Lean UX & Agile Work Wonders Together

There’s nothing more frustrating than spending hours and hours working on something only to find out it isn’t exactly what the client wanted. Even more time must then be spent to remedy it and make the client happy.

In the technology sector, there are ways to mitigate this disconnect between the UX and development teams. Using Lean UX, the entire product team can stay involved in decision making and maintain alignment with the company’s goals.

Looking back at past issues of product development cycles, we can spot time wasted in disjointed solution proposals. It is common, and often frustrating, that UX teams spend significant time working through the details of a product, just to have it picked apart by developers and stakeholders when it is presented. With Lean UX, these perspectives and feedback can be given at a time that is insightful and actionable, which saves significant effort and rework down the line.

“Lean UX is about bringing the true nature of a product to light faster, in a collaborative, cross-functional way that reduces the emphasis on thorough documentation, while increasing the focus on building a shared understanding of the actual product experience being designed.” – Jeff Gothelf, author of Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience

Through a series of sprints, the product team can collaborate on a solution that recognizes all of its members’ interests and concerns. From development limitations, to business goals and user needs, everything is put into consideration before significant effort is put behind a single idea. It encourages everyone to stay involved, and leaves room to pivot when unexpected issues occur. With the product being built in small pieces, the team can keep abreast of the core issues at hand and easily remedy them:

• Why are we building this product?
• Who are our users?
• What is the user’s pain points and how are we working to fix them?
• When is this product being used?

The first step to implementing lean UX is running user tests, interviewing users to learn about their experiences with the product, and looking at past data to learn where the issues arise. These are instrumental in knowing the direction needed to design and how to build the product (and determine the answers to the questions above).

Recently, a client requested Apexon’s UX team help in the development of a web application, which would consolidate four different applications currently in use. These applications all accomplished similar tasks, making it difficult for both the company and its clients to maintain. Due to their past success using the lean development model, they specifically requested this approach. The development team (along with UX team members) held weekly meetings, where everyone could aid in the development of the product by asking the right questions to users and each other to ensure they were on the right track. This project has been a success with our client and the product is being finalized for rollout.

In all, lean UX is highly recommended for agile development projects to keep the pace and ensure all requirements of the product are being met. Happy customers will appreciate the time and care spent on making the product as user-friendly as possible.

If you’re looking to learn more about Lean UX and its implementation, contact us today.