/4 2 Week Sprint Step 1 IPM Step 3/4 Theme 15
! Run an experiment (Step 3) and Feedback and Research (Step 4) can be added to each sprint with a “3-12-1″ cycle (3 users, by 12 noon, 1 a week) Building Lean UX into Agile/Scrum! Recruit test subject! ! Decide what will be tested Refine what will be tested Testing day! ! Review findings with entire team Plan next step based on findings Mon Tue Web Thur Fri Refine what will be tested! ! Write the test script! ! Finalised recruiting 16
Wrap Up 1. The whole team should know what problem we’re solving! 2. The whole team should know what success looks like! 3. Always seek the simplest solution 4. Always ask why. Question, don’t just accept 17
Useful Link 1. The Lean UX Manifesto: Principle-Driven Design
 http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/01/08/lean-ux- manifesto-principle-driven-design/ 2. Using Proto-Personas for Executive Alignment
 http://uxmag.com/articles/using-proto-personas-for- executive-alignment 18
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Lean UX

  • 1. Lean UX How to integrate UX design into an Agile Development Environment
  • 2. Content! 1. Three foundations of Lean UX! 2. Core Principles! 3. The Process! i. Step 0: Preparation! ii. Step 1A: Declare Assumptions! iii. Step 1B: Initial Understanding! iv. Step 2: Create an MVP! v. Step 3: Run an Experiment! vi. Step 4: Feedback and Research! vii. Building Lean UX into Agile/Scrum! 4. Summary
  • 3. Three foundations of Lean UX! 1. Design Thinking: thinks like a designer, drive the business direction by observing what people want and need, like or dislike and refine accordingly 2. Agile Software Development: Lean UX applies the four core principles of Agile development i. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools ii. Working software over comprehensive documentation iii. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation iv. Responding to change over following a plan 3. Lean Startup Methods: build the Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) for rapid learning of market response 3
  • 4. Core Principles! 1. Build a Small, Colocated & Cross-functional Teams: build a team of less than 10 core people, everyone is engaged in every step for team efficiency, team work is highly valued, lessons learned in a collective manner with the team as a whole, the deeper into the process, the better the team at guessing what the market actually needs. 2. User-Centered Design Process: get feedback from real users as a way of learning, ideas and designs are tested against real users for new discovery and refinement, ideas can be proved first before scaling. 3. Lightweight and Fast Actions: the team should try to use the shortest duration to build products (MVP) for testing, the more the testing, the faster to find the right direction. 4. Performance is Assessed by Output Outcomes: teams are assigned problems instead of output specifications, they are given the free hand to try different solutions for maximum impact, outcomes are business goals (like increased conversion rate), the team must be safe to fail which can breed a culture of experimentation. 5. Designers should Work in Small Steps: resources are scarce, designers should laser focus on the most important tasks by creating designs that are crucial for the current MVPs and avoid presenting a large-batch polished design upfront, designers should also use sketches and wireframe to discuss their ideas early in the design process before building the design. 4
  • 5. The Process! The above steps describes a typical cycle of formulating assumptions, building, testing and learning. Lean UX is a discovery process. User feedback is collected, analysed and utilised continually throughout the whole design/development process. Declare Assumptions / Initial Understanding Create an! MVP Run an! Experiment Feedback! and! Research 1 2 3 4 5
  • 6. Step 0: Preparation! • Build a measurement system (e.g. digital analytics) into the current service/product to collect data for benchmarking • Define and prfioritize the personas for the service/product, personas represents the typical users (maybe up to 10 personas with 1-2 primary personas), personas must be derived from actual user profiles but given fictitious details (name, age, photo, occupation, needs and problems with the service/product) • Create and maintain a style guide which contains the most updated design components and patterns ever used (e.g. buttons, graphs, navigations, forms), usually with sample code and style. Updates should be communicated to all users. 6
  • 7. Step 1A: Declare Assumptions! Lean UX is concerned about testing and learning. We have to test the validity of hypotheses and make adjustments accordingly. Who: All team members What: Create and prioritize the problem statements (goals, a current problem and an explicit request) and test with hypotheses statements. 7
  • 8. Step 1A: Declare Assumptions! An example of problem statement: [Our service/product] was designed to achieve [goals]. We have observed that the service/product isn’t meeting [these goals], which is causing [this adverse effect] to our business. How might we improve [service/product] so that our customers are more successful based on [these measurable criteria]? ! 8
  • 9. Step 1A: Declare Assumptions! An example of hypotheses statement: We believe [doing this] for [these personas] will achieve [this outcome]. We will know we’re [right/wrong] with [qualitative feedback/quantitative feedback/KPI changes]. ! 9
  • 10. Step 1B: Initial Understanding! Goal: Mutual understanding between all members, in particular designers and developers, is crucial. Who: All team members What: The designer leads a meeting with all team members to discuss and come to agreement with some initial ideas to the problem. The meeting can be in the form of stand-up meeting or design studios (everyone brainstorm, discuss and choose the initial solution by consensus) by using low fidelity sketches on whiteboard or paper. 10
  • 11. Step 2: Create an MVP! Goal: MVP stands for Minimum Viable Products. They are not the finished marketable products but rather complete products ready for testing. Who: Designers and/or developers What: Decide what to learn and how to learn the quickest. Define the signals/metrics in advance. Since we are mostly concerned about testing and learning in this stage, the MVPs can range from low-fidelity prototypes, high-fidelity mockups to fully functional demos as long as they serve the purpose. 11
  • 12. Step 3: Run an Experiment! It’s show time. Who: Designated Testers and/or The Team What: Ask people come to your place to test out the new features or bring the product/service to places with your defined personas. 12
  • 13. Step 4: Feedback and Research! While the primary feedback is collected from field testing of the MVPs, more feedback can be found in on- site search data, third party review sites, customer service calls, enquiry emails, and from the social media networks. Who: The Team What: To make sense of the feedback by i) looking for patterns, ii) finding an explanation for outliers, iii) double verify the patterns with other sources. 13
  • 14. Typically, Scrum employs a 2 week sprints model. Several related sprints may be grouped into a theme. Declare Run an experiment (Step 3) and Feedback and Research (Step 4) can be added to each sprint with a “3-12-1″ cycle (3 users, by 12 noon, 1 a week) Building Lean UX into Agile/Scrum! 2 Week Sprint Step 1 IPM Step 3/4 2 Week Sprint Step 1 IPM Step 3/4 2 Week Sprint Step 1 IPM Step 3/4 Theme 14
  • 15. Building Lean UX into Agile/Scrum! Typically, Scrum employs a 2 week sprints model. Several related sprints may be grouped into a theme. Declare Run an experiment (Step 3) and Feedback and Research (Step 4) can be added to each sprint with a “3-12-1″ cycle (3 users, by 12 noon, 1 a week) 2 Week Sprint Step 1 IPM Step 3/4 2 Week Sprint Step 1 IPM Step 3/4 2 Week Sprint Step 1 IPM Step 3/4 Theme 15
  • 16. ! Run an experiment (Step 3) and Feedback and Research (Step 4) can be added to each sprint with a “3-12-1″ cycle (3 users, by 12 noon, 1 a week) Building Lean UX into Agile/Scrum! Recruit test subject! ! Decide what will be tested Refine what will be tested Testing day! ! Review findings with entire team Plan next step based on findings Mon Tue Web Thur Fri Refine what will be tested! ! Write the test script! ! Finalised recruiting 16
  • 17. Wrap Up 1. The whole team should know what problem we’re solving! 2. The whole team should know what success looks like! 3. Always seek the simplest solution 4. Always ask why. Question, don’t just accept 17
  • 18. Useful Link 1. The Lean UX Manifesto: Principle-Driven Design
 http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/01/08/lean-ux- manifesto-principle-driven-design/ 2. Using Proto-Personas for Executive Alignment
 http://uxmag.com/articles/using-proto-personas-for- executive-alignment 18
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