On Wednesday, November 29, Microsoft hosted theAgile Tour Paris 2017.
Thanks to the organizers for giving me a forum to talk about Lean UX and SCRUM.
You weren't there? Do not be afraid ! I will present to you the key points of my intervention here! Yes, there, now. Let's go !
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“THE” message of the presentation

If there was only one thing to remember, it would probably be:

• UX-Designers, stop fearing agile methodologies!
• Agilists, convinced or in the process of adoption, the UX-Designer is a “must have” for your team!

Hmm… Ok… But why?

UX-Designers, stop fearing Agile!

I've heard that some UX-Designers fear agile development methodologies. In particular because the rhythm can seem very intense when the UX-Designer finds himself embedded directly in the development team, without thinking about his temporal positioning. There was also this noise from the corridor which ensures that the UX-Designer is a specialist attached to the development team in Scrum. He should therefore work on the same user stories at the same time as the developers...

Definitions

SCRUM? SCRUM is today the most used agile method in digital projects. This is why initially, it is not meaningless to take this framework of reflection.
 

 
If you really want to understand what it is about, I advise you to read the SCRUM guide, reference document which should close all the debates!
“Scrum: a framework for responding to complex and changing problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value. […] Scrum is based on empirical process control theory, or empiricism. Empiricism holds that knowledge comes from experience and decision-making based on known facts. Scrum uses an iterative and incremental approach to maximize predictability and to control risk.”
Knowledge comes from experience, experimentation is not unknown to UX-Designers...

Values ​​and principles

Scrum is part of agile methodologies and therefore respects the agile manifesto. As a reminder, the agile manifesto is based on 4 values ​​and 12 principles.
Here are some principles that can speak to UX-Designers:

• The users or their representatives (UX-Designers…) and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
• Working software is the main measure of progress. DWell-thought-out prototypes by themselves do not bring value to your users.
• Agile processes encourage a sustainable pace of development. Together, sponsors, developers and users should be able to maintain a steady pace indefinitely.
• At regular intervals, the team thinks about ways to become more efficient, then adjusts and modifies its behavior accordingly. the UX-Designer can learn how to better integrate into the Scrum Team during these ceremonies.

Agilists, the UX-Designer is a “must have” for your team!

How do you go from the need, the brief, dissatisfied users, a diffuse need… to the Product Backlog? How do we then ensure that the Product Backlog covers the needs of our users and that they are well prioritized?
Part of the answer: UX-Design can help you. For more adaptability with the speed of Scrum, I even advise you to look at the side of the Lean-UX.
Agile methodologies have been designed by developers and are more focused on the efficiency of the realization than on the definition of the product. The “product vision” part sometimes comes from top management, marketing or a “visionary”.
UX-Designers prefer a more “bottom-up” method, of collecting needs from users using various tools (interviews, secondary analysis, focus groups, etc.). This provides an empirical measure of what might work. The lean startup uses MVP to test the viability of a product on the market, this is also an empirical approach to understanding users and their “needs”…

The presentation

See the presentation . Here are some explanations for potentially enigmatic slides:

S6: Why Lean UX and not just UX?

Slide 6 aims to explain why I chose to apply the Lean UX philosophy in particular, among all the possibilities offered by UX-Design. The pace of Lean UX fits well with that of agile methodologies.

S9-10: Some definitions

For people who are new to UX-Design, it is difficult to differentiate a certain number of keywords. Here are elements of definition on methodologies, concepts or disciplines between which there is often confusion: ergonomics, usability, Design thinking, Design sprint.

Ergonomics is a scientific discipline. Ergonomists contribute to the design and evaluation of tasks, products, working conditions and systems to make them compatible with the needs, abilities, possibilities and limitations of human beings.
Generally UX-Designers use ergonomic and heuristic criteria as a basis for evaluation. But they adhere to less strict protocols and are preoccupied with a general idea of ​​experience that goes beyond needs, capacities and possibilities.
To learn more about this subject, I recommend this blog post: I am not an ergonomist.

According to the ISO 9241-11 standard, usability is "the degree to which a product can be used, by identified users, to achieve defined goals with efficiency, efficiency et for, in a specified context of use”.
Donald Norman coined the term UX-Design because the usability seemed to him too restricted

We must also differentiate between UX-Design, Design Thinking and Design Sprint.

Le Design Thinking can be seen as a concept (“design thinking”) or as an iterative methodology based in particular on empathy, ideation, prototyping and testing. The UX-Designers use Design thinking tools, but also others, such as ergonomics tools for example.

Le sprint design by Jake Knapp is a very formalized method, which allows prototypes to be validated in 5 days. One UX Designer can follow the agenda of a Design sprint, but he can also have very different management of his time and use workshops, techniques, etc. more varied. 

S11-12: The Book!

To fully understand the basics of Lean UX, I recommend that you read the reference book. It is a valuable and transversal source of information, which gives keys to all the pillars of the method (Lean startup, Design thinking, agile methodologies).

S16: Lean UX + Scrum diagram

Slide 16 outlines a lean UX and scrum interweaving process.

S18: Outputs VS Outcomes

Focus on outputs and not the outcomes, it's to focus on the changes in the daily life of the users and not on the deliverables (the application, the website, etc.).

 

TAKE AWAY

In conclusion, UX-Design and agile methodologies are complementary. So there is nothing to be afraid of anymore and this combination is increasingly used in the design of digital products. However, in a logic of continuous improvement, we must always seek better tools and processes, more efficient, inclusive, collaborative. Be that as it may, today the good practices identified are to think iteratively, product quality and users!
Kiss
 
Anne, UX-Designer @UX-Republic @AnnePedroFr