Lean UX & Agile: Study Guide - NN/G

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August 8, 2023 2023-08-08
This study guide covers how to work through many of the challenges UX practitioners face when working in Agile. Perhaps you’re struggling to understand how UX fits in Agile or to decide when to do research and design each sprint. Maybe you’re finding it difficult to do any user research at all or feeling pulled in too many directions to do UX work effectively.
Agile can be tricky for everyone, especially UX. We often have to adapt how we work and help others understand how we fit and contribute. The goal of this study guide is to provide tangible tools and tips to make the adaptation process clear and easy.
Before transitioning to Agile, many organizations worked in the old Waterfall model of product development. Lean and Agile are quite different and it’s important to understand each process’s unique focus as it impacts how to approach UX work:
Agile frameworks aim to structure and organize the process. Common Agile frameworks include:
This study guide is agnostic to framework and applies to the many different approaches of Agile. Review the full guide or skip to the sections most relevant to you:
One of the biggest challenges of working in Agile is finding time to conduct user research. Whether in sprint 0 or during discovery, practitioners often face tension when advocating for the time to understand users’ problems, needs, and opportunities, before ideating solutions. The articles and videos in this section help with research advocacy and execution in Agile.
Communicating the risks of leaving users out of product development
After conducting research, Agile teams can move much faster with a clearer understanding of ideas and solutions that will meet users’ needs and business goals. Rather than relying on heavy requirements to define and outline solutions, use the leaner alternatives in this section to save time and narrow your team’s focus.
User Story Mapping 101
Use Good Prototype Specifications to Empower Team Collaboration
Wizard of Oz Method in UX
As solutions are defined and refined, include design and additional research in the product backlog, right alongside engineering work. If UX work isn’t included, the following issues can arise:
Use the resources in this section to find a suitable model for incorporating UX work in the product backlog.
Accounting for UX Work with User Stories in Agile Projects
How to capture UX work through user stories and subtasks
Incorporating UX Work into Your Agile Backlog
3 backlog models: shared stories, separate stories, separate backlogs
Separate UX Backlogs in Agile
When to use a separate UX backlog to organize or track UX work
Retain UX Talent by Tracking UX Capacity
Methods for tracking the capacity of the Agile UX team to avoid burnout
Lean and Agile are all about collaborative design and the team’s full involvement in the process, including in Scrum events. This process keeps communication open and avoids waste and technical or UX debt. When sprinting through iterative design and delivery, choose approaches that are best suited to the time available and the tasks at hand. Use the resources in this section to focus on the outcome, not on a perfect output.
The Changing Role of the Designer: Practical Human-Centered Design
How to approach building and iterating to gauge users’ reactions
Front-End Style-Guides: Definition, Requirements, Component Checklist
Key parts of front-end style guides for efficiency and consistency
Tips to manage design at scale using reusable components and patterns
Content Creation in Agile Development Processes
Methods for ensuring content and copy aren’t skipped in Agile
Lean UX Documentation for Tracking and Communicating in Agile
When and how to document important tactical details in delivery
How UX can and should productively participate in all Scrum events
How Agile teams can modify their processes to track and resolve UX debt over time
Teams can’t continually improve without reflecting back on what went well during the last sprint, what didn’t go well, and what to do next time to get better. Retrospectives offer a dedicated time for Agile teams to decide what to improve, abandon, or do differently. Use the resources in this section to keep retrospectives recurring and productive.
How to Run a Retrospective for a Design Team
4 components of a retrospective and how to use the time effectively
UX Retrospectives 101