Our hearts beat for peopleUX research in agile contexts

Johanna Kollmann - @johannakollAgile UX & ResearchThing Meeupt, 24 August 2011

Photo by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center http://www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/4864418222/

Photo by Kristina Alexanderson http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalexanderson/5421517469/

Research is the first thing to get compromised.

(Some) research methods

Generative

Evaluative

Contextual inquiryMental modelsInterviewsDiary studies

Quantitative Qualitative

Adapted from figures by Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt, Christian Rohrer

Automated card sortSurveysAutomated studiesAnalyticsA/B TestingMulti-variant testing

SurveysInterviews

Usability testingModerated card sortWizard of Oz

Photo by Ed Schipul http://www.flickr.com/photos/eschipul/4160817135/

Magic bullets?

Working ahead & ‘sprint zero’

‘Case Study of Customer Input For a Successful Product’, Lynn Miller (2005)

Make it a habit

‘5 Users every Friday’ (case study by Tom Illmensee and

Alyson Muff)

• UX research as the bottleneck

• Solution: get research into the natural rhythm of the Scrum

teams

Plan

(Tuesday/

Wednesday)

Prepare

(Wednesday/

Thursday)

Test

(Friday!)

Analysis

(Friday/Monday)

Recommend

(Monday/Tuesday)

A busy week!

‘5 Users every Friday’ (case study by Tom Illmensee and Alyson Muff)

• Collaborate on the research goals with the team

• Simple template

• Generative AND evaluative

• Recruiting participants way in advance

• Low-cost ‘lab’: a meeting room with observers sitting

around the table

• Grabbing people in the wild

• Low-fi reporting

How it works at TheLadders.com

• Every other week (2 weeks sprints)

• Use whatever is ready

• Limited to maximum of 3 participants

• Validate and iterate

Photo by Steve Clark http://www.flickr.com/photos/askclark/3698813123/

How many people do you need to see bumping their head?

So what about personas?

Persona and Empathy Map: Design Jam London 3. Team: Alison, Tarun, Jill, Venu and Mariana

http://djlon0304.tumblr.com/page/2

Story mapping as research activity

• ‘Pair interviewing’

• Outcome: feature cards

• Details on Anders Ramsay’s blog: http://bit.ly/hlHgZd

Photo by Anders Ramsay, http://bit.ly/hlHgZd

Top tips 2007 - 2011

• Prototype! Prototype! Prototype!

• State your hypothesis – what do you want to find out or

validate?

• Combine generative + iterative

• Triangulate and consider remote methods

• Recruiting is a b*tch

• Involve the team

• Do it RITE

• Practice, learn and iterate

Steve Blank, The Four Steps to the Epiphany

A selection of resources

• ‘Case Study of Customer Input For a Successful Product’, Lynn

Miller (2005)

• ‘5 Users every Friday’, Tom Illmensee and Alyson Muff, Agile

2009 Proceedings

• ‘Paired Interviews – applying pair programming thinking to

user research’, Anders Ramsay, http://bit.ly/hlHgZd

• ‘Beyond Staggered Sprints: Integrating User Experience and

Agile’, Jeff Gothelf, http://slidesha.re/9Pq3qb

• ‘Designing the user experience in an agile context’, Johanna

Kollmann, http://bit.ly/p3NmWI

All the practitioners who share their learnings.

The Balanced Team. Desiree Sy. Jeff Patton. Anders Ramsay. Jeff Gothelf & Will Evans.

Tom Ilmensee.

Jeff Van Campen for organising this event with me, and Fortune Cookie for hosting and

sponsoring.

Thank you