create great products through strong ux + dev collaboration

CREATE GREAT PRODUCTSTHROUGH STRONG

UX + DEV COLLABORATIONMary Piontkowski

Jennifer Fraser

UX Week August 2012

Confidential 04/08/2023 2

Developers are from Vulcan.

Designers are from Wonderland


Developers.

Designers.

− Overview and Introduction (2:00PM – 2:15PM)

− Exercise #1 (2:15PM – 2:30PM)

− Personality Types and Communication (2:30PM – 2:45PM)

− Exercise #2 (2:45PM- 3:15PM)

− Break (3:15PM – 3:45PM)

− The Relationship Journey (3:45PM – 4:15PM)

− Balancing Requirements (4:15PM – 4:30PM)

− Exercise #3 (4:30PM – 5:00PM)

− Conclusion (5:00PM – 5:10PM)

− Return to Exercise #1 (5:10PM – 5:15PM)

− Questions


AGENDA

5Confidential 04/08/2023

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WHO WE ARE

Confidential 04/08/2023

Mary PiontkowskiDirector, User Experience

Jennifer FraserDirector of Design

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Design + Development


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Ottawa6 designers48 developers

San Mateo4 designers2 developers

Yerevan1 designer42 developers

Cluj0 designers12 developers


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12 hour time difference


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= a challenge(for both communication and

collaboration)


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Collaboration


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Collaboration1. communication2. process



Developers.

Designers.

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EXERCISE #1


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TOP CHALLENGES: exercise #1

1. Take five minutes, individually, to think about the challenges you have working with your developers/designers and write down each challenge. (5 minutes)

2. Share your ideas with your table and, as a group, choose the three biggest challenges. Write these three challenges below and set them aside for later in the workshop. (10 minutes)

3. Share with the class!


THE ACTORS



Spock

Alice

“Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth...”

“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”


“I neither enjoy, nor am frightened by challenges. They simply exist, and I will do what logically needs to

be done.”

Spock


“I neither enjoy, nor am frightened by challenges. They simply exist, and I will do what logically needs to

be done.”

Spock

He’s introspective.He likes to shut out distractions and work through problems by himself; challenging himself to come up with new and better approaches to solving a problem.

He is task focused.He takes pride in seeing a complicated task through to its completion.

He seeks new knowledge.He is an early adopter who is always up-to-date on new technical advances, information and trends.

He’s logical.He puts requirements and criteria above personal preference or social considerations when making decisions.

He’s an expert.He takes pride in being an expert and, when asked, he likes to share his knowledge and technical prowess with those looking for his guidance.

He’s a planner.He likes to reduce the unpredictability of things through planning and making decisions early on.


“I love to make beautiful things and want to make a difference in the world.”

Alice


She’s outgoing.

“I love to make beautiful things and want to make a difference in the world.”

Alice

She likes sharing and discussing her ideas so that she can learn from others and, as a result, make something even better.

She’s relationship focused.She sees things in terms of the relationships that she is building with her the people around her.

She’s creative.She is always on the look-out for new ways to get inspired with creative ideas.

She’s empathetic.She is emotional and has been known to cry while listening to a touching or emotional story.

She’s a problem solver.She’s always trying to find new and interesting ways to solve problems that will help people.

She follows her instinct.She follows her intuition. She might not always be able to explain why she’s doing what she’s doing, but she knows she’ll be better off because of it.

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“What they want you to do is put together an array with unordered elements that represent various tasks.”

(source: Workshop Participant)


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“The communication process is complete once the receiver has understood the message of the sender.”

(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication)


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“What they want you to do is put together an array with unordered elements that represent various tasks.”

(source: Workshop Participant)


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Greatest challenge?• communication• collaboration• lack of a common language


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“Translation from art speak to technology and back again, very different personalities.”

(source: Macadamian Employee Survey)


PERSONALITY TYPES


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MYERS BRIGGS


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FOCUS & ENERGY

(source: http://mashable.com/2012/08/13/what-type-of-social-media-personality-are-you-infographic/ )


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TAKE IN INFORMATION



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MAKE DECISIONS



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DEAL WITH OUTER WORLD



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MYERS BRIGGS - ISTJ

“…they resist putting energy into things that don't make sense to them, or for which they can't see a practical application.”

(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISTJ )


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MYERS BRIGGS - ENFP

“They are at their best in fluid situations that allow them to express their creativity and use their charisma.”

(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wki/ENFP)


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MYERS BRIGGS – ISTJ & ENFP


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ISTJ & ENFP – A CONVERSATION

(source: http://www.elizabethesther.com/2012/04/a-conversation-between-me-an-enfp-and-my-husband-an-istj.html)


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PERSONALITY TYPES AND WORK STYLES


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Take in and present information in a big picture way.

Take in and present information in a step-by-step way.


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Make decisions by stepping into the situation and taking an empathetic view.

Make decisions by stepping back from the situation and taking an objective view.


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Get energy from seeing the potential in things, but their interest wanes when the “routine” takes over, or if a new, more interesting project comes along.

Devote their energy to tasks that they see as important to fulfilling a goal, but resist putting energy into things that don't make sense to them, or for which they can't see a practical application.


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Get energy from seeing the potential in things, but their interest wanes when the “routine” takes over, or if a new, more interesting project, comes along.


Determines the values for each solution in terms of how it contributes to the overall whole.

Meticulous in their attention to details and examine things closely to ensure that they are correct.


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Get energy from seeing the potential in things, but their interest wanes when the “routine” takes over, or if a new, more interesting project, comes along.


Determines the values for each solution in terms of how it contributes to the overall whole.

Meticulous in their attention to details and examine things closely to ensure that they are correct.

Easily handles and excels in ambiguous situations.

Excels at handling logical problems in an orderly way.


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COMMUNICATION TIPS ENFP TO ISTJ

• Design the conversation you want to have so that it happens in a structured way.

• Frame the conversation within the context of the project requirements.

• Provide backing research or data.• Show how the larger pieces break down into the

details. • Show examples of the design pattern on the target

platform.• If pictures aren’t working, try words or a prototype.


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COMMUNICATION TIPS ISTJ TO ENFP

• Invite them to a brainstorming session to explore other design options.

• Frame the conversation within the context of user’s goals.

• Include qualitative and emotive details in the conversation.

• Show how the specific pieces relate to the overall whole.

• Show differing examples of the design pattern on the target platform.

• If words aren’t working, try showing them a prototype or invite them to your desk to talk about it in-person.


NEGOTIATION TIPS

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1. Explain Yourself: Explain why you designed it the way you designed it in relation to the user’s needs and goals; show them how the user’s needs will be met with the proposed design.

2. Ask questions: What about this piece of the design is difficult to implement? Are there other options that would achieve a similar goal but would be lest costly to implement? What would the trade-offs be to the user to use one of the other options.

3. Listen: After you ask your question; be quiet and listen; too often we are too busy trying to make sure that we are heard that we forget to listen.

4. Look at it from their perspective: What pressures do they have? What options do they have?

5. Don’t take it personally: Criticism about the design is not a criticism of you; ideas are not precious, they need to be discussed and debated in order to be improved upon.

6. Assume best intentions: We are all working to deliver the best product for our client.


EXERCISE #2


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DILEMMAS: exercise #2

1. Choose a partner from your table.2. As a pair choose two to three dilemmas from your Exercise

2 Handout that you will act out and solve.3. Decide who is going to play the role of the “Designer”

(ENFP) and who will be the “Developer” (ISTJ) (remember we are role playing – so anyone can act the role of a designer or of a developer).

4. Consider for each dilemma chosen how, based on your role, you might communicate with the opposite role to achieve a successful solution to the problem.*

5. On the Exercise 2 Handout write down one intentional thing you did differently than you would normally, having considered the other personality.

6. Share with the class.

*Note: Refer to the handouts “Communication Strategies” and “Negotiation Tips”


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PRODUCTCREATION


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PRODUCT CREATION JOURNEY


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OBSTACLES & OPPORTUNITIES


Obstacles Opportunities

The developer doesn't like your idea and points to a pre-existing idea in another product, or something they already know how to do.

Work with a cross functional team to develop the roadmap. Start to get a sense for technical considerations and limitations even before you put pen to paper.

Developer pushes back on attending research related activities.

Include your developer in research, even just a little, to help him gain empathy and be open to design ideas.

Developer challenges user feedback. Stand up for user goals and help the team understand what is important from the beginning.

Designer designs something that can't be implemented.

Gain an understanding of the technical requirements early in the process.

Teams lose valuable time to optimize designs when they aren't collaborating.

Share sketches early.

Developers need more or less annotation; they don't get what they need to build.

Talk with your developers early on about their preferences for documentation and annotation. Be clear about the state of your deliverables.

Design is still happening during the sprint. Design for sprint B during sprint A.

Designer isn’t involved during sprints. Designer plays a role to ensure design is up to par.

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OBSTACLES & OPPORTUNITIES


Designers miss good ideas due to lack of knowledge of technology advances.

Brainstorm and hang out with your developers.

Subjective debates about feature prioritization. Define goals for each sprint. Work with a common roadmap.

Not enough communication to troubleshoot issues along the way.

Look for tools that foster frequent communication (such as group Skype sessions).

Developers and designers discuss feasibility too late in the game.

Start designing and writing use cases for the NEXT sprint.

Obstacles Opportunities

The developers don't develop it how the designers designed it.

Review what's being built. Don't assume it will happen as you designed.

Developer runs into a major technical issue and the designs need to be revisited.

Work with the developer to re-prioritize and help inform what they spend time on.

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UX & AGILE DEVELOPMENT

UX plays a critical role in effective agile development:

• Gathers customer insights to identify features and inform prioritization.

• Participates in sprint planning to help break down features into more granular chunks and to ensure sprint contents are highest value for customer.

• Informs feature backlog and adjust feature concepts as need be:

− With business goals, customer goals, and technical constraints in mind.

• Attends daily scrums to track with progress, address questions, and adjust design as need be.

• Attends end-of-sprint demos to ensure the product is being developed as it was designed.

• Attends retrospectives to determine if planning, daily scrums, skill sets, and communication are effective.


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AGILE DEVELOPMENT: DESIGN TIPS & TOOLS

Start by sharing the use cases that you use to inform your design.

Share sketches early on, on day one. Don’t wait to perfect or make deliverables pretty.

Include developers in creative brainstorms. Developers have creative ideas too. And hearing their ideas and feasibility early on will help you design something that will make it to market. Buy in and commitment to development of those ideas will be greater.

At the same time, fight for your ideas that may take more time but result in significant customer satisfaction. Pick your battles.

Create a group Skype session for all product, designers, developers. Fosters collaboration. Saves time.

Daily check ins. UX team should be there. It’s just 15 minutes.


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FEATURE PRIORITIZATION

3 factors should inform your prioritization:

1. business goals and requirements 2. customer requirements (based on UX

research) 3. technical feasibility into account


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BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS


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TECHNICAL CONSTRAINTS

Technical constraints limit the possible design solutions for your product. Your design solutions must satisfy technical constraints.

Examples of technical constraints: database constraints technology constraints and requirements performance requirements operational requirements maintainability requirements reliability requirements safety requirements

Take these into account early on in your project planning!


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USER REQUIREMENTS

USER REQUIREMENTS are…

Real needs based on use and behaviors What it takes to accomplish goals Unarticulated, tacit information Foundation for product design

are not… What the organization thinks users should have What only early adopters want What customers ask for

Distinction between problem identification and underlying need

Socially accepted preferences and attitudes

‘If you do exactly what the customer asked for, but the results do not meet the customer’s real needs, you will probably be blamed anyway.’

- Rumbaugh


EXERCISE #3


create great products through strong ux + dev collaboration

Design

arraywith

terms ofthings

situation

situation

situation

dont make

share sketches

make beautiful