why pixel perfect isn't so perfect
DESCRIPTION
This is a case study I presented at the HIVE 2014 conference in Seattle about how Yammer, by giving up micro-control enabled their designers and engineers to work directly and collaboratively, ultimately creating an effective workplace.TRANSCRIPT
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Why pixel perfect isn’t so perfectHow to scale agile
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Hi. I’m Jenny.
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I’m a UI Designer at Yammer
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This is what we do at Yammer.
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Yammer is the enterprise social network that connects coworkers.
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We work across platforms. On the go, everywhere.
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We started small….
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But quickly scaled up.
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And then we scaled some more…
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What was the problem?
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What was the problem?
We were slowing down…
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We were slowing down…
9%What happened
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We were slowing down…
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• LOTS of documentation
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We were slowing down…
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• LOTS of documentation
• Slow to staff projects
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We were slowing down…
9%What happened
• LOTS of documentation
• Slow to staff projects
• Slow to ship
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We were slowing down…
9%What happened
• LOTS of documentation
• Slow to staff projects
• Slow to ship
• Lack of enthusiasm and ownership
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Why was this happening???
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Why was this happening???
Functional silos
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Anatomy of functional silos:
Project Managers
Designers
Developers
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Anatomy of functional silos:
broken link
Project Managers
Designers
Developers
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You know you’re in a functional silo when:
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• Designing is painfully slow because it has to be signed off by 10 different people.
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You know you’re in a functional silo when:
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• Designing is painfully slow because it has to be signed off by 10 different people.
• Design has no real seat at the table when discussing business strategy.
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You know you’re in a functional silo when:
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• Designing is painfully slow because it has to be signed off by 10 different people.
• Design has no real seat at the table when discussing business strategy.
• Design details are consistently cut back due to “scope creep”.
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You know you’re in a functional silo when:
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• Designing is painfully slow because it has to be signed off by 10 different people.
• Design has no real seat at the table when discussing business strategy.
• Design details are consistently cut back due to “scope creep”.
• Teams spend more time defending turf than collaborating.
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Implementation bottlenecks
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Developer
PM Designer
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Implementation bottlenecks
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PM & Designers are slowed down making specs
Developer
PM Designer
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Implementation bottlenecks
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PM & Designers are slowed down making specs
Confused coders—decoding specs
Developer
PM Designer
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Implementation bottlenecks
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PM & Designers are slowed down making specs
Confused coders—decoding specs
Frustration when a spec goes nowhere
Developer
PM Designer
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Anatomy of functional silos:
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specsmocks
Project Managers
Designers
Developers
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Common result=meetings
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Battle over who owns who’s time
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All these elements make fertile grounds for lack of trust between teams.
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So we tried something different…
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So we tried something different…
Decentralized decision making.
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Before
Project Managers
Designers
Developers
broken link
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After Project ManagersDesigner
sDevelopers
AutonomousTeam
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Each team was autonomousBusiness strategy
implementation
Autonomous Team
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Went from having one big ship to a fleet of smaller, faster ships.
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The results?
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The results?
Business strategy
implementation
Autonomous Team
Fewer top down decisions.
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The results?Sitting together fostered organic sharing and involvement.
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The results?Sitting together fostered organic sharing and involvement.
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The results?Sitting together fostered organic sharing and involvement.
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The results?Got rid of a lot of bottlenecks
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specsmocks
Project Managers
Designers
Developers
broken link
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Beforespecs & mocks
The results?Got rid of a lot of bottlenecks
Afterspecs & mocks
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The results?Balanced input
the product
Project Managers
Designers
Developers
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The results?Trust feedback cycle between designers and engineers.
Developer reigns in any unrealistic designs.
Designer helps Developers code the details.
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The results?Fewer meetings.
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The results?Faster ship dates.
Shipped a lightweight chat app in only 3 months.
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The results?
We had fun!
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What you can do in your company tomorrow?
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What you can do in your company tomorrow:
#1 Cross functional seating
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What you can do in your company tomorrow:
#1 Cross functional seating -Try moving your designers and engineers closer together.
-“war rooms”
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What you can do in your company tomorrow:
#1 Cross functional seating
#2 Decentralizing decision making
-Try moving your designers and engineers closer together.
-“war rooms”
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What you can do in your company tomorrow:
#1 Cross functional seating
#2 Decentralizing decision making
-Try moving your designers and engineers closer together.
-Pick a small, low-risk project and try writing the spec as more of an outline, letting the team fill out details as they go.
-“war rooms”