Agile Approach to Design is Continuous
Many companies, especially in the software industry, have come to embrace Agile. The methodologies help us to view product development as a learning and iterative process. They promote a continuous improvement mindset instead of a “big bang” outlook that was typical of the Waterfall approach.
In spite of the seeming shift to an Agile mindset, many organizations still do things the old way. They treat design as a one-time thing rather than a continuous activity. Continuous design is critical for building digital solutions that provide real value to users.
The Shipping Mindset
A key attribute of Agile is learning – what informs the need to approach development iteratively. Sadly, there appears to be not much real interest in this in some organizations. The way things are done seems to suggest that it’s one solution or no other. If things don’t go as expected, people become disillusioned and give up totally.
John Cutler describes this phenomenon as the “design->build->ship mindset.” Development seems to be cast in stone, with a preference for “big design” up front. We take our time to get the design right at one shot. Then we push it to the engineers to deal with so we could ship something.
No changes are made after shipping. No true iteration takes place. There is this seeming desire to say “we are done with that!” But is that really a thing in Agile? Can we ship once and assume the product is perfect and needs no fine-tuning?
Design in Agile
What we have just described is not the true idea of design, according to the Agile or Lean approach to software development. It is supposed to be a continuous thing, with different stakeholders and teams weighing in on what form it should take.
The build-to-ship mindset is not fitting for software, particularly Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). We ship nothing in this case! So there’s no place for that Waterfall-inspired way of thinking. With no requirement to build and ship once (do big bang delivery), design should take a continuous approach. We should continuously measure and learn to enable us to improve on the design.
The aim needs not to be to get everything right at the first attempt. Our first effort needs only to be functional and usable to the user. It doesn’t have to include everything users might want but just enough to kickstart learning. This idea builds upon a similar concept that popular in modern Product Management, called Continuous Discovery and the Continuous Delivery model that is popular in many Agile shops.
The continuous mindset gives us a chance to see if things are working as intended or needs reworking. We don’t just do one-time big design and then assume that we already have the perfect product. Design in Agile is very much iterative. Try to observe the best designers at work and you will notice this. The creative process is driven by learning or real evidence.
When doing continuous design, everything isn’t left exclusively to professional designers. Multiple actors play a part. As usability and design expert Jared Spool once (controversially) said, “Everyone is a designer.” What that means is that anyone who has some bearing on the right design is a designer.
UX designers, developers, Sales, Support, and Customer Success are among teams that play a role in or influences design. Even customers can be regarded as co-designers when taking a continuous approach to design.
Focus on Value, Not Features
Agile isn’t so much about shipping features or products but about providing value. This is why it requires taking an iterative or incremental approach to development rather than doing big bang development.
Shipping isn’t equivalent to value. SaaS isn’t “shipped,” but does that make it useless? Another thing about value is that we can’t always deliver it one time and then go to sleep. If users find our solution valuable today, they may not see it so tomorrow. What seems satisfactory right now could offer little or no satisfaction at a later time.
So assuming the mindset was to design, build and not consider rework, we could be left out in the cold. Our solution becomes somewhat obsolete and customers go in search of something more suitable to their needs. In many organizations, the preference is to get something out there or to see that tasks are being carried out. We are doing well so long there is output, regardless of whether customers find it useful. That’s not the way to go!
A continuous design mindset assumes that we do not know all that we need to know yet. So there’s no point for us to do big design up front. We aim instead to design a minimal version of what we have in mind to help us know what works or doesn’t. This approach allows us to measure if we are having intended effects.
We would be in a better position to launch quicker before all else if we make design a continuous thing. After all, Agile is about delivering value to the customer faster with minimal frustrations. It is not waiting to get everything right at once.
