How too...Scrum & UX in legacy company settings
Just imagine. We came all the way from the waterfall methodology to reach modern project management with an agile mindset & processes like scrum & kanban. I would say almost all companies - big or small, new or old - are trying to use these modern approaches as long as we are not in a super specified setting which could make the waterfall methodology applicable. Imagine these modern agile approaches being applied within enterprise company settings with extraordinarily slow changing. This turns out to be like putting a nice, modern facade on an old house without thinking about restoring its foundation.
I want to talk about big, traditional companies in this post. Especially big, german, conservative companies and what problems I ran into being a UX Designer & Software Developer there. And I need to start with the problems they have using scrum-based project management to reach the point of explaining the difficulties to put User Experience Design - or even more difficult - User Centered Design into the equation.
So now let's dive deep into it quickly. What were the main problems?
You are the one that makes things pretty!
Misperception of graphic design and usability - The biggest problem we all need to face. Because people simplified all the things behind UX - like usability, psychology, and accessibility - because it is easier to sell these things to a consumer.
Digitalization - We are not working on a consumer product. We digitalize legacy work processes inside the company. Mostly they don't know exactly how much money they are losing without computer-based processes. This means as well that we as the consultancy can not measure the direct benefit of the software product we develop for them.
Zero maturity of UX Processes in the customer & service provider companies - Thanks to the hype of UX you got the role of being the UX Designer in the project. But you are the only one with the knowledge. None of the positions that are responsible for project management on both sides - client and service provider - have an understanding of the real benefit you can bring to that project.
A line of code is the most valued currency - Instead of real digitalization with a vision and an MVP, optimized processes, innovative workshops, lean management, iterations, interdisciplinary, agile work the client still thinks that story points are just another concept of working hours. They want you to develop as fast and as much as possible. Feature after feature.
How can we as UX Designers actively push UX methods into this superficial, flawed scrum process?
First, the good thing about scrum-based software development already meets one of our natural needs as UX researchers or Designers: Sprints. They can easily be used as time ranges for iterations.
Second, these kinds of companies like to set up a lot of meetings. We can try to take part in those meetings or just try to get some users into these meetings or just use some time of these meetings to present some of our findings & ideas.
Third, we can do the "easy" UX stuff. If you have this kind of setting it will be easy to find flaws in the UI or the interaction workflow and things that can be improved. Find these things and prepare solutions that can even be developed in a short time - if you don't have enough technical skills for that just discuss it with your favorite frontend dev in the team. Start with the small stuff so the client learns about your skills. In my case we didn't have the infrastructure - but if you have access to something like Google Analytics then crunch down the numbers! Prepare a usability test and show them the average time to finish a task, the error rate...whatever metric you find to prove that they are losing money.
The fourth point is the most difficult one. Because this one you cannot control. It builds over time and is completely up to your stakeholder, coworker or manager.
Trust.
Trust is the key to gain UX-maturity and an UX-first approach in your company. I will explain some possible sub-tasks & provide some tips to increase the trust in UX in your company. You will need to explain this over and over again & and you need to insist until you find the person who supports you on the client / stakeholder side.
Define the language.
Define the process & outcomes
Specify example results for each phase of each stage.
Define numbers.
Whenever you can, install & implement tools that collect data for you. It can be Google Analytics, A/B Tests, Quantitative Studies with forms, Qualitative Interviews, Error Rates, Quality Metrics (like accessiblity, Customer Reviews...). In B2B Projects this can be the most difficult part. Internal webpages, software and expert systems sometimes don't have many users and you are not allowed to show it to people outside of the company. Sometimes you can not even use open-source tools to test it because everything is highly confidental.
Don’t get frustrated about it. Especially in B2B projects it’s important to explain to project managers how much time employees need to full fill a task, how much an error would cost them with the system.
Tell a story! Think about something that hurts them the most → e.g. loosing money or customers.
Like an full-time employee costs the company 50€ per hour. If they spend one hour one the system getting frustrated making misstakes one time a day. Lets say the year has 40 work weeks minus holidays and national holidays. 40 * 50 +7 = this is 14.000€, one employee only because of not having a productive work experience with the system. When you have 10 employees working with the system we are talking about 100.000€. And thats not even taking into account what kind of financial risks a possible error while using the system could mean.
You see, there is a lot of value in your work. You just need to leverage your trust and your impact step-by-step even if you are in an environment that is highly confidential and a low user rate.
