About Part IV

Integrating design into Agile is never easy. Sometimes it causes a lot of pain and heartache. Jeff learned that firsthand when he was at TheLadders. After spending some time trying to integrate UX work with an Agile process, Jeff was feeling pretty good—until one morning his UX team delivered the diagram below (Figure IV-1). This diagram visualized all of the challenges the team was facing as they tried to integrate their practice into Agile. It served initially as a large slice of humble pie. Ultimately, though, it provided the beginning of conversations that helped Jeff, his UX team, and the rest of TheLadders’ product development staff build an integrated, collaborative practice.

Figure IV-1. The UX team at TheLadders expressed their feelings about our Agile/UX integration efforts

In the years since this diagram was created, we’ve been fortunate to work with lots of companies on this challenge. We’ve worked with companies that spanned a broad range of industries, company sizes, and cultures. We’ve helped media organizations figure out new ways to deliver and monetize their content. We’ve built new, mobile-first sales tools for a commercial furniture manufacturer. We’ve consulted with fashion retailers, automotive services companies, and large banks to help them build Lean UX practices. We’ve worked with nonprofits to create new service offerings. And we’ve trained countless teams.

Each of these projects provided us a bit more insight into how Lean UX works in that environment. We used that insight to make each subsequent project that much more successful. We’ve built up a body of knowledge over the past five years that has given us a clear sense of what needs to happen—at the team and at the organization level—for Lean UX to succeed. That is the focus of Section IV.

In Chapter 17, Making Organizational Shifts, we’ll dig into the specific organizational changes that need to be made to support this way of working. It’s not just software developers and designers who need to find a way to work together. Your whole product development engine is going to need to change if you want to create a truly Agile organization.

In Chapter 18, Lean UX in an Agency, we’ll discuss the issues that are unique to implementing Lean UX in an agency context. Having lived this challenge ourselves, and worked to train any number of design and product-development firms, we’ve come to understand some of the challenges here. We’ll share some of the key things you’ll need to consider to make Lean UX successful in this kind of business.