Product Definition

Agile Product Development

What is agile product

development?
The Agile methodology is an iterative
approach to product development that is
performed in a collaborative environment
by self - organising & multifunctional teams.
The methodology produces high-quality
software in a cost-effective and timely
manner to meet stakeholders changing
needs.

Get into rabbit

hole

Users
We can divide users in 3 types:

Experts!

Willing adopters!

Mainstreamers

Experts

Happy to explore and to push

the limits of what they can do

They want never-before-seen

technology that is customised
for them

Even if theyre new to a

product, they have an expert
attitude

Eg: browse through the

mobile phones file system
and tweak everything

Willing adopters

They probably already use some

similar products or services.

Tempted to use something more

sophisticated

Not comfortable playing with

something entirely new they need to
be given easy ways to adopt new
features.

Tolerance for learning is pretty low

They might be interested in a more

sophisticated phone, but only if they
can transfer their precious contacts
easily

Mainstreamers

Dont use technology for its own sake They use it to get a job done.

Tend to learn a few key features and

never add to their repertoire.

They say: I just want my mobile phone

to work.

Most people fall into this group.

It has more to do with their underlying

attitude toward technology than the
amount of time they spend using a
product or service.

User Types compared

Experts
Willing to adopt
Mainstreamers

Real life example

Apples expert customers wanted a

flying car.

Apples mainstream customers just

wanted an MP3 player that worked.

Result?
As of January 2010, Apple had sold
240,000,000 iPods and no flying cars.

Build for mainstreamers

Mainstreamers are interested in getting the job done now

experts are interested in customising their settings first.

Mainstreamers value ease of control

experts value precision of control.

Mainstreamers want reliable results

experts want perfect results.

Mainstreamers are afraid of breaking something

experts want to take things apart to see how they work.

Mainstreamers want a good match

experts want an exact match.

Mainstreamers want examples and stories

experts want principles.

User Experience & Emotional

needs
It turned out to be about making the user feel
good about putting things off/done. We needed
to make the user feel confident that theyd be
able to put tasks away and find them again later.

Jrgen Schweizer, Things (iOS task management)

They're in Control
Users want to feel in control of the technology
theyre using.

Describing User Experience

Use stories to describe problem
Unlike a list of requirements, it helps the
team understand whats important and why.
A story should sum up the core experience in a few
sentences.
Sessions: How would i tell the manager why I am
late and where am I? (traffic, outdoor, partial focus)

Simplicity & Mobile First

Difference between usability and simplicity

Make it simple
How we can make some
complex interface simpler
and easier to use?

Remove - get rid of all the unnecessary elements

until the device is stripped back to its essentials.

Organize - arrange the elements into groups that

make more sense.

Hide - hide all but the most important elements so

they dont distract users.

Displace - create a very simple UI with a few basic

features and access the rest via separated screen/
section, displacing the complexity from the one
place to another.

We can combine all 4 or we can use

one as a primary strategy

There is no universal solution. Best

result is to adapt of current problem and
try to find optimal solution

The same techniques are applicable

for developers too!

Build
Measure
Learn

Basic steps: 1 2 3
ELIMINATE UNCERTAINTY

Create order not chaos by providing tools to test a vision continuously. Putting a process, a
methodology around the development of a product

WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER

The question is not "Can this feature be built?" Instead, the questions are "Should
this feature be built?"

DEVELOP AN MVP
The first step is figuring out the problem that needs to be solved and then
developing a minimum viable product (MVP) to begin the process of learning as
quickly as possible.

VALIDATED LEARNING
When you focus on figuring the right thing to build-the thing customers want and
will pay for-you need not spend months waiting for a product beta launch to change
the company's direction.

Project cycle in IMVU

Social Entertainment Company
more than 100 million users

Project Cycle in Intuit (7 days long)

Thursday
Friday

Create several A/B tests

Release of the tests

Weekend

Run tests

Monday

Read the results

Tuesday

Rebuild new tests

Project cycle in Intuit Inc.

Social Entertainment Company
TurboTax product

Prototypes a.k.a. Storyboards

Advantages

Find Design Issues Early

Iterate More Quickly on a Design Concept
Compare Design Variations Quickly
Gather Design Feedback Better
Be Able to Perform User Testing Early On
Prototypes Encourage Collaboration
Designs Are Increasingly Becoming More Complex
Prototypes Give You a Visual Guide to the Finished Product
Prototyping is Cheap, Fast, and Easy

Behaviour Driven
Development (BDD)
Software development methodology that
takes an outside-in approach to describe
application behaviour by encouraging
intense customer involvement

What that means?

Instead of writing tests we should think

of specifying behavior. Behavior is how
the user wants the application to behave.

When our development is Behaviordriven, we will always start with the

piece of functionality thats most
important to user.

BDD User Stories

User stories are the central axis around which a software
project rotates.
User stories provide the unit of effort that project
management uses to plan and to track progress.
Estimations are made against user stories, and user
stories are where software design begins. User stories
help to shape a systems usability and user experience.
User stories express requirements in terms of
The Role,
The Goal, and
The Motivation.

The Role - manager, employee, customer

The Goal - what user want to do

(purchasing, or ordering, or paying a bill)

The Motivation - Statement which

provides some insight into a users
reasonable expectation for how the
feature or function that satisfies the story
may work.

A/B Testing
Learning from users

Commonly used in web & mobile

development, online marketing, and other
forms of advertising to describe simple
randomised experiments with two variants,
A and B, which are the control and
treatment in the controlled experiment.

Analytics + AB testing

Smarter interface - Better UX

Final destination: Native UI

Application knows user behaviour and
adapt to meet his needs
(reminder for clock in, suggestion for
choosing colleagues for shift trading..)

Conclusion

Learn about users

Make product simpler (start from small screens first)

Make smaller batches of work and faster iterations

Intensively use of A/B testing

Use analytics to make UI smarter (Native UI)

Accelerate changed based on valid (tested) results

Create sustainable process of constant improving

product

Workshop
Real life example:
Sessions Module

Sprint overview
Defining user stories

Sending notifications (Backend)

Research technology

Saving messages (Backend)

Storyboards

Saving messages (Client side)

Clickable Storyboards : Prototypes

Creating groups (Client side)

Making UI

Creating groups (Server side)