Using Design Thinking on Agile Projects

A few years ago, I took a course that changed the way I saw products and, especially, users. Design Thinking is not only a problem-solving methodology that teaches you how to have empathy for your users, but also how to make innovative products by a user-center mindset.
In this article, I’m talking about my own experience using DT on agile projects. As a Product Owner, I like to mix methodologies and frameworks to build excellent products for users.
Lean, Scrum, DT… they all make extraordinary cake recipes. Essential to have in mind how to use them, following each phase correctly and only adapting to your project if/as necessary.
In Design Thinking specific, it has six phases: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test, and Implement. I’ll explain one by one what I do in daily work. You can use this guide for both scenarios, new product, or new feature. The only difference is on ‘latest feature, you should already know your user.
EMPATHIZE
As everyone knows, it’s crucial to remember your user. However, what we see a lot in projects is starting with some proto-personas, and then they never become alive, the team doesn’t prove the proto into persona.
To have empathy is understanding those who will buy/use our products. We create for them. We want them to love what we love to do. So we must figure their needs and wishes.
To do:
- Talk to people on the streets, listen to them, watch their habits, what they’re doing — please don’t be creepy.
- And start creating the proto-personas, whom you might want to target.
DEFINE
Now it’s time to take the information from research and discuss what you’re trying to solve for users.
To do:
- Find and define a problem that people might have or something they might want or that you saw someone might need after your research.
- Search on the streets for proto-personas that you’ve created, and talk about this definition of a possible product, get feedback on the problem.
- Try to prove if real personas match your proto ones.
- Rebuild your proto-persona if necessary after research and elaborate them into target-users, segment, etc.
IDEATE
That’s the fun part. The whole team should participate and ideate the product that will solve a problem we defined earlier, or just a need that we found would be substantial for users.
To do:
- Start with a user story journey to organize and facilitate ideas.
- Then brainstorm, come up with ideas by drawing, writing on post-its or whatever your team likes to use.
- Everyone should brainstorm and discuss together all the ideas. There is no better or worst idea; all of them are good in a certain way. Try to mix them up, see what works best for this future product/feature.
- Now you have an idea.
PROTOTYPE
Ok folks, so prototype doesn’t mean a super integrated product working “perfectly.” You can use a simple wireframe or even a draw to get feedback from users.
Take your idea and make it usable somehow.
To do:
- Build a simple prototype. I usually use wireframe on Invision made by an excellent designer, either for web or mobile. For mobile, you can also use firebase and many other software.
- It’s essential as a Product Owner or Product Manager to be organized and work in advance on the roadmap, so if a new feature comes up, you will have enough time to make it right. I know it’s easier to talk, but it is possible to make it happened. Just team up, and everyone should have autonomy of this product and should help everything happens.
TEST
If you’re familiar with Lean, you know that is the most critical phase. Your uses will test and give you feedback on your idea.
And after that, you know if your product/feature generates value to them and also to your company/client. If not, pivot it.
To do:
- You have many different ways to test it. Guerrilla research — find users on the streets and ask them to check your prototype. Another way is, usually companies have these group of users that fits your persona, and you can invite them to do the test.
- Write down all the feedback.
- Make videos and audios if possible (with authorization).
- I believe ten people is a good number. Less than five doesn’t seem enough data.
- Team up and discuss everything. It’s time to move forward.
IMPLEMENT
Well done! Now let’s get our hands dirty.
If everything worked fine and you had positive feedback, let’s implement the product/feature.
To do:
- I always start with a plan. If it’s a new product, I create a roadmap and prioritize. If it’s a new feature, it is already in the roadmap, so I split it into epic and PBIs, prioritize and it’s ready for refining on my backlog.
- And even after all that, when it’s done we make more tests with users to release.
Build > Measure > Learn. That’s how Lean works, and that’s how Design Thinking works. Always get feedback from your users, and most importantly understand and know them. Have empathy and continually improve!
I hope you enjoyed this article :) let me know your thoughts.
(Please notice that I’m not native in English and I apologize for mistakes)
