Lean UX, 2nd Edition

Chapter 7. Integrating Lean UX and Agile

Agile methods are mainstream now. At the same time, thanks to the huge success of products like Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPhone, so is User Experience (UX) design. But making Agile work with UX continues to be a challenge for many companies. In this chapter, we review how Lean UX methods can fit within the most popular flavor of Agile—Scrum—and discuss how blending Lean UX and Agile can create a more productive team and a more collaborative process. Here’s what this chapter covers:

Definition of terms

Just to make sure we’re all on the same page when we say certain words like “sprint” and “story.”

Staggered sprints

The once-savior of Agile/UX integration is now just a stepping stone to true team cohesion.

Sprint zero and design sprints

How much, if any, upfront work should we do?

Dual-track Agile

How to plan product discovery activities along with delivery.

Listening to Scrum’s rhythms

The meeting cadences of Scrum make for clear guide posts for Lean UX integration.

Participation

A truly cross-functional process requires that everyone be a part of it.

Design is a team sport

Opening up the design process to all team members.

Coordinating multiple Lean UX teams

How to encourage sharing and reduce duplicate work.

Managing up and out

Clear obstacles to your team’s progress by being proactive with your communications.

Let’s get started.

Some Definitions

Agile processes like Scrum use many proprietary terms. Over time, many of these terms ...