Hammering out UX

I see the same org chart in many companies.  User Experience Design (UX) is nestled tightly in with Software Engineering rather than the Product Team.  Often, they don’t become involved in the iteration until engineering  is involved.

Is this org structure agile?

Pre-planning with the Product Owner

I see the answer to the question in the pre-planning phase of a release.  The Product Owner has the inventory of product backlog items, often in the form of User Stories.  The Stories tell the who, the what, and the why without designing the how.  Yet to create the validation conditions, “how” comes into play.

How “how”?  There’s a leap which happens when moving from the Story to the verification conditions.  Let’s use my case study for AgileViews.com, a fictitious site which is adding a paid subscription plan to it’s free blog aggregation service.

As a subscriber,
I can receive my paid subscription content on my phone
So that I can keep up-to-date on high value information when I am away from my computer.

The product owner might then create the following verification criteria:

• Verify that paid content is integrated with the mobile RSS feed’s free content
• Verify that the paid content is branded with the provider’s logo
• …

You may begin to see the problem.  In coming to the Sprint Planning Meeting with the verification conditions, assumptions have been made about the implementation.  Should the information still be delivered through a mobile RSS feed?  Is a logo the best way to indicate a paid content source?

The step between stories and verification conditions

In the pre-planning phase, UX can provide a user-centered reality check on the jump from the story to the verification conditions.  Adding a “solution hypothesis” before developing verification conditions can minimize rework in the Sprint Planning Meeting, or at very least help the team question explicit assumptions.

Let’s take a look at the solution hypothesis for our story:

As a subscriber,
I can receive my paid subscription content on my phone
So I can keep up to date when I am away from my computer.

Solution Hypothesis:

The mobile interface for the paid content will be integrated with the unpaid content’s RSS feeds.

After reviewing the solution hypothesis, UX can then validate whether the hypothesis provides the best user experience, or whether new approaches or delivery vehicles can be leveraged.  If the strategy is to first convert existing users to paid subscribers, more research is warranted.  What if the vast majority are iPhone users?  Blackberry users?  A more usable interface may be possible.

Bring Product and UX together from the start

While it may not be easy to change a historic org structure, UX can still be tightly aligned with the Product Team in the iteration pre-planning.  It provides the least risk of wasted work and drives out a more solid user experience.

Bridge the gap and add a bit of “how” to the who, what, and why.