Ux in a distributed agile team - Making it work

UX In a Distributed Agile Environment:Making it Work

Krys Blackwood and Lea Cuniberti-Duran

Times, they’re a-changin’

• 46% companies report they have teams distributed across 2 or more locations

• 3.2 million teleworkers in US

• Projections: 4.9 million by 2016

• 77% of companies >2500 allow telecommuting

How about your company?

Picture of a Modern Team

• 3 locations: West Coast US, East Coast US, China

• PMs in CA & China, Engineers in MA & China, Designers in CA & MA

• 2 languages - English and Mandarin

• 3 cultures - West Coast, East Coast and Chinese

It’s Complicated

• Company acquisition led to some defensiveness, divided loyalties and insecurity

• Culture of blame and CYA

• Engineers and QA new to Agile, still uncomfortable

Does this sound familiar?

This Was Not Our First RodeoPhoto Source: http://mypetgroundhog.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-selfish-rodeo-clown-learns-lesson.html

Transparency

Collaboration

Communication

The Elements of Successful Agile Teams

Clear definition of success

Starting to Climb• Our first approach:

communication

• Tried reaching out: this was seen as too aggressive

• Engineers were uncomfortable having phone conversations

• Emphasized video chat to let them get to know us as people, time zones got in the way

• Preferred method: Email

Scrum Master is Your Bestie

• Scrum master had a great relationship with the devs and QA

• We spoke with the scrum master 2-3 times per day

• Bribery is valid: Baked cookies and brought treats from the garden

• When we weren’t getting responses and time was the issue, had him act as a go-between

How about Instant Messaging?

• It’s instantaneous

• They were already comfortable using it amongst themselves

• They were reluctant to “let us in” to their circles

Us Them&

Lesson 1 Relationship building

takes time• Attend every scrum

• Remind engineers that we’re here, and what we’re working on

• Afterward, proactively reach out to engineers or qa via email

• Agreed to core hours for IM and email, plus reachable 24/7

• Cell phones in email signatures

Gentle and Supportive

• Relentlessly nonjudgmental

• Constantly reminding that blame doesn’t matter

• Encouraged alternative proposals

• Solicited and accepted criticism

Slowly but Surely

• No surprise: Each person had their own communication preferences

• Ended up customizing protocol for each of 15 people

• But not enough: Progress and projects were slow

Photo credit: http://embodyheartandmind.com/balance/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/turtle.jpg

Lesson 2 Ask for Help

• After months of hard work, we asked our leadership for help

• Senior VPs provided support & guidance

• Summit with all locations in one place

• Workshop Kickoff & Goal agreement

• “5 Dysfunctions of a Team”http://www.tablegroup.com/books/dysfunctions

• Team Communication

• Puts & Takes

• Prioritization

• Roadmap Methods

Team Summit Agenda: Day 1

5 Dysfunctions

• “Servant Leadership”https://greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/

• Holding Efficient Meetings

• Why Agile: purpose and value of things in scrum

• Roles in the Scrum team

• Writing user stories

• Team Metrics

Team Summit Agenda: Day 2

Working Agreement• No blame

• Hierarchy of communication methods

• Involve all team roles in all stages - even if it’s just to see what’s coming

• Celebrate wins

• Provide context for all requests

• Plan collectively, as a team

• Switch to Kanban

• 24 hour service agreement

Team Summit Agenda: Day 3

Sea Change

Photo credit: http://apps.seattletimes.com/reports/sea-change/2013/sep/11/pacific-ocean-perilous-turn-overview/

Lesson 3It’s About the Users

• Involved engineers & QA in test design

• Invited engineers & QA to observe usability sessions

• Showed them quant & qual results of their work

• Persona empathy workshops

• Customer journey mapping

• Popularized by Cooper Design Blog http://www.cooper.com/journal/2014/05/persona-empathy-mapping

• Engages the team in user-centric thinking

• Shows the motivations behind the user actions

• Helps internalize the user experience

• Builds understanding and empathy toward the user

Persona Empathy Mapping

• Jen had baby Jonah 4 months ago and didn’t realized that her and her husband had to add him to their medical plan. Now it is too late and the baby is without insurance.

• Baby Jonah develops a fever. Jen doesn’t know if it is because of teething or something more serious and she should take him to urgent care.

Sample Scenarios

http://www.cooper.com/journal/2014/05/persona-empathy-mapping

• Visual representation of the end to end steps involved in a customer experience: from first contact to purchasing and customer after-care

• Mapped on a timeline

• Tracks feelings, thoughts, emotions, actions & goals + channels & touch points

• The goal is for the team to share the experience of our users.

Customer Journey Mapping

• Jen worries about her mom’s finances. She has been delaying a visit and Jen learns that the reason is about money. Jen learns, her mom is spending over $200 in Rx drugs copay each month a sizable chunk of her social security check. Jen decides to help her mom and start researching plans that offer better coverage.

Sample Scenario

Actions

Environment

Goals

Thoughts and Feelings

Touch Points and Channels

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5

Photo credit: http://pvop.org/event/2014/8/11/it-gets-better

The Moral of The Story

• Lesson 1: Relationship building takes timeBe persistent, be supportive, be transparent

• Lesson 2: Ask for helpIt’s not a failure, it’s getting the whole company aligned

• Lesson 3: Make it about the usersThey’re the one thing we’re guaranteed to have in common Photo credit:

http://www.uneed2knowthis.uk/blog-uneed2knowthis-uk/help-to-climb-mountain/

Questions?

T H A N K YO U!

@[email protected]

@[email protected]