Resist Resistance and Do The Work

Transcript

1. “Better done than perfect.” Mark Zukerberg “Real artists ship.” Steve

   Jobs Couple of quotes from guys that know and knew a thing or two about building great software

2. do the work

3. 9 minutes of theory 21 minutes of examples + Questions

   at the end is is a 30 minute presentation

4. Based on a book called ‘Do e Work’ by Steven

   Press eld

5. @awgreen #AgileUX12

6. 1. creativity 2. resistance 3. how to do the work

   I want to talk about:

7. is is Spinal Tap - Napkin Scene Ian Faith nevertheless

   made use of the foam minilith during the next show, prompting David to complain bitterly that "there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf." The debacle prompted the departure of Faith as Spinal Tap manager.

8. is is Spinal Tap - Napkin Scene Ian Faith nevertheless

   made use of the foam minilith during the next show, prompting David to complain bitterly that "there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf." The debacle prompted the departure of Faith as Spinal Tap manager.

9. F*** the napkin

10. creativity

11. creatio ex nihilo - Medieval Christianity ‘creatio’ came to designate

    ‘Gods hand’ - The idea of Creativity was literally not supposed to be of humans, but only of God ‘from nothing’.

12. - Even through the Renaissance, one of the great creative

    periods in human history, for a century and a half, the idea of human creativity was met with resistance. - The birth of things was only the domain of God

13. - It wasn’t until the 19th century that creativity, the

    act of creating from nothing, was commonly understood to be a quality of painters and poets only. - Names such as Monet, Matisse and Gauguin were the only ones Godly enough to be given the title.

14. - And finally, at the turn of the 20th century,

    creativity, as applied to the sciences, was discussed and understood. - Pollock, Dali and Hirst weren’t the only ones creating something from nothing.

15. - Creativity is no longer the exclusive domain of the

    Gods, but something Godly we are expected to do everyday.

16. Creativity is an amazing, amazing phenomenon

17. It is the inspirational force in any new thing

18. Creative people are so interesting - In the words of

    Steve Pressfield: - Creative people are so interesting because they’re ‘called’ to do something. - People can’t wait for them to bring their vision into manifestation

19. One of the most interesting Leonardo da Vinci One of

    the most interesting, creative person in human history was Leonardo da Vinci - I probably don’t need to talk to too many of his achievements to such a well-educated audience, but this guy was freakin’ inspirational.

20. IMagine Imagine if you will, that Leonardo da Vinci has

    come back somehow and has been employed as UX Lead for a major financial institution.

21. IMagine Leonardo da Vinci is a UX Lead on a

    major new mobile app for a large nancial institution. Imagine if you will, that Leonardo da Vinci has come back somehow and has been employed as UX Lead for a major financial institution.

22. - We all know how much Leo loves sketching -

    Leo is knee deep designing the next generation amazing mobile banking app for Bankcorp - He’s sketched out tonnes of ideas for mobile banking

23. - Leo presents his ideas to the major stakeholders -

    They are respectfully quiet the whole presentation, as you’d expect.

24. - They love the ideas. This is Leo da Vinci

    FFS! The ideas are insanely amazing!

25. - But they ask some more questions: -- How will

    these effect the business requirements? -- WHat should they go into testing? How about a card sort? -- Actually research seems like such a good idea, right? How do we know we’re DOING THE RIGHT THING? - Also, the Sales team should be involved, book a meeting with them. - Leo leaves the room with his Project Manager

26. Hmmmm... - One the way back, he notices a bunch

    of guys working on their machines furiously. Who are these guys? he asks the project manager? Oh, they’re developers. We’re not ready to talk with them yet. - Once we get these stakeholder meetings, card sorts and more research, we can talk to a technical architect

27. - Leo spends the rest of the day writing up

    notes from the meeting. - He’s got to organise 2 rounds of user testing on his concepts for next week. He needs to book a meeting with the marketing department to get an understanding of the ‘market segmentation’. - plays some solitare (BB)

28. - 2 weeks later and Leo has spent most of

    his time in his powerpoint, meetings and late night user testing - his only achievement is to fill his calendar

29. - He stares longingly at the sketches and thinks about

    where his energy went for the project. He doesn’t feel any closer to anything tangible. - He only feels resistance at every point. - Every time he fights it, he ends up with 3 more meetings, 5 other stakeholders to engage. - He only feels resistance.

30. he only feels Resistance

31. Resistance

32. Resistance is the temptation to go into more detail Resistance

    is the force telling you to spend that research budget just because you have it Resistance is the force telling you to put the headphones on and work alone Resistance is a force which will squash your next great idea. Resistance is the only thing in the way of you shipping something Resistance is what can make creative people boring. It saps the inspirational force on a team.

33. resist resistance

34. Do the work

35. - doing the work is about creating new habits to

    fight resistance - doing the work is about standing up for creativity - doing the work is about getting as close to a tangible product as soon as possible

36. SECONDARY PINK For use on Cogen pink background only. Ie,

    when entire surroundin background is Cogent pink. Typical use is wh Cogent is the sol brand. - I was imagining what would happen if Leo came and worked with us

37. 9 ways to resist resistance 9 ways to resist resistance

    and do the work

38. Do just enough research 1 - Not requirements

39. to FIND Clear goals and principles. - This is UX

    101 - If you don’t know what the goals of the product/service are, you need to find out. You need to talk to users. You need to do this up-front. - You need to do just enough to have some validated concepts/ideas, with clear goals. - This does not have to be expensive research in a lab. 2 - 3 iterations, chatting with users initially then coming back with concepts is enough.

40. the just enough research approach - This is a UX

    conference, so I don’t need to talk about structuring research. But if you’re interested, this is probably what I would call enough of a research approach to get started. - Any more, and resistance is probably likely to set in - Remember, we’re trying to beat resistance, and get creative.

41. the just enough research approach Analytics, competitive, comparative Existing analysis

    - This is a UX conference, so I don’t need to talk about structuring research. But if you’re interested, this is probably what I would call enough of a research approach to get started. - Any more, and resistance is probably likely to set in - Remember, we’re trying to beat resistance, and get creative.

42. the just enough research approach Analytics, competitive, comparative Existing analysis

    On site 8 users. Ask How, Ask Why - This is a UX conference, so I don’t need to talk about structuring research. But if you’re interested, this is probably what I would call enough of a research approach to get started. - Any more, and resistance is probably likely to set in - Remember, we’re trying to beat resistance, and get creative.

43. the just enough research approach Analytics, competitive, comparative Existing analysis

    On site 8 users. Ask How, Ask Why Process ow Hypothesis building Model and sketch the shit outta it - This is a UX conference, so I don’t need to talk about structuring research. But if you’re interested, this is probably what I would call enough of a research approach to get started. - Any more, and resistance is probably likely to set in - Remember, we’re trying to beat resistance, and get creative.

44. the just enough research approach Analytics, competitive, comparative Existing analysis

    On site 8 users. Ask How, Ask Why Process ow Hypothesis building Model and sketch the shit outta it Get speci c feedback Take concepts back to users - This is a UX conference, so I don’t need to talk about structuring research. But if you’re interested, this is probably what I would call enough of a research approach to get started. - Any more, and resistance is probably likely to set in - Remember, we’re trying to beat resistance, and get creative.

45. the just enough research approach Analytics, competitive, comparative Existing analysis

    On site 8 users. Ask How, Ask Why Process ow Hypothesis building Model and sketch the shit outta it Get speci c feedback Take concepts back to users Process ow Hypothesis building Model and sketch the shit outta it - This is a UX conference, so I don’t need to talk about structuring research. But if you’re interested, this is probably what I would call enough of a research approach to get started. - Any more, and resistance is probably likely to set in - Remember, we’re trying to beat resistance, and get creative.

46. Existing analysis - of course, you have to look at

    current behaviour

47. ASK how, Ask why - go onsite - insterview real

    people - ask them how they do things, then follow up with why. why. why. why. - These are pictures of our visit to Tesselaars packing depot. We found some interesting workarounds for managing the picking and packing of flowers and seeds... we didnt just observe, we asked HOW and WHY

48. model and sketch the hell outta it “Did you mean?”

    <sketch> - get back to the office, talk and draw what - The format is usually a conversation that revolves around “Did you mean...?” and then sketching what you mean. - Start to think about hypothesis. Be assertive. “People are trying to...”

49. Take concepts back to users - Go back to the

    site, office or just invite users back to your place. - Show them concepts, ask what they think, would this be useful... - You can ask them to draw on the sketches, but many won’t. I often wished they would be it just doesn’t happen. - YOU ARE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING REMARKABLE

50. Then Ask... What does this mean for the experience? -

    Get back to the office and have another sketch session, this time with the focus: -- WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE EXPERIENCE? -- Go through each hypothesis. Go through each participant. -- WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE EXPERIENCE?

51. - we create this type of list a lot -

    it helps us list out all of the insights, but straight away, think about how we could action it - each of the ‘What does it mean for the experience?’ is a perfect way to focus a more detailed sketch session

52. What was the insight? - we create this type of

    list a lot - it helps us list out all of the insights, but straight away, think about how we could action it - each of the ‘What does it mean for the experience?’ is a perfect way to focus a more detailed sketch session

53. What was the insight? What does it mean for the

    experience? - we create this type of list a lot - it helps us list out all of the insights, but straight away, think about how we could action it - each of the ‘What does it mean for the experience?’ is a perfect way to focus a more detailed sketch session

54. Visualise scope - it helps to also start to visualise

    the ‘scope’ of the product. - probably the most boring, but necessary part of the process. - Oh by the way, we’re doing strategy right now. AWESOME!

55. Visualise scope - You end up with a pile of

    sketches, that give a feel for the entire application - Each section should have a user goal. - For example, “I want to find people that I can learn from”.

56. internal Design principles - The entire project should be tied

    back to design principles and a vision! - principles should be in plain language and - easily recalled. - we find swear words help

57. If you don’t have a goal you are wasting your

    time. - many people are worried about doing research upfront to ‘get it right’ - I’m worried about doing research upfront to make sure I’ve got goals and am not wasting the customer’s and my time

58. Just enough research shouldn’t take more than a few of

    weeks.

59. You should be ready and conFIDENT to start development -

    at the end you should be ready and confident to start development - yes, that might mean a bunch of cards

60. Every hour you spend researching, you lose in design -

    Every hour you spend researching, you lose in design - so make sure you only do enough research

61. You have a 1000 page research report with annotated wireframes

    in your hand Do just enough research e UX team needs to ‘go o ’ and do research before anything can be done.

62. Set your work up to be nimble 2

63. Cogent Treehouse kitchenette 'sketch' area 'client' table desks - how

    much of your available space (as a percentage) is whiteboard? - Oh, and they’re magnetic also. Sexy!

64. Cogent Treehouse kitchenette 'sketch' area 'client' table desks whiteboard whiteboard

    whiteboard whiteboard - how much of your available space (as a percentage) is whiteboard? - Oh, and they’re magnetic also. Sexy!

65. Cogent Treehouse kitchenette 'sketch' area 'client' table desks whiteboard whiteboard

    whiteboard whiteboard 66% - how much of your available space (as a percentage) is whiteboard? - Oh, and they’re magnetic also. Sexy!

66. This helps you to Get up and talk to people.

    - get up and talk to people, duh.

67. This design can inform

68. this interface

69. Getting our collab’ on.

70. So many whiteboards

71. Annotate cards on-the-FLY

72. Annotate cards on-the-FLY Iteration group

73. Annotate cards on-the-FLY Iteration group Information architecture reference

74. Annotate cards on-the-FLY Iteration group Information architecture reference Who?

75. Annotate cards on-the-FLY Iteration group Information architecture reference Who? is

    has been picked up and briefed in

76. Annotate cards on-the-FLY Iteration group Information architecture reference Who? is

    has been picked up and briefed in Developer name

77. Annotate cards on-the-FLY Iteration group Information architecture reference Who? is

    has been picked up and briefed in Developer name Recent chat

78. Annotate cards on-the-FLY

79. Annotate cards on-the-FLY More detail

80. Annotate cards on-the-FLY

81. Annotate cards on-the-FLY Lots more detail

82. Typical Product Wall What’s coming up? (sketches) What’s in play?

    What do we have to x later? Currently (49%) Future design (51%) Discuss Implement Deploy Review Showcase UX Debt Design in play

83. You’re o en stumbling around to record conversations on-the- y

    You’re sitting in a room full of designers You’re wearing your headphones all day Set your work up to be nimble

84. deliverables

85. deliverables 3 - Deliverables tend to not get Leo towards

    a tangible product - Deliverables are a form of resistance - There will always be people in the deliverables business. If you are paying them money, fire them and hire someone else that will spend effort (money) in getting you towards a tangiable product.

86. What do we replace mountains of deliverables with?

87. a Shared understanding A shared understanding - a cheesy phrase?

    yes. - a better idea than deliverables? yes.

88. Create a ‘have-a-look-at-this- culture’.

89. None

90. Travis (Developer)

91. Travis (Developer) Asking me to have a look at something

    he’s working on

92. sketch A discrete problem 5 minutes to sketch a bunch

    of solutions 2 minutes to critique each All ideas assigned back to designer to synthesise and pitch back 1 2 3 - Designer has an issue or area of the site to solve - Get 3-4 people (designers or biz folk usually) - Sketch for 5 minutes, like crazy - GO around the circle and pitch your ideas back - Hand everything back to designer to iterate, combine or throw out - This can happen at any time in the design process. Planning or in iteration - Creates a resistance free zone, and a shared understanding

93. pitch and critique Every idea is pitched to strategy, developers

    and other designers. Feedback is arranged around the goals of the page, which everyone agrees with.

94. Each Tuesday and ursday at 3pm, we pitch our work.

    pitch and critique BAM!

95. Goal: Members want to search for that article, person or

    concept. - for example

96. Goal: Members want to search for that article, person or

    concept. Problem: Not enough prominence on Search functionality - for example

97. Sketch session

98. None

99. - We pitch and critique our work together

100. - and also with the client

101. - “How is this going to load” - “Is there

     too much distracting animation?” - “Search bar stays awake in Search Results Page” - “What is the default state” - These sorts of questions mean you’re ready to go into code

102. Day (or so) later...

103. - daily deployments mean that you get feedback straight away

104. You’re writing massive spec documents. No one has seen your

     work in the last 3 days. deliverables You’re selling deliverables not tangible so ware

105. pairing not prototyping 4 - prototypes are the trickiest forms

     of resistance

106. Pairing not prototyping Pairing means you’re working on the real

     thing Designers aren’t the only ones who design O en prototypes are used to solve problems that are due to bad communication Front-end frameworks make the pairing process quicker Top 4 #1 #2 #3 #4 - The closer to the tangible product, the better. Prototyping can be a form of resistance - Sometimes people gasp at prototypes to solve a communication problem within a team. “We need to prototype this so that the developers, stakeholders can see it working” - FE frame works, like jQuery make on-the-fly e

107. Pairing not prototyping Pairing means you’re working on the real

     thing Designers aren’t the only ones who design O en prototypes are used to solve problems that are due to bad communication Front-end frameworks make the pairing process quicker Top 4 #1 #2 #3 #4 - The closer to the tangible product, the better. Prototyping can be a form of resistance - Sometimes people gasp at prototypes to solve a communication problem within a team. “We need to prototype this so that the developers, stakeholders can see it working” - FE frame works, like jQuery make on-the-fly e

108. Pairing not prototyping Pairing means you’re working on the real

     thing Designers aren’t the only ones who design O en prototypes are used to solve problems that are due to bad communication Front-end frameworks make the pairing process quicker Top 4 #1 #2 #3 #4 - The closer to the tangible product, the better. Prototyping can be a form of resistance - Sometimes people gasp at prototypes to solve a communication problem within a team. “We need to prototype this so that the developers, stakeholders can see it working” - FE frame works, like jQuery make on-the-fly e

109. Pairing not prototyping Pairing means you’re working on the real

     thing Designers aren’t the only ones who design O en prototypes are used to solve problems that are due to bad communication Front-end frameworks make the pairing process quicker Top 4 #1 #2 #3 #4 - The closer to the tangible product, the better. Prototyping can be a form of resistance - Sometimes people gasp at prototypes to solve a communication problem within a team. “We need to prototype this so that the developers, stakeholders can see it working” - FE frame works, like jQuery make on-the-fly e
110. None

111. You’re spending everyday on your own, at your machine. You’re

     sure that a prototyping tool will solve your problems. pairing not prototyping

112. dumb it down and keep moving 5

113. Back on Wing Commander 1 we were getting an exception

     from our EMM386 memory manager when we exited the game. We'd clear the screen and a single line would print out, something like "EMM386 Memory manager error. Blah blah blah." We had to ship ASAP. So I hex edited the error in the memory manager itself to read " ank you for playing Wing Commander. - Ken Demarest “

114. Back on Wing Commander 1 we were getting an exception

     from our EMM386 memory manager when we exited the game. We'd clear the screen and a single line would print out, something like "EMM386 Memory manager error. Blah blah blah." We had to ship ASAP. So I hex edited the error in the memory manager itself to read " ank you for playing Wing Commander. - Ken Demarest “

115. Back on Wing Commander 1 we were getting an exception

     from our EMM386 memory manager when we exited the game. We'd clear the screen and a single line would print out, something like "EMM386 Memory manager error. Blah blah blah." We had to ship ASAP. So I hex edited the error in the memory manager itself to read " ank you for playing Wing Commander. - Ken Demarest “

116. Just enough design continuum Gesture Talk Sketch A Better Sketch

     Card Code Churn a problem through this! - plan to move this way - if anything gets in the way, it’s probably resistance - I’ve talked enough about these phases, but there’s one rule we have through them all...

117. Just enough design continuum Gesture Talk Sketch A Better Sketch

     Card Code Churn a problem through this! - plan to move this way - if anything gets in the way, it’s probably resistance - I’ve talked enough about these phases, but there’s one rule we have through them all...

118. Just enough design continuum Gesture Talk Sketch A Better Sketch

     Card Code Churn a problem through this! - plan to move this way - if anything gets in the way, it’s probably resistance - I’ve talked enough about these phases, but there’s one rule we have through them all...

119. Just enough design continuum Gesture Talk Sketch A Better Sketch

     Card Code Churn a problem through this! - plan to move this way - if anything gets in the way, it’s probably resistance - I’ve talked enough about these phases, but there’s one rule we have through them all...

120. Just enough design continuum Gesture Talk Sketch A Better Sketch

     Card Code Churn a problem through this! - plan to move this way - if anything gets in the way, it’s probably resistance - I’ve talked enough about these phases, but there’s one rule we have through them all...

121. Just enough design continuum Gesture Talk Sketch A Better Sketch

     Card Code Churn a problem through this! - plan to move this way - if anything gets in the way, it’s probably resistance - I’ve talked enough about these phases, but there’s one rule we have through them all...

122. use realistic content at all times - even when you’re

     sketching. Have some real content sources nearby

123. use realistic content at all times - moving into more

     fidelity, real content saves you real time - it removes resistance and gets you closer to a tangible product

124. Record UX debt and pay it o . UX debt

     Currently (49%) Future design (51%) Discuss Implement Deploy Review Showcase UX Debt Design in play - Ahh - when you by a house, you get into debt - debt isn’t a bad thing, esp if you can afford to pay it off - Thread example is line-heights and typography. - We came back and spent a few days fixing the heights, once the feature was out - Structural work (Information Architecture) shouldn’t be debted.

125. You’re spending everyday on your own, at your machine. You’re

     sure that a prototyping tool will solve your problems. dumb it down, keep moving

126. boredom 6

127. We had to build another admin section... - lot’s of

     forms, filters, inputs, CRUDs. - Manage events, talks, upload videos, sync videos,

128. Boring work is resistance. But you have to do it.

129. - start with this level - Sketch the flows -

     figure out the CRUD

130. minimal design interaction. Roughly two week of development - minimal

     design effort, maybe 5 hours.

131. Get to this level of fidelity with barely any designer

     input... - sure, there’s a few little bits to improve... - but the flows work

132. ... use a bootstrap, like Twitter. .. it’s like your

     UX suos chef

133. ... use a bootstrap, like Twitter. .. it’s like your

     UX suos chef

134. You’re answering inane questions about regular interaction design problems You’re

     solving the same design problem over and over boredom

135. Stay between iterations 7

136. Stay between iterations 7 (not an iteration ahead)

137. Use the 51/49 rule 51% of your time is spent

     sketching and planning 49% of your time is spent in iteration 1% makes a difference

138. You’re spending all your time an iteration ahead. You overhear

     developers talking about problems with your design. Stay between iterations

139. energy is fINITE 8

140. Don’t treat energy as an in nite resource It’s exhausting

     working like this. Every UXr says they’re overwhelmed when they start out on their rst/ second/third agile project. Designers need 8 hours sleep every night. - Sleep - Lunch - go home on time

141. You’re fucking tired all the time. Energy

142. baby. bathwater. 9

143. We still have much to keep from traditional UX design

     processes - focus at the task. Dont get distracted. Agile UX is not an excuse to have 1000 tangent conversations. One tangent is OK... but if that tangent has another tangent, STOP. - work hard to get the details right. Be detailed. Be specific. We’re good at that. - Always, always, always advocate for the user. It’s what people pay us for.

144. We still have much to keep from traditional UX design

     processes discipline 1 - focus at the task. Dont get distracted. Agile UX is not an excuse to have 1000 tangent conversations. One tangent is OK... but if that tangent has another tangent, STOP. - work hard to get the details right. Be detailed. Be specific. We’re good at that. - Always, always, always advocate for the user. It’s what people pay us for.

145. We still have much to keep from traditional UX design

     processes discipline 1 rigour 2 - focus at the task. Dont get distracted. Agile UX is not an excuse to have 1000 tangent conversations. One tangent is OK... but if that tangent has another tangent, STOP. - work hard to get the details right. Be detailed. Be specific. We’re good at that. - Always, always, always advocate for the user. It’s what people pay us for.

146. We still have much to keep from traditional UX design

     processes discipline 1 rigour 2 a user bias 3 - focus at the task. Dont get distracted. Agile UX is not an excuse to have 1000 tangent conversations. One tangent is OK... but if that tangent has another tangent, STOP. - work hard to get the details right. Be detailed. Be specific. We’re good at that. - Always, always, always advocate for the user. It’s what people pay us for.

147. One can’t help but think that Polly’s stonehenge might have

     been more successful if she’d had a better shared understanding of what Spinal Tap was a er.

148. One can’t help but think that Polly’s stonehenge might have

     been more successful if she’d had a better shared understanding of what Spinal Tap was a er. A couple of sketch sessions (not in a pub on a napkin) and a client pin-up would have cleared things up. She was clearly too focussed on the deliverable.

149. And I think that Leo would have had a better

     time of it at the bank if he’d stuck to his guns and eliminated some resistance.

150. And I think that Leo would have had a better

     time of it at the bank if he’d stuck to his guns and eliminated some resistance. (I personally would love to see a banking app designed by Leonardo da Vinci.)

151. Wrapping up

152. Creativity is the inspirational force in any new thing Wrapping

     up

153. Creativity is the inspirational force in any new thing Resistance

     is in the way of making that great thing Wrapping up

154. Creativity is the inspirational force in any new thing Resistance

     is in the way of making that great thing Wrapping up Resist resistance. Do the work. Fuck the napkin.

155. Thanks @awgreen cogent.co PRIMARY #F63E5F R233, G65, B96 C0, M86,

     Y46, K0 PANTONE 710C SUPPORT BLUE #4C9AF5 R92, G147, B206 C66, M34, Y0, K0 SUPPORT YELLOW #4C9AF5 R92, G147, B206 C66, M34, Y0, K0 Dark Grey #323232 R50, G50, B50 C70, M63, Y62, K59 PRIMARY LOGOS Preferred use of Cogent logo is to use either of these, on a white background only. Note: the primary dark logo is using “Dark Grey”. SECONDARY REVERSED For use on dark backgrounds where primary treatement is not workable. Note: the background is black. COLOUR PALETTE Colours of Cogent. SECONDARY PINK For use on Cogent pink background only. Ie, when entire surrounding background is Cogent pink. Typical use is where Cogent is the sole brand. #agileUX2012