Staying Lean and Agile With a Distributed Team

Staying Lean and Agile with a Distributed Team

Hi. I’m Ray.

Senior UX Consultant

at Catalyst Group in NYC

15 years experience in Finance, Legal,

Education, Medical, Consumer

What about you?

We strive to improve our process

Lean

Agile

Waterfall

Waterfall

1. Requirements specification

2. Design

3. Construction

4. Integration

5. Testing and debugging

6. Installation

7. Maintenance

Agile

● Individuals and interactions

over processes and tools

● Working software

over comprehensive documentation

● Customer collaboration

over contract negotiation

● Responding to change

over following a plan

Lean UX

Build

MeasureLearn

Lean UX

TEAM

Small, dedicated, colocated

Cross-functional

Problem-focused

No rockstars, ninjas, gurus

Externalize your work

Shared understanding

Lean UX

APPROACH

Continuous discovery

Making over analysis

Small batch size

GOOB (Get Out Of the Building)

Get out of deliverables

business

Lean UX

PHILOSOPHY

Learning over growth

Progress = Outcomes not output

Remove Waste

Permission to fail

But there are realities we have to deal with

We can’t all be in the same place

We don’t all work at the same time

Which principles does this affect?

Small dedicated colocated

Get Out Of the Building

Externalize your work

Shared understanding

Small, Dedicated, Colocated

Better...

Communication

Focus

Camaraderie

Relationships

Connect

● Frequent, OPEN communication

● Try to meet in person

● Use video (often)

● Simulate “hanging out”

Externalize Your Work

Everyone sees

Inspires new ideas

Allows ALL to participate

“Osmosis”

Externalize Virtually

● Project wiki

● Discourage email

● Encourage sharing

● Seek information

Get Out Of the Building

Everyone learns from

customers if the product

is ready

Participate in Research

Use technology

Participate

Make an effort to learn

Shared Understanding

Depend less on 2nd hand reports

Fewer detailed documents

Shared Understanding

● Expose your thinking

● Confirm understanding

● Visualize

● Be OPEN to looking dumb

(it’s okay, we all do)

To Summarize

● Open up

● Take responsibility

● Focus on the reasons

THANK YOU!

Please visit

http://spkr8.com/t/27071

to let me know how I did.

@rayraydel

raydelapena@gmail.com

Keep in touch!