Inspired by Lean and Agile development theories, Lean UX focuses on the actual experience being designed, rather than deliverables (an updated edition came out this month). This book shows you how to collaborate closely with other members of the product team, and gather feedback early and often. It shares how to drive the design in short, iterative cycles to assess what works best for the business and the user. Lean UX shows you how to make this change—for the better:
- Frame a vision of the problem you’re solving and focus your team on the right outcomes
- Bring the designers’ toolkit to the rest of your product team
- Share your insights with your team much earlier in the process
- Create Minimum Viable Products to determine which ideas are valid
- Incorporate the voice of the customer throughout the project cycle
- Make your team more productive: combine Lean UX with Agile’s Scrum framework
- Understand the organizational shifts necessary to integrate Lean UX
By providing insight into the design work to your teammates sooner rather than further down the design road, you accomplish the following:
- Ensure that you’re aligned with the broader team and the business vision
- Give developers a sneak peek at the direction of the application (speeding up development and surfacing challenges earlier)
- Further flesh out your thinking, since verbalizing your concepts to others forces you to focus on areas that you didn’t think of when you were pushing the pixels.
The trick is to stay lean: keep the deliverables light and editable. Eliminate waste by not spending hours getting the pixels exactly right and the annotations perfect. Got an idea for a flow? Throw it up on the whiteboard, and grab the product owner or project leader to tell them about it. Ready to design? Rough out the first page of the flow in your sketchpad. How does it feel? Is the flow already evident? Post it in a visible place at the office and invite passers-by to comment on it. Grab people from the hallway and get their feedback.