The Design Age

THE
DESIGN AGE
a young designer’s primer
for maximizing value
in agile and lean teams

From “The Design Age: maximizing value in agile and lean teams” by Austin Govella, Feb 7, 2013

Introduction

Design is all about value. It helps transfer value from
one person to another. Design insures you have an
experience: that at the end, you’re different than when
you started. Design makes this difference, and like
Babbage’s Difference Engine of yore, specific knobs
and levers control how much value you can create
with design.

In this presentation, we’ll learn how five levers —
models, fidelity, audience, annotation, and velocity —
work together. We’ll see how agile, lean, and waterfall
teams apply these levers differently at different times
to create different value from design.


INTRODUCTION


Introduction

The Goal

Change how
you practice
design


Introduction

The Goal

Change how
you think about
design


Introduction

The Goal

Change how
you understand
design


Introduction

Three Discussions


Introduction

1. Why?

Why are agile,
lean, and waterfall
the same thing?


Introduction

1. Why?

Why are agile,
lean, and waterfall
the same thing?
This is called
the process.

Introduction

2. What?

What are design’s
four concerns?


Introduction

2. What?

What are design’s
four concerns?
This is called
the discipline.


Introduction

3. How?

How do we
conduct design?


Introduction

3. How?

How do we
conduct design?
This is called
the practice.


Introduction

Three
Discussions
1. The process
2. The discipline
3. The practice


Introduction

The Walk Away

Five questions
that guide
how you
practice design


Mind Game

What’s the coolest, most
awesome thing about
where you work?


Mind Game

Hi, I’m Austin Govella, an

Experience Design Manager

at Avanade where we’re

re-inventing how enterprises

collaborate.


Mind Game

Hi, I’m Austin name
your Govella, an

Experience Design Manager
your title

at company where we’re
Avanade

r e-inventing howawesome
the coolest, most enterprises

thing about where you work
abut about about elaborate.


A MANIFESTO FOR
USER EXPERIENCE


Manifesto

Designers don’t design anything.
Organizations design everything.

Just as your best thinker improves
everything, that one person in your
group who doesn’t understand user
experience creates a drag on every
product or service you produce.
To create better experiences, you
have to create better organizations.
You have to improve your organ-
ization’s design literacy. You have to
improve the design literacy of
everyone in the group.


Manifesto

Organizations face common barriers
to designing better experiences.

These barriers — value, focus, time,
memory, talent, process, and
improvement — represent the
distance between you and the
balanced teams your organization
needs to create better experiences.
Sometimes these cultural barriers
are codified into your organization’s
process. Sometimes they exist as
hidden assumptions in your team
member's minds.


Manifesto

Don’t change what you do.
Change how you do it.

Your design activities don’t change.
Change how you work with your
team. Change how you work, so your
goal is always a better organization
instead of a better product. Change
how you accomplish the design, so
that you are always improving your
team’s design literacy.


Manifesto

The Inspiration
Don’t look for the next
opportunity.

The one you have in hand is
the opportunity.

— Paul Arden


HOUSEKEEPING


Housekeeping

The Presentation

A diverse range of
material from over
a decade that is
still evolving


Housekeeping

Questions

If something isn’t
clear, raise your
hand and ask.
Questions and discussion at the end
won’t be as useful. Grab a drink with
me afterward!


Housekeeping

Get The Slides

Available on
SlideShare:
http://slideshare.net/austingovella/design-age


Housekeeping

Contact Me

ag@agux.co

@austingovella

www.thinkingandmaking.com


Mind Game

The Customer is
always right.


Mind Game

Whenever you hear something you

don’t agree with, tell yourself:

“The customer is always right.

I just don’t understand.”

Then, ask a question to help

you understand.


AGILE
building certainty


Agile

Manifesto for Agile Software Development

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

Manifesto for Agile Software Development, http://agilemanifesto.org.


Agile


Individuals and interactions over models of people doing work
Working software over models of software
Customer collaboration over models of collaboration
Responding to change over models of change



Agile


Real people doing work over models of people doing work
Real software over models of software
Real collaboration over models of collaboration
Real change over models of change



Agile

But What Is Real?


Why?


Agile

Agile Context
Known Unknown

Problem f

Solution f

Resources f


Agile

“Divination also becomes
progressively more diﬃcult with
time, as circles of probability in
imaginary time enlarge.”

Peter Carroll, Psybermagick: Advanced Ideas in
Chaos Magick, New Falcon Publications, 2000.


Agile

The Futures
Are Messy
Certainty Uncertainty/Waste


Agile

Agile Builds
Certainty
‣ Agile focuses on certainty
around what will be built.
‣ Agile seeks to minimize
unnecessary change.
‣ Agile values the build over
everything else. The build
represents certainty.
‣ Agile captures value by
reducing waste.


Agile

Agile Process

REVIEW

1. Review the present.
PLAN

2. Plan the future.

3. Build the plan.
BUILD


Agile

Agile Outcomes
Rely on the plan to
REVIEW create build.

Pursue velocity through the
PLAN
review, plan, build loop.

Quick reviews (velocity)
through the loop reduces
BUILD
risk you build the
wrong thing.


LEAN
learning certainty


Lean

“[Lean UX is] the practice of
bringing the true nature of our work
to light faster, with less emphasis on
deliverables and greater focus on the
actual experience being designed.”

Jeff Gothelf, Lean UX, presentation, Jan 2011.


Lean

Lean Context
Known Unknown

Problem f

Solution f

Resources f


Lean

The Futures
Are Expensive
Design loses money Design makes money

Out of cash


Lean

Lean Learns
Certainty
‣ Lean focuses on learning what is
most valuable.
‣ Lean seeks to maximize necessary
change.
‣ Lean values learning over
everything else. Learning


Lean

Lean Process

BUILD

1. Build the solution.
MEASURE

2. Measure the value.

3. Learn a new solution.
LEARN


Lean

Lean Outcomes

Pursue velocity through the
BUILD build, measure, learn loop.

Rely on what was measured
MEASURE
in order to learn.

Velocity through the loop
increases risk you build the
LEARN
right thing.


DESIGN
measuring certainty


Design

Design is a modeling discipline. The design process
creates models we use to validate predictions about a
system. Design validates what we expect against what
we perceive. We architect systems that engender
expectations and perceptions. Experience is the gap
between expectation and perception. We design this
gap. We design experience.


Design

Design Context
Known Unknown

Problem ? ?

Solution ? ?

Resources ? ?


Design

The Futures
Are Possible
Unknown problems/solutions Known problems solutions

Discover Model Validate


Design

Design Measures
Certainty
‣ Design focuses on discover
uncertainty.
‣ Design models change.
‣ Design values measuring over
everything else. Measuring


Design

Design Process

DISCOVER 1. Discover the problem
and/or the solution.
MODEL
2. Model the solution.

3. Validate your model.
VALIDATE


Design

Design Outcomes
Pursues velocity through
DISCOVER the discover, model,
validate loop.
MODEL
Measure what was made
against expectations.

Velocity increases the risk
VALIDATE
you measure the right thing.


THE PROCESS
designing certainty


The Process

The Same
Process
AGILE LEAN DESIGN

Plan Learn Discover

Build Build Model

Review Measure Validate


The Process

Agile Process
PLAN

REVIEW

BUILD


The Process

Lean Process
LEARN
Plan

Review
MEASURE
Build

BUILD


The Process

Design Process
DISCOVER
Plan
Learn

Measure
Review
VALIDATE
Build

MODEL


The Process

But what do we discover? Model? Validate?


The Process

The Unified
Process
DISCOVER

Plan
DATA Learn

MODELS
Measure
Review
VALIDATE

Build
ARTIFACTS MODEL


The Process

Agile is obsessed with the question:
Is this what you wanted?

Lean is obsessed with the question:
Is this the most valuable thing?

Design is obsessed with the question:
Is this what we thought it was?


The Process

Data
How do we create Models
Artifacts } Deliverables

Discover
How do we Model
Validate } Activities


THE MODELS


The Models

Design is a modeling discipline. The design process
creates models we use to validate predictions about a
system. Design validates what we expect against what
we perceive. We architect systems that engender
expectations and perceptions. Experience is the gap
between expectation and perception. We design this
gap. We design experience.


Mind Game

What does design model?


Mind Game

If design models, what four things

does design model?


The Models

o
Users


The Models

p
Interfaces


The Models

Interactions

o p


The Models

Systems
o p
o p
o p
o p


The Models

We validate our models by showing them to people.
Who do we validate our models with?


The Models

Audience

AUDIENCE

Yourself Your team Organization Your users


The Models

How realistic must our models be
in order to be validated?


The Models

Fidelity
VISUAL

None Low Medium High

BEHAVIOR


CONTENT


CONTEXT



The Models

What does our audience need to know in order to
validate the models?


The Models

Annotation
IMPLICIT - What can the audience intuit? (Affordances)


EXPLICIT - What do we need to tell them? (Instructions)


TACIT - What do they already know? (Culture)



The Models

How will we communicate the models?


The Models

Communication
TIME - When are you communicating with the audience?

Synchronous Asynchronous

PLACE - Where is the audience?

Co-located Remote

USE - How will it be communicated?

Private Shared


THE FIVE
QUESTIONS


The Models

The Five
Questions
1. What model are we validating?
2. Who is the audience?
3. What fidelity do we need?
4. What annotation do we need?
5. How is it communicated?


The Design Age

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The Design Age