This week’s topic encouraged me to study Agile methodologies and question my own agility, both as a person and as a UX designer. In the best traditions of critical reflection, demanding the practitioner to question the way their perceptions and beliefs have changed over time (Fook 2007), I started asking myself:
- Am I personally agile enough? Are my plans too rigid?
- How has my perception of Agile changed since September, when I started exploring the studies?
- How has my practice changed? How can I apply my newly acquired knowledge to improve my team’s work?
Personal Agility
After a careful consideration, I have concluded that my personal approach to planning activities and deliverables has changed quite positively.
I stopped planning my weekly activities and focused on setting achievable goals: considering how closely my life resembles the Complex Domain (Rubin 2012), it makes sense to move carefully, explore, inspect, and learn.
I started practising critical reflection, looking back upon my experience and in the moment. I keep a private diary to make sure I take notes along the way and have a chance to return to it when needed.
I am meeting my SMART goals: being more active in the community, make friends, participate in discussions. I recently joined a new Design Community, and established a little community at work.
The Change in Perception
I was taught to wrap the discovery process with an alignment on the Minimal Viable Product, although Minimal Lovable Product (Merryweather 2020) resonates better, despite a rather subtle difference between the two. I would love to be able to focus on delivering a Lovable product for my upcoming projects, and deliver a highly desirable product with minimal functionality instead of rigidly following the plan.
It is more important for me to understand that the plan should serve as a roadmap rather than a strict rules book: we are not working towards delivering the plan, we’re working towards managing in change (Waldock ca. 2020).
Working on the rapid ideations, especially on the second project, I seem to have overcomplicated the concept and violated the core principle of delivering the MVP — simplicity:
If you can’t explain the vision in one paragraph, you don’t understand the product (Parker ca. 2020)
For the upcoming sessions and projects, I should focus on aligning on an MVP instead of attempting to think everything through — at the end of the day, ‘working solutions over comprehensive documentation’ (Beck 2001).
The Change in Practice
If I were to plan out my delivery for the first Rapid Ideation product, it would be rather easy: I have outlined the scope for the MVP, defined the customers, and established a strong vision.
For the second ideation, more effort would be required due to the nature of the project (board game), the complexity of its mechanics, and my complete lack of experience.
I need to get more flexible, but make sure to incorporate my vision in the planning, and not only the definition of done for the user stories. I must make sure I complete my deliverables on time, as I do, but don’t overestimate myself. To apply it to my studies:
- I will plan my activities for the next week on a Friday night, and reflect back on the previous week to identify my personal ‘velocity’ and not overestimate myself;
- I should reflect upon my reflection — start writing retro posts every 2 weeks, looking back and setting new SMART goals;
- I need to start seeing the big picture: not ‘I want to read a book by Aristotle’ but ‘I would love to discover what Aristotle’s view on politics was’.
I need not to adopt agile, but adapt it for my needs and practices. Be like water.
References
FOOK, Jan and Fiona GARDNER. 2007. EBOOK: Practising Critical Reflection: A Resource Handbook. Buckingham, UNITED KINGDOM: McGraw-Hill Education. Available at: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/falmouth-ebooks/detail.action?docID=332676 [accessed 22 Sep 2021].
RUBIN, Kenneth. 2012. Essential Scrum: A Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile Process. 1st edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison-Wesley Professional.
WALDOCK, B. ca. 2020. ‘Week 10: Belinda Waldock on the Agile Movement and Practice’. [GD710 module content]. Available at: https://learn.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/240/pages/week-10-belinda-waldock-on-the-agile-movement-and-practice?module_item_id=9207 [accessed 21/11/2021].
MERRYWEATHER, E. 2020. ‘What Is a Minimum Lovable Product?’. Product School. Available at: https://productschool.com/blog/product-management-2/minimum-lovable-product/ [accessed 21/11/2021].
PARKER, A. ca. 2020. ‘Week 10: Envisioning (Product Planning)’. [GD710 module content]. Available at: https://learn.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/240/pages/week-10-envisioning?module_item_id=9208 [accessed 21/11/2021].
BECK, K., et al. 2001. The Agile Manifesto. Agile Alliance. Available at: http://agilemanifesto.org [accessed 21/11/2020].