User Research

to support design and prioritization in an Agile development environment

Lynn Leitte

Sr. User Experience Architect / Information Architect

Agile Experience Design Meet-up, NYC

“User Research for Agile Teams” March 28, 2012

Dev team

Design & UX

stakeholders

PM, BA, FA, PO

Agile gets us together

Where are the customers?

Discovery researchGetting out of the features rut

Make sure that this Is aligned with this

Discovery research• What are customers doing with our tool?• What do they like• What do they ignore• In what capacity is the service useful to them?

Discovery research• What are Research Managers doing in the tool for every call?• What are their pain points• What do they ignore• What can’t they live without

And at the request of the overall manager, were the tool’s limitations preventing them from doing their due diligence or otherwise fostering short-cuts behavior?

What did the research tell usInsights and design cues

Pain points & usability issuesProposed product feature viabilityIdeas for enhancements & featuresInsight into metrics interpretation

Photo courtesy of Alder Planetarium

After the Research Collaboration with Product Management

Shared visionClarity on the roadmap of product evolutionDecisions on accountable metricsAgreement on what to test

Photo courtesy of Alder Planetarium

How did this help us in Agile?Scope and prioritize design activitiesHelp clarify and articulate product goals & metricsIdentify technical debt impact on plan

What it means for the Agile team?

2 week sprint is this little piece of the road

It actually goes somewhere…somewhere worthwhile

What it means for the Agile team?

The work has a purpose.

The one(s) queuing up the work aren’t lost