User Centered Agile Product Development in an Enterprise & a Startup

Presented at Agile Singapore 2014
http://agilesg2014.sched.org/event/fc83ddab31b35de5041dedf4ebc72492

Product Development today has various challenges where startups and enterprises alike have to move quicker and plan resources carefully for consumers (users) to be able to gain market traction and stay relevant with competitors constantly evolving.

Very often, product releases are managed by product managers gathering requirements on behalf of the customer within an organisation. He begins with a high-level product requirement and speaks with various stakeholders like sales, marketing, operations, finance to map business constraints and heads over to engineering to start building. This skips over valuable insights gained by engaging users, design teams and answering the hard questions of “nice to haves” vs “must haves”.

I’ll like to share an approach that was used in two environments with success to bring products to market with a focus on users while considering business conditions and constraints.

As a product owner in an enterprise setting tasked with crafting a mobile strategy and product roadmap or a product owner in a startup tasked with overhauling a legacy system for a more efficient business platform, I’ll compare the two distinct environments and offer insights into how a team can begin to understand and shape a company’s direction towards user-centered design.

It involves thinking with users in mind, building with agile techniques and measuring to help iterate towards meaningful product releases. Often, this results in changes to an organisation that also requires coaching and charting a path for the people who are affected.

The topic would be of interest to designers, developers, team leads, product managers, business executives or startup founders who recognises change is a huge part of business and that products that are able to create the most value for end-users are those that will gain customer loyalty in the long term.

Transcript

1. User Centered
   Agile Product Development
   in an Enterprise & a Startup
   Presented on 12th Nov 2014
   Agile Singapore 2014
   Michael Ong @michaelon9
   

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2. @michaelon9
   • 1999 - Freelance Web Design / Development
   leading to web hosting for SMEs
   • 2002 - Research & Development - 

   A Robust Rule-based Event 

   Management System for Call Data Records 

   - Société Générale
   • 2003 - Network Engineer 

   - NEC Solutions
   • 2004 - Full-Stack development 

   - Palm & Windows Mobile 

   - K.C. Dat, Nippon Express, Air Asia , Singapore
   Zoo, Jurong Birdpark, Changi Airport Terminal 1
   & 2, M1, Mapletree ...
   • 2005-2007 - Business Process Consulting 

   - VISA International

   - Robert Bosch SEA
   • 2008 - Took a break in EVE Online

   - Internet Spaceships is serious business
   • 2009 - Portal Development 

   - ST701, SPH, Online Classifieds
   • 2010 - Scrum Master 

   - iProperty Singapore
   • 2012 - Mobile & UX Lead 

   - iProperty Group 

   (Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong & Indonesia)
   • 2013 - Senior Product Manager

   2014 - Chief Operating Officer 

   - bellabox Australia & Singapore
   

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3. who is in your
   team?
   designers
   developers
   qa
   marketing
   sales
   operations
   customers service
   finance
   

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4. Credit : https://medium.com/@tyahma/how-to-hire-product-people-aab926e077c8
   

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6. think - make - check
   

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7. understand your
   environment
   

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8. who are your customers?
   

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9. understand customers
   

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11. user personas
    to be tested
    

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12. who are your stakeholders?
    

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13. designers
    developers
    qa
    marketing
    sales
    operations
    customers service
    finance
    understanding
    stakeholders
    

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14. understanding 

    Organisational key concerns
    - Communication?
    - IT responsiveness?
    - bad Customer Service?
    

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15. how are you delivering projects?
    

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16. workshops to understand internal
    concerns / stakeholders / customers
    • Introduction to User Experience design
    • identify stakeholders concerns
    • iProperty
    • 4 workshops across group (120+ people involved in
    product, design, development, marketing, sales)
    • bellabox
    • 2 workshops across teams (30+ people involved in
    product, design, development, customer service,
    operations)
    

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17. workshops to understand internal
    concerns / stakeholders / customers
    • Customer Experience Journey & Design
    Thinking
    • identify key customer journey points
    • Senior Level Strategy Workshop
    • Identify key business concerns and drive
    towards roadmap aligning stakeholders /
    customer needs
    

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18. activity (10 min)
    individually
    list down 5 key concerns you
    have in your area of work /
    business
    as a team
    group them into similar &
    different items
    present
    

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19. sharing time!
    similarities
    differences
    

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20. setting up a Product Roadmap
    • Understand your environment
    • Talk to your stakeholders, your customers, your internal users
    • Understand pain points
    • Is there a way new or existing services can improve
    current processes?
    • Look at your data (analytics) - what is being used in your
    organisation / users
    • Communicating the roadmap
    

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21. think - make - check
    

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22. communicate
    your ideas
    

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23. story #1
    iProperty Group (Real Estate Portal)
    10 years old (there for 3.5)
    100+ to 300+ staff
    4 main countries (MY, SG, ID, HK)
    connects real estate agents / agencies / developers
    to a few million property buyers & sellers
    

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24. 4 workshops
    6 months
    4 countries
    120+ team members
    focused on “user experience” as
    a topic
    to identify where,how and who
    we would start with
    “in-house” approach with mobile
    team with its own budget acting
    like a vendor co-located within
    the company
    

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25. setting up the roadmap
    & focus on delivery
    

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26. Case Study
    Developing property search apps
    (Blackberry, Android & iPhone)
    for Indonesia
    

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27. the process
    • mobile roadmap
    • design strategy
    • personas & scenarios
    • information architecture
    • task flows
    • prototyping & testing
    • development
    • marketing launch & measuring
    

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28. design strategy
    

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29. product requirements
    & analysis
    Product Survey in Dec 2012
    51 Respondents on Mobile Site v1
    53% of respondents used the mobile site every day
    Reasons for not using Mobile
    • Search results often not found and takes longer time to
    load
    • Less information in listing detail on mobile site
    • Photos are not presented well on mobile site
    Top 5 Features on Mobile users wanted to see
    • User Login to access favorites (shortlists) and
    property search across mobile and web
    • Mortgage Calculator
    • Compare Properties by budget and timeline
    • Shortlist Properties
    • Instant updates to homes and searches saved
    

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30. user scenarios
    Usability Test Scenario - 1
    You are planning to buy a property in Indonesia.
    Your work location is in Jakarta and you intend to buy
    a House in Jakarta Pusat area that would be
    convenient for you to commute to office and back
    home.
    Your budget ranges from 500,000,000 -
    1,000,000,000 IDR . You want to check out on the right
    property that meets your needs and then contact the
    Agent for further process
    Usability Test Scenario - 2
    You have browsed through few properties when you
    were in a restaurant for Lunch and even shortlisted a
    few.
    You close the site and then reopen rumah123 in the
    night after you get back home in the evening.
    You wanted to continue your property search.
    

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31. information architecture
    

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32. task flow analysis
    

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33. user interface flow
    

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34. test early & often
    

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35. prototyping for iPhone
    

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37. prototyping for Blackberry
    

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38. beta testing
    

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39. testing for Blackberry
    

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40. summary of pain &
    pleasure points - old design
    

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41. summary of pain &
    pleasure points - new design
    

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42. usability evaluation -
    new design
    

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43. usability evaluation -
    new design
    

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44. marketing
    

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45. marketing
    

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46. key learnings
    • Train the trainer
    • I was trained at Republic Polytechnic during first workshop and
    with their assistance proceeded to carry out the rest of workshops
    to 120+ people
    • Identify your successors and provide mentorship / training asap!
    • Team leads took over Scrum teams after 1st year when I move to
    Product Owner position in new team
    • New team Lead took over team when I moved on
    • Individuals in our teams have mostly moved to team lead positions
    at 4 years after we introduced Agile/Scrum techniques
    

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47. key learnings
    • Communicate early and often
    • Work with Marketing early to identify launch plans / bottlenecks
    • Work with Customer Service / Sales early to train on product
    • You can be Agile in a Enterprise, act like a Startup
    • Understand your budget, control it
    • Deliver results fast and measure
    • After Mobile team rolled out apps for iPad, Windows, iPhone, Android across 3
    countries in 9 month period, Mobile API is now used by Desktop sites
    • Keep your team small (we had 5)
    • Product Owner, UX/UI Designer, Back-end Dev, 2 Mobile Devs
    • 6 apps in 9 months across 3 countries we operated in
    

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48. activity (10 min)
    individually
    list down 5 immediate items you
    would like to test on your project
    as a team
    group them into similar &
    different items
    present
    

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49. sharing time!
    similarities
    differences
    

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50. story #2
    bellabox (Beauty Discovery Service)
    3 years old (there last 1+)
    20 to 35 staff
    2 countries
    connects 700+ brands
    to a 100k+ audience
    45k paying customers
    

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51. 2 workshops
    15 days
    2 countries
    20+ team members
    focused on “user experience” as
    a topic
    to identify where,how and who
    we would start with
    hybrid approach with design,
    development
    PO co-located at their office
    80-90% of time
    

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52. Case Study
    Re-design of 2 year old business processes and
    architecture as we grew from 8k+ to 45k customers
    within a year
    our question :
    how do we support even more customers
    and be lean?
    

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53. the process
    • design strategy
    • product requirements and
    analysis
    • product roadmap
    • information architecture
    • task flows
    • prototyping & testing
    • development
    • marketing launch & measuring
    

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54. design strategy
    

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55. product requirements
    & analysis
    • Product Design
    • Epic Planning and Prioritisation
    • Understanding user research done by
    bellabox team
    • Competitor Analysis (Functional and Visual)
    • Discuss Brand Strategy
    • Technical
    • Initial System Analysis on v1
    • Migration Planning (Data and Settings)
    • Setup Test Environments for Drupal
    • Operations
    • Prototype new box allocation and payment
    check flow for AU Women
    

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56. setting up the roadmap
    & focus on delivery
    S P R I N T
    ( 2 W E E K S )
    1
    1 1 T H N O V
    2 0 1 3
    2
    2 5 T H N O V
    2 0 1 3
    3
    9 T H D E C
    2 0 1 3
    4
    2 3 R D D E C
    2 0 1 3 

    

    X M A S / 

    N E W Y E A R
    5
    6 T H J A N
    2 0 1 4
    6
    2 0 T H J A N
    2 0 1 4
    D R A F T
    7
    3 R D F E B
    2 0 1 4
    D R A F T
    8
    1 7 T H F E B
    2 0 1 4
    D R A F T
    9
    3 R D M A R
    2 0 1 4 

    

    B E TA O P T I N
    1 0
    1 7 T H M A R
    2 0 1 4
    D R A F T
    1 1
    3 1 S T M A R
    2 0 1 4 

    

    P R O D U C T
    D E S I G N 

    M I K E ,
    C H A R M A I N E ,
    S H E L D O N 

    Z AV I E R
    M I C H A E L
    R E S E A R C H
    A N A LY S I S 

    

    E P I C P L A N N I N G
    R E S E A R C H 

    A N A LY S I S 

    

    S T O RY
    P R I O R I T I S AT I O N
    I N F O R M AT I O N
    A R C H I T E C T U R E
    

    TA S K F L O W S
    TA S K F L O W S
    P R O T O T Y P E S
    TA S K F L O W S 

    

    W I R E F R A M E S 

    

    V I S U A L D E S I G N
    W I R E F R A M E S 

    

    V I S U A L D E S I G N
    W I R E F R A M E S 

    

    V I S U A L D E S I G N
    F R O N T- E N D
    W I R E F R A M E S 

    

    V I S U A L D E S I G N 

    

    F R O N T- E N D
    T E S T I N G 

    

    F R O N T- E N D Q A
    V 2 . 1 D E S I G N 
 V 2 . 1 D E S I G N
    T E C H
    A LV I N , A L E X 

    RYA N , A L I F 

    M I C H A E L
    I N I T I A L S Y S T E M
    A N A LY S I S
    A R C H I T E C T U R E
    M I G R AT I O N
    PAY M E N T 1 . 5
    O R D E R 1 . 5
    M I G R AT I O N
    PAY M E N T 1 . 5
    O R D E R 1 . 5
    M I G R AT I O N
    PAY M E N T 1 . 5
    O R D E R 1 . 5 

    

    F E E D B A C K 1 . 5 

    M O B I L E M A I L S
    1 . 5
    M I G R AT I O N
    P L A N N I N G 

    

    I N V E N T O RY
    S U B S C R I P T I O N
    S T O R E
    B R A N D
    M A N A G E M E N T 

    

    O R D E R S 

    A L L O C AT I O N 

    

    M U LT I - C O U N T RY
    PAY M E N T 2 . 0 

    M I G R AT I O N
    S H I P P I N G 

    P R O F I L E S 

    

    P R O M O T I O N S
    F E E D B A C K 2 . 0 

    C S 2 . 0 

    

    A R T I C L E S 

    

    R E WA R D S
    N O T I F I C AT I O N S 

    

    A N A LY S I S
    R E P O R T I N G 

    

    T E S T I N G ,
    I T E R AT I N G
    T E S T I N G ,
    I T E R AT I N G 

    

    

    PA R C E L
    T R A C K I N G 

    

    D A S H B O A R D S
    T E S T I N G ,
    I T E R AT I N G
    O P E R AT I O N S
    

    E M I LY, S A R A H ,
    J A S M I N E ,
    AT I Q A H , K AY L A
    A L E X A N D R E ,
    M A R I O N ,
    E M I LY V.
    A L E X , M I C H A E L
    A L L O C AT I O N 1 . 5 

    A U S T R A L I A
    W O M E N 

    

    PAY M E N T 1 . 5 

    A U S T R A L I A 

    W O M E N
    A L L O C AT I O N 1 . 5 

    A U S T R A L I A
    W O M E N 

    

    PAY M E N T 1 . 5 

    A U S T R A L I A 

    W O M E N
    A L L O C AT I O N 1 . 5 

    A U S T R A L I A
    W O M E N 

    

    PAY M E N T 1 . 5 

    A U S T R A L I A 

    W O M E N
    PAY M E N T 1 . 5 

    A U S T R A L I A 

    W O M E N 

    

    F E E D B A C K 1 . 5 

    D E C B O X
    S I N G A P O R E
    A L L O C AT I O N 1 . 5 

    A U S T R A L I A
    W O M E N 

    

    PAY M E N T 1 . 5 

    A U S T R A L I A 

    W O M E N 

    

    C U S T O M E R
    S E R V I C E 1 . 5 -
    I N T E R C O M . I O
    S I N G A P O R E 

    

    A L L O C AT I O N 1 . 5 

    A U S T R A L I A
    W O M E N 

    

    PAY M E N T 1 . 5 

    A U S T R A L I A 

    W O M E N 

    

    F E E D B A C K 1 . 5 

    J A N B O X
    S I N G A P O R E 

    A U S T R A L I A
    A N A LY T I C S 1 . 5
    A L L O C AT I O N 1 . 5 

    A U S T R A L I A
    W O M E N
    PAY M E N T 1 . 5 

    A U S T R A L I A 

    W O M E N
    A N A LY T I C S 1 . 5
    A L L O C AT I O N 1 . 5 

    A U S T R A L I A
    W O M E N
    PAY M E N T 1 . 5 

    A U S T R A L I A 

    W O M E N
    

    F E E D B A C K 1 . 5 

    F E B B O X
    S I N G A P O R E 

    A U S T R A L I A 

    C U S T O M E R
    S E R V I C E 2 . 0 

    I N T E R C O M . I O 

    A U S T R A L I A
    A L L O C AT I O N 2 . 0 

    A U S T R A L I A 

    W O M E N 

    

    PAY M E N T 2 . 0 

    A U S T R A L I A 

    S I N G A P O R E 

    A L L
    A N A LY T I C S 2 . 0
    A L L O C AT I O N 2 . 0 

    A U S T R A L I A 

    W O M E N 

    

    PAY M E N T 2 . 0 

    A U S T R A L I A 

    S I N G A P O R E 

    A L L 

    

    F E E D B A C K 2 . 0 

    M A R B O X
    S I N G A P O R E 

    A U S T R A L I A
    A N A LY T I C S 2 . 0
    A L L O C AT I O N 2 . 0 

    A U S T R A L I A 

    W O M E N 

    

    PAY M E N T 2 . 0 

    A U S T R A L I A 

    S I N G A P O R E 

    A L L
    A N A LY T I C S 2 . 0
    M A R K E T I N G 

    E M I LY, S A R A H ,
    S T E P H A N I E ,
    B I Y I N G , L A U R E N ,
    B E C K S
    A L B E R T
    G O T O M A R K E T
    P L A N N I N G 

    

    M I G R AT E
    A C Q U I S I T I O N
    T R A C K I N G -
    G O O G L E TA G
    M A N A G E R
    

    

    M I G R AT E
    A C Q U I S I T I O N
    T R A C K I N G -
    G O O G L E TA G
    M A N A G E R
    A L P H A S I T E
    S N E A K P E A K
    B E TA O P T I N 

    - V O L U N T E E R
    - I N V I T E S
    L I V E I N V I T E S
    

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57. user scenarios
    Scenario 1 (Example)
    Description in the form of a job story from
    the perspective of the user: When you ___,
    you want to ___, so you can ___.

    When you have a Bellabox subscription, you
    want to check your dashboard, so you can
    keep up with the status of your boxes, pending
    orders, and anything that needs my attention.
    User Tasks
    These are the tasks you want the user to be
    able to complete.
    • Check the status of your next box
    • Check the status of your pending orders
    

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58. information architecture
    

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59. task flow analysis
    

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60. user interface flow
    

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61. test early & often
    

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62. prototyping
    for Mobile
    

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63. View Slide

64. beta launch -> Live
    

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65. key learnings
    • Business as usual while over-hauling a business is
    incredibly tough work
    • We have had key project team members leave due
    to the hectic nature of running a business and
    creating a new platform
    • Maintain focus on customer needs
    • Don’t be distracted by growth. You are at critical
    juncture where lack of focus can delay project plans
    significantly
    

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66. key learnings
    • Hybrid model kinda works
    • Lean In-house dev team
    • Combined with Heavy out-sourced Design & Dev team
    • Looking back, we would move towards in-house sooner rather
    than later after majority of work is completed BUT hiring is tough
    (for everyone)
    • Learn from Enterprise
    • Be great at documentation, process design
    • Identify bottlenecks early and work on removing obstacles
    

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67. think - make - check
    

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68. measuring velocity
    

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69. measuring performance
    

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70. metrics checklist
    credit : luxr.co
    

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71. metrics checklist
    credit : luxr.co
    

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72. think - make - check
    

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73. think about
    Direction = Vision + Strategy
    Direction = Vision + Strategy
    And for the company to be
    successful it needs to be
    capable to pursue that direction.

    

    Success = Direction x
    Capability

    

    Capability has two main
    drivers...

    

    Capability = Competence x
    Capacity
    Competence is how good we are at
    doing something and it's driven by 4
    main factors;
    Competence = Communication x
    Skills x Experience x Information
    Capacity however is how fast we are
    at doing it and it's driven by how
    many resources we have (money,
    people, assets) and how productive
    or efficient we are with those
    resources.
    Capacity = Resources x Efficiency
    credit : http://dcnorris.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/algebra-what-is-role-af-coo.html
    

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74. • Organisational health
    • Talent
    • Inventory
    • Feedback Loops
    • Processes
    • Procedures
    • Controls
    • Systems
    • Planning
    • Reporting
    • and Troubleshooting
    think about
    Direction = Vision + Strategy
    

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75. when you get back
    to your office …
    Examine
    • 5 problems you listed
    • 5 tests you would like to
    conduct
    Get started!
    

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76. don’t have the right team yet?
    here are some great books to read
    

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77. tools you can use
    • Primarily use Google Docs
    • Draw is great for task flow diagrams
    • I favor BPMN
    • We also use diagramming tools like Cacoo
    • For prototyping
    • Paper, Sketch, Mockflow, Balsamiq, Mockflow, Fireworks, Photoshop works depending on
    your team
    • For sharing visual designs and collaboration
    • Google Draw, Invision
    • For usability testing
    • Silverback or Moray
    • For Mobile Usability testing, setting up a rig for camera is quite easy.
    

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78. don’t be afraid
    to fail
    

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79. thank you
    @michaelon9
    see you around at
    Agile SG #agilesg
    UXSG #uxsg
    ProductCamp SG #pcampsg
    

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