[PRODUCT MANAGEMENT EXCELLENCE] Agile PM LABORATORY. Creating great UX with Agile Product Management.

Transcription

1 PM LABORATORY Tolpagorni Product Management AB Magnus Billgren, Insighter Part 2 of 4 Creating great UX with Agile Product Management [PRODUCT MANAGEMENT EXCELLENCE] powered by Tolpagorni Product Management AB

2 Product Management 1 Abstract Three months ago you linked up with Julia Connery or was is Emilia Convery. She worked at a small design firm. You enter Linkedin to try and find her. Wow! The new Linkedin design looks great! But how do you search among your connections? They moved the features around. And once again the UX has been deteriorated by new features and design improvements. Agile development means fast development and many iterations and feedback loops. This goes hand in hand with basic principles of user centered design. But still we often see agile teams failing in creating and maintaining a great User Experience. The temptation to focus on speed and creation of new features weakens the UX. In our research and after numerous discussion with product managers, researchers, designers and customers we claim three core methods for Product Managers to enhance great UX in agile environments. 1. Persona creation 2. Product Identity 3. It is not about the product The Agile temptation Your competitor probably introduced some new great features yesterday. Your sales rep in Belgium has already created internal discussions. You need to develop these features ASAP to stay in the Belgium market. It is easy to give in to temptation and add those new features. However, tomorrow the sales rep from Brazil will call demanding yet another function due to local competition And they all say I thought Agile meant that we could quickly respond to requests. Too often we meet companies that are just responding to customers, markets and competition under the name of AGILE. If that is driving the agile development there is a big risk that the User experience will be lost. Only 14% of all software functions are being used by an average user. The other 86% of the functions are destroying the UX. With every new function you add - the UX is challenged. A product manager gave a description of another common situation: The CEO didn t like that so many functions were allocated on the same screen. Since it provided a bad UX, he said. Our product manager colleague couldn t argue against it. The design was in the fact neither intuitive nor clean. But he thought it was relevant. He had to make the change even though he knew that the experienced users of this SCADA-system prioritized overview before intuitive design. The changes were implemented in the next sprint. The manager was happy but not the users. In the Agile world is fast. We can respond to specific requests from customers, management or other stakeholders. But as a Product Manager you always need to keep the big picture in mind.

3 Product Management 2 Show me the money In a sales process it is easy to get stuck in discussing Price/Performance. But how do we make UX valuable and how do we make the customer pay for it? Together with Ericsson, Logica and University of Blekinge we are performing research on values. It has been found that most consumers and companies value the UX as such. Companies and individuals are willing to pay for the User Experiences. And we all know that Apple has built the complete company on the UX. For B2B (business to business) the drivers might be somewhat different compared with B2C (business to consumer). Three money motivators have been identified by Virpi Roto (Professor Aalto University) why B2B companies work with UX: Developing the service business demands better UX If you are entering cloud services with continuous revenue stream the customer must really use and appreciate your solution. If not the will cancel the subscription. Better recruitment possibilities Great UX of your products makes it easier to recruit Employees want to be proud over the product experience we deliver to the customers. Employees will stay and will be easier to recruit with great UX. Increased loyalty and better references Customers that are excited about our product will remain loyal to our brand and provide referrals and great references. What is UX, REALLY? Initially all machines and technology focused on functionality and utility. What functions do we deliver and what are those functions worth. The second step is to focus on usability. How easy is it for the user to use the functions? Normally this work is carried out at the end of the development. The third step is to deliver an intended experience of joy, pride, control or maybe excitement. The third level can be summarized under Pleasure. And that is the top UX level of your product. Successful UX work starts early on in the development process. The third level of Pleasure is bringing motivation into the usage of the product, whether it is a professional- or consumer product. Pleasure Usability Utility Three levels of User Experience, P. Jordan, Designing great Products NOTE! Make sure always too separate the UI (User Interface) from the UX (User Experience)

4 Product Management 3 The successful Product Manager We work every day with product managers and they ask us how they can improve their work with UX design. We don t claim that the Product Manager create the great UX. However, the Product Manager is instrumental in achieving it. We have seen success and total disaster in the cooperation between UX designers and Product managers. We all wonder what makes the differences. We have identified three core behaviors among the successful Product Managers that create great UX with Agile: Secret #1 Personas getting rid of the opinionated organization Earlier we stated that the situation with the manager and his view on the design. Everybody has an opinion on design. In discussions about a product design stakeholders will always state their opinions. It can of course be interesting to hear a 24-year-old web developer s personal thoughts on a professional tool for chemical process systems or a 55-year-old manager s view on teenage games. But that will not make the UX take off. The UX design process shall not be based on the opinions, feelings and assumptions. We need a way to get into the shoes of the users. Defining and using Personas is a great way to achieve this. A Persona is archetype of your customer. By defining 3-7 Personas you are able to deal with your opinionated organization. When somebody express an opinion or assumption it is easy to refer to the Personas. They will become principals for your development and design. And you will start designing the experience for your users and not for your organization. The Personas are a Strategic Asset. The owner of the Personas should neither be the UX designer nor the marketing department. The owner should be the Product Management group. As a Product Manager you need to align all activities and use the same personas in numerous activities. You are also responsible for securing that the Personas represent your target markets. Secret #2: Product Identity In front of me, in the meeting room, was the CTO. He was enthusiastic about UX. This is how we will differentiate us in the market he said. They had over customer. I asked him: What UX are you striving towards? He looked sat me as if I knew nothing of UX. Well, you know, the feeling when you buy an IPhone he declared and started a 20 minute lecture on the Apple UX. But I kept asking him But what UX are YOU striving towards? The UX feeling is not given. Everything is not about joy, pride and intuition. When talking to designers of cranes or control systems for energy plants Joy might not be on the list. We have worked with companies and projects where other identities have been in focus. Examples of intended user experiences can be: Safety of Operation Process systems (SCADA)

5 Product Management 4 Sense of control Fork trucks Feeling of Presence Medical system Ease of cooperation Cranes You need to define your product identity to connect the UX with. It is not enough just to say we focus on UX. You need an identity a direction of what experience you want to bring to your customers and users. This is also what you test during the development. How well are you fulfilling the desired UX? We normally perform Product Identity workshops to define the three (3) major experiences we want to give to the users. Secret #3: The Product UX is not about the Product Too many companies mix up UI and UX. The User interface (UI) is the interface of your system. The UX includes the interface AND the service, support, deliveries, etc. from your company. As a Product Manager you should make sure that all the different deliverables are working together in creating the intended UX. The UI is just one piece in the puzzle. Put yourself in the shoes of the customer and go through their customer journey. What interactions do they have with you? What experience are you giving your customers in these interactions? It has been proven numerous times that a great UX will generate increased profits. Researchers have also shown a strong connection between stock prices and great UX.

6 Product Management 5 References EXPERIENCES The paper is written based on experiences working with great companies like: Ericsson, Volvo, IBM, Würth, Scania, Elekta, Interspiro, ABB, Vendemore, Bisnode, Leica, Transmode, Netinsight, Memnon, ScandiNova, Polystar, Husqvarna, Mycronic, Ascom, Alfa Laval, and more. SOURCES of INSPIRATION and DISCUSSIONS Roman Pichler (Agile Product management Author), Thomas Eisenmann (Professor at Harvard Business School), Marty Cagan (Product Management Practioner), Tony Gorsheck (Professor BTH), Eric Ries (Lean Start Up), Anthony Ulwick (CEO Strategyn), Christian Kowalkowski (Ass Professor Helsingfors Business School), Michael McGrath (the M of PRTM), Sjaak Brinkemper (Professor Utrecht University) and many great Product Managers. About Tolpagorni Research and Knowledge are the key foundations of Tolpagorni. We take the lead in testing new strategies and in developing a framework of methods, tools and techniques for effective product management. We work closely with research organizations and we continuously build our skills framework through our ongoing projects. We also take an active part in building the Book of Knowledge (BoK) for the world s leading organization for Software Product Management (ISPMA). However, the most important thing for us is to make sure we deliver results to our customers. We understand that theory on its own will not deliver usable outcomes. We strive to apply our knowledge in a practical, handson approach so that our customers have tools and methods to use in their everyday work practice. This approach also develops the role of the Product Manager so that they add value to their business. All of us who work at Tolpagorni know product management from the inside, because we have done it ourselves. We believe that the combination of theoretical research and on-the-floor pragmatism is what makes us excel in what we do. If you want to learn more about Tolpagorni go to Further reading To read more on Product Management Excellence in Agile environments visit: