The wiseman says: "A company specialized in IT consultancy cannot make products."
If you decide to break this taboo, the road is only one: understanding how that product can be realized and working hard to make it.
This is the story of Indyco, a tool born merging an agile dev team and a lean design team. Teams that didn't know each other before. And they made Indyco real in 6 months.
We will share the simple but powerful principles that lead us up to the go-live.
Now we are measuring and collecting data for next step.
These slides have been presented at Better Software 2014.
Agile and Design: creating and implementing products (in Italy) is possible
1. Agile and Design:
creating and implementing
products (in Italy) is possible
by Manuel Spezzani and Ilaria Mauric
!
Be!er So"ware
Firenze, October 13, 2014
9. Can we make
a saleable
and sustainable
product?
10. The product lifecycle
represents the amount of revenue
a product generates over time,
from its inception
to the point where it is discontinued
development introduction
growth
maturity
decline
Source: h!p://smallbusiness.chron.com/difference-between-product-lifecycle-project-lifecycle-20432.html
11. The product lifecycle
represents the amount of revenue
a product generates over time,
from its inception
to the point where it is discontinued
development
introduction
The project lifecycle
measures the work that goes into a project
from beginning to end
growth
maturity
decline
initiation
planning
execution
closure
initiation
planning
execution
closure
initiation
planning
execution
closure
initiation
planning
execution
closure
initiation
planning
execution
closure
Source: h!p://smallbusiness.chron.com/difference-between-product-lifecycle-project-lifecycle-20432.html
12. represents the amount of revenue
a product generates over time,
from its inception
to the point where it is discontinued
development
introduction
measures the work that goes into a project
from beginning to end
growth
maturity
decline
initiation
planning
execution
closure
initiation
planning
execution
closure
initiation
planning
execution
closure
initiation
planning
execution
closure
initiation
planning
execution
closure
The product lifecycle The project lifecycle
17. growth
maturity
decline
initiation
planning
execution
closure
initiation
planning
execution
closure
initiation
planning
execution
closure
Commitment
Shipping the first Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
If MVP will succeed, our VC (= the Company)
will provide extra budget for phase 2
development introduction
initiation
planning
execution
closure
initiation
planning
execution
closure
18. Commitment
Shipping the first Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
• self-organized team
• limited budget
• deadline and clear goals
19. Some rough numbers
Time min max
First dev spike October - November 2013 month(s) - 1
Project timeframe November 2013 - October 2014 month(s) - 12
Total month(s) - 13
Team pre-tax
Manager 1, no full-time = 1 month € 5.000 7.000
Developers 2 full-time x 10 month + 1 full-time x 3 months € 70.000 80.000
Communication 1 full-time x 4 months € 12.000 14.000
Total (range) € 87.000 101.000
Extras VAT excluded
Development tools € 3.500 4.500
Dev consultancy € 5.000 7.000
Product UX Design € 15.000 18.000
Brand/Copy/Website € 6.000 8.000
Totals (range € 29.500 37.500
Total (range) € 117.500 138.500
21. Methodology
Scrum
• welcome changing requirements
• deliver working soware frequently
• business people and developers must
work together daily
• working soware is the primary
measure of progress
Source: h!p://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html
22. Dev toolbox
!
… for sharing roadmap and project progress
• Post-it (sprint planning)
• Trello (roadmap)
• YouTrack (issue tracker)
• Automatic release notes email
!
… for app releases
• Jenkins / NuGet / MsBuild (continuous integration)
• NUnit / Mocha / Selenium (automatic tests)
• Wix / WebDeploy / custom code (packaging and auto-update)
!
… for auditing and monitoring app status and crashes
• log4net / NBug
• GrayLog2 / Google Analytics
23. Dev principles
!
1. Product and Users
2.Automate everything
3.Users Feedback,
even if they are
not Customers
30. As to methods
there may be a million
and then some,
but principles are few.
!
The man who grasps principles
can successfully select
his own methods.
The man who tries methods,
ignoring principles,
is sure to have trouble.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, american philosopher, author and essayst, 1803 - 1882
31. Commitment
Shipping the first Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
development
initiation
planning
execution
closure
Design principles
1. Verify assumptions
2. Foster understanding, feedbacks
and learning
3. Welcome changing requirements
4. MVP designed to collect
strategic data to simplify
decisions on further steps
32. Commitment
Shipping the first Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
development
initiation
planning
execution
closure
Design sprint
1. Analysis and
user interviews/tests
2. Sketch and
user interviews/tests
3. Demo on Invision
4. Prototype and
user interviews/tests
5. Fix and fine tuning
33. Commitment
Shipping the first Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Design sprint
1. Analysis and
user interviews/tests
2. Sketch and
user interviews/tests
3. Demo on Invision
4. Prototype and
user interviews/tests
5. Fix and fine tuning
development
initiation
planning
execution
closure
34. assumptions product real world
Fonte: h!ps://medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass/junior-designers-vs-senior-designers-#e483d3b51e
42. Why you only need to test 5 users - Jakob Nielsen, Nielsen Norman Group, March 19, 2000
43. Commitment
Shipping the first Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
development
initiation
planning
execution
closure
Design roadmap
• 5 iterations of variable duration
(2 / 4 weeks)
• User tests along the whole
process (constraint)
• UX, UI and Visual Design
• Frontend consultancy
44. Design toolbox
… for communicating
• Invision
• Trello
• Mail, Skype, Hangout
• Live meetings for instant feedbacks
• Calendar
!
… for defining the project
• Project canvas
!
… for discovering
and verifying
• User tests with paper prototypes made
during the sessions
• Quicktime for audio recording
• Silverback for video recording and
screencasts
… for interface and visual
designing
• Paper, pencil, rubber, scanner
• Omnigraffle
• Photoshop
• Invision
• Acrobat
• Low / medium / high - fi prototypes
!
… for guiding and describing
choices
• Journey Maps
• (Lean) Personas and interviews recaps
• “Feature thermometer” based on Personas
45. Commitment
Shipping the first Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
development
initiation
planning
execution
closure
Design sprint
1. Analysis and
user interviews/tests
2. Sketch and user interviews/tests
3. Demo on Invision
4. Prototype and
user interviews/tests
5. Fix and fine tuning
46. prototype
user
real
interviews
and low-fi
tests
learning
paper
prototypes
user tests
learning
invision
prototype
user tests
learning
MVP
project canvas
48. Senior design process
Source: h!ps://medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass/junior-designers-vs-senior-designers-#e483d3b51e
55. Commitment
Shipping the first Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
development
initiation
planning
execution
closure
During each iteration
• bug checks
highest priority (the product is already
in use by internal colleagues)
• at the end of each design sprint,
internal meeting for sharing
outcomes and take the pulse
of the situation
• very rapid fixes on the prototype
close and during user interviews
and tests
56. Commitment
Shipping the first Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
development
initiation
planning
execution
closure
If the design deliverable
is implementable
• user stories, estimate, priority
most complex / undefined first
• contingent tech spike
to discover complex / undefined
user stories
• implementation
57. Commitment
Shipping the first Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
development
initiation
planning
execution
closure
If the design deliverable
is not implementable
• internal short discussion
(+contingent extra tech spike)
to identify complexities
and issues as soon as possible
• devs + designers small talk
to identify low impact
solutions
58. development introduction
growth
maturity
decline
initiation
planning
execution
closure
initiation
planning
execution
closure
initiation
planning
execution
closure
initiation
planning
execution
closure
initiation
planning
execution
closure
Where we are at
• 2 products (suite)
• acquisition of the first Customers
• first webinar; first smacks
• we iterate
• proposal of our suite to VC’s loyal Customers; more smacks
• AdWords America and India
e we are pushing ahead….
60. don’t stop at
“the tool is meant to do this”.
!
during each iteration, it is mandatory
to raise up our head and think:
“given this timeframe and
this budget, what is the
most valuable activity
i can do next?”
and to act accordingly.
61. you don’t need
to move to the
silicon valley to work
on a startup using
agile dev methoDoLogies
and lean design
processes!