Convergence II
DEVELOPMENT
With a backlog in place and some key journey points identified, we began working on what would now be called the "How Am I Doing?" journey. Thematically this was an overarching term that summarised a task flow that was typical for almost all users.During the testing period, users wanted to remain informed, they wanted to be able to perform basic trading functions and they wanted to investigate things. This journey would encompass all of these elements and start off as the first of many identified microjourneys.
As the team began working on stories and refining them, the design team actively worked to stay a few steps ahead, ensuring that refined ideas and concepts were present to be worked on when stories were ready to be taken into the sprints. The design team would refine visual concepts, conduct user validation and provide specifications in advance of the development teams work on a particular story.
Working this far in advance allowed the design team to adapt to changes when they arose as well as provide a future state perspective on the work being done. This ensured all other team members were on board and that there was a clear vision of the destination to which we were all working.
Concurrently with the development process, a part of the design team began conducting new discovery sessions. These sessions would serve as the fuel for future pieces of work that would come further down the development pipeline. These new discoveries tackled microjourneys that had been identified during the RPD process. Additionally, they served as touchpoints with the users, where current ideas could also be quickly tested and validated.
As these activities continued, a process flow began to form - one where future state ideas were refined, taken into sprint, worked on, refined further and outputs produced, all along being validated by user input. This process began to become effective in foreseeing and uncovering new opportunities as well and led to a small pivot, where an additional piece of work was added that was seen as an enhancement to the work already being done.
PIVOT
A test to the established process occurred in late August, when it was decided that an additional feature would be added to the ongoing work. Due to the success of what had occurred with the project far, a new feature was identified as being an extension of the work being done. From an experience standpoint, this was seen as an augmentation to what was already being worked on and was seen as a new value add that would be welcomed by users. This meant, however that priorities had to be refocused and that work had to be rearranged to accommodate this change. What resulted was a moment for the team to be as proactive as possible, to maintain the status quo while adding in supplemental pieces of effort. Would this mean a drastic change to the processes already established as effective and efficient?
The answer was surprisingly, no. It was respected that what had been done in the past to lead the team to the current successes would have to be retained in order to respect this new piece of work and give it the same quality that had come to be expected.All of this led to us resuming a new discovery process for this new piece of work that would then dovetail into the ongoing work.
TODAY
The project “journeys” on, with ongoing work occurring simultaneously with new discovery, leading to a constantly recurring cycle that generates new pieces of work while at the same time producing refined outputs. As the release date approaches, the hope is that this cadence can be and that new learnings and opportunities will allow this this project to grow further into a diverse and sophisticated final state.
KEY LEARNINGS
1. Collaboration is the only way to grow. Having the team come together at various points from the start of the process has led to a well-informed, highly functional team that has a growing understanding of all the roles and is ready to move flexibly as new challenges occur.
2. Ensuring there is a shared understanding of the problems and issues being worked on as well as the potential solutions and ideas ensures that the team continues along a similar path with amicable agreement between all parties.
3. Future-thought is key in ensuring that work is ongoing and continuing to remain relevant. Having the ability to conduct discoveries on all new features ensures they are well researched,suitably informed and respecting the needs not just of the users but also of the business and other stakeholders. It also ensures that best practice is actively promoted as it requires an overview of what is currently out there and currently considered good practice.
4. Design as a group has to have a presence at all levels. This kind of influence ensures that there is an understanding of the value of the design process, how it actually binds the project together and how it allows for the future of the product. Collaboration with other teams outside of design also encourages an active engagement in design processes, so that they are better informed and non-linear.
CONCLUSION
As we approach our first release date there is a sense if wisdom that has come with having endured a year’s worth of learning and discovery. This has happened two-fold as it applies to learnings made about the product itself but also about the team itself. With an exciting new product on the horizon, the team can finally begin to make the first of many steps in a convergence towards the final state of a newly redesigned product.
End the first day of your workshop by explaining how this was a day of information gathering. You were helping the team rally around a main goal and using a series of exercises to support information gathering around that goal. The team is therefore becoming more aligned around the key objectives of the design and is learning about the importance of the UX process in achieving this goal.
PART 2 - FIRST RESULTS & THE ROAD AHEAD
The second day of your workshop should centre around providing simple deliverables based on the information gathered on the previous day. Depending on the exercises conducted you want to provide a few assets that align with that work and demonstrate a cohesion of the ideas generated. In this way you are giving the team an understanding of how a picture can begin to be formed for their redesign initiative. A sample of how the results of each phase could be presented is shown below:
Discuss what you have begun to create and incorporate elements of education into how these are iterative processes that you will continue to perform during the redesign process, each time further refining your outputs. Simple notes about how this can also add overall business value will allow for further buy-in by the team and will encourage a design positive experience.
CONCLUSION
Creating a big picture workshop will allow you to engage your team in a way that they can begin to appreciate what the design process is and how it can help them and the project along. Showing quick results through simple exercises will indicate the efficiency of your process and provide visibility into the importance of each phase in the process. Overall, having a full team onboard with your work as well as onboard with the overall project goal will ensure a streamlined project flow that should generate positive results in time.