User Research + Agile

Jen McGinn

Steve Krug

Diana DeMarco Brown

Nobody is talking about it

When I started looking for answers 18+ months ago:

• Lots and lots on Agile UX + design• Not so much on Agile UX + user

feedback• RITE (described in general terms, but few

specifics)• Co-design • Customer/user “proxies”

However, when I asked in December, at the Boston UXPA monthly meeting, a LOT of people were doing it

Everybody is doing it

๏ Show of hands- How many of you are working with

Agile development teams?- How many of you are conducting user

research (feedback sessions) with those Agile teams?

- How many of you are feeling really AWESOME about how the dev team is involved in that research and that they make changes as a result?

Hello, my name is Jen, and I’m a user researcher for an Agile team …

• UX team started with traditional testing

• Outside the Agile cadence

• The dev team didn’t observe the sessions

• The data came too late

• The team didn’t agree with the findings

• The designers were frustrated

• The developers were frustrated

• It was not a happy situation

Now you

๏ First names only

๏ Agile User Research only

๏ In less than a minute, tell me:- What user research you are conducting

now (method, frequency, # of participants)

- One thing that is AWESOME about that

OR- One thing that’s not working, that you

wish you could fix

Enough about you – let’s talk about me

• Conducted another full UT (baseline test)

• My designer suggested we try RITE testing

• Rapid Iterative Test Environment (RITE)– Can change the system between participants– Developers must attend– Keep testing until show-stoppers are fixed– Number of ppts and time to conduct undefined

• A few months before, I’d been really impressed by some things that Steve Krug was doing

Enough about me – let’s talk about Steve

The Krug Method

“A morning a sprint, that’s all we ask.”

๏ Test 3 users in a morning

๏ Invite everyone to attend: product owners, developers, designers, writers, marketing …

๏ Debrief over lunch: 1 hour

- Only people who observed can attend/vote (sort of)

- Focus ruthlessly on most serious problems

๏ Report takes less than 30 minutes to write

- Just an email

- 2 page max., mostly bullet lists

Our RITE + Krug Combination

• Elements from both RITE and KRUG– Require that a stakeholder from dev,

design and PM attend each session– Can change the prototype between

participants– 3 or 4 participants– Findings discussed in 1-hour debrief– Minimal “report” (bullets on a wiki page)

• Sessions went viral: 12+ observers• Could test every as often as every 2

weeks

http://www.upassoc.org/upa_publications/jus/2013may/JUS_McGinn_May_2013.pdf

RITE+Krug Tips & Tricks

๏ Before: Hold a kickoff meeting with stakeholders to get buy-in into the process and time required

๏ During: Keep a running list of observations and email them to the stakeholders within

30 minutes of the last participant

๏ After: Ask attendees of the stakeholder meeting to review your list of observations prior to the meeting

๏ Document the observations and list of changes agreed immediately after the debrief meeting

Let’s talk about Diana

The conversation has changed from ‘what is it?’ to ‘how can we master it and make it our own?’

- Diana DeMarco Brown (over lunch one day)

Agile Research Recommendations

๏ Conduct research before the development cycle if possible- But if you can’t, fit it in anyway

๏ Predictable and repeatable user feedback sessions during the cycle

๏ Complement user feedback sessions with fast, low-cost data collection methods:- Surveys- Customer phone calls- Web analytics - Card sorts- Un-moderated usability tests

What else have people written on User Research Methods + Agile?• Agile + RITE testing, finally described in detail

(2013):• “The RITE Way to Prototype”, Shirey, Charng, & Nguyen• http://uxmag.com/articles/the-rite-way-to-prototype

• Agile + Cognitive walkthroughs (2013):• “Informal cognitive walkthroughs (ICW): paring down

and pairing up for an agile world”, Grigoreanu & Mohanna

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2470654.2466421

• Agile + Wizard of Oz testing (2006): • “Adding Usability Testing to an Agile Project”, Meszaros

& Aston • http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/AGILE.2006.5

Agile UX resources that include discussions on user research

๏ “Adapting Usability Investigations for Agile User-centered Design”, Sy (2007) http://www.upassoc.org/upa_publications/jus/2007may/agile-ucd.pdf

๏ “Successful User Experience in an Agile Enterprise Environment”, Federoff & Courage (2009)http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-02556-3_27

๏ Lean UX, Gothelf & Seiden (2013)

Now back to you …

๏ Questions?

๏ Comments?