10 Tips for UX Success from Agile Practitioners

Earlier this year, the Nielsen Norman Group asked Agile practitioners at a UX conference to share tips that have contributed to the success of their Agile projects. They received 125 responses from professionals that worked in various-size companies and held different job responsibilities, ranging from UX designers and developers to product owners and project managers. Here are … Read more

Customer Collaboration Over Contract Negotiation

Customer Collaboration Over Contract Negotiation is one of the four statements of the Agile Manifesto. If you are a small software company or you are working in a JAD with your customers, then customer collaboration is the actual customer who is purchasing your solution. If you are large organization, the customer may be your internal customer … Read more

User Experience Documentation Needs to be Agile

Recently, I was interviewed by Portofino Media, Topics for Agile Innovation, Exploring the Agile User Experience Journey. In this interview, Armond Merhabian and I focus on UX in context of the Agile Manifesto. In recent blogs, I have covered UX and other parts of the manifesto like Individuals and Interactions Over Process and Tools and … Read more

Better Metrics for Measuring Agile Development Success

The term agile was first coined for this in 2001, in the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.  According to the manifesto Twelve Principles of Agile Software, their highest priority is to “Satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.” Which is a good thing, especially in today’s rapidly changing marketplace. Another one of their principles … Read more

Plans Don’t Fail. People Fail to Plan

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower In the Agile Manifesto, it is stated that the value of Responding to Change Over Following a Plan. The Agile movement seeks alternatives to traditional project management like waterfall and traditional sequential development that cannot adapt quickly enough … Read more

Marty Cagan and Continuous Discovery and Delivery

I had the honor of hearing Marty Cagan give his talk on The Root Causes of Product Failure at productcamp la yesterday. Many things that he shared resonated with me. Here are few that I will share with you about the big difference between how most product teams work and the best product teams work: … Read more

Value-Driven Design to Value-Centered Design

Value-Driven Design is a process where the design choices are made to maximize system value rather than to meet performance requirements. Value-Driven Design grew from a collaboration of three Technical Committees of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA): the Economics Technical Committee, the Systems Engineering Technical Committee, and the Multidisciplinary Optimization Technical Committee. … Read more

Take Part in Actuation Consulting 5th Annual Study of Product Teams

These annual ongoing studies share information that is meaningful to executives of product organizations in general and product executives in particular. Once the survey is complete, the data is shared with an independent statistician who conducts regression analysis. The result of this regression analysis are factors that are highly correlated with high performance on product … Read more

What to Expect at a UX Boot Camp

Here is what you can expect at the UX Boot Camp for Entrepreneurs this Saturday, January 23 at PIRCH headquarter (9620 Towne Centre Drive, Suite 100 San Diego, Ca 92121): 08:00 AM – 09:00 AM: registration, continental breakfast, a little networking… 09:00 AM – 12:00 PM: presentations, hands-on activities, and a little fun 12:00 PM … Read more

Emotional Connections at Co-Merge and UX Boot Camps for Entrepreneurs

I got a coupe of events coming up that I want to share: Emotional Connections Co-Merge Tuesday, November 10 5:30 – 6:30 pm. The talk will be Based on Jeof and my book, The Customer Experience Revolution, I will share how companies like Coke, Mini Cooper, Intuit and more develop deep emotional connection that create … Read more

People over Process and Tools

The first line of the Agile Manifesto is “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.” My interpretation – and my experience – of this, is that no matter how great your process and tools, it is people and their interactions that is the success of any organization. In his book, What the CEO Wants You … Read more

SoCal UX Camp 2015 UX Design and Agile Development Presentation Video

SoCal UX Camp, it is a free, user-driven, collaborative “unconference” for User Experience Designers, Research Analysts, and students held in Southern California. It is a one-day gathering of User Experience folks to share, present, network, learn and discuss. And is a ton of fun for UX geeks and enthusiasts. One of the topics that I … Read more