Andrew Mottaz, CTO and Founder of ProtoShare presented this talk at UXPA Boston 2013.

1. LEAN UX
Bridging the gap between UX and Development
Andrew Mottaz
CTO ProtoShare

2. Is Agile Compatible with Modern UX?
• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan
Agile Manifesto

3. Good:
• User-focused
• Iterative
• User is ultimate judge
Conclusion: Modern UX and Agile have shared
values.
Is Agile Compatible with Modern UX?

4. Bad:
• Developer-centric.
• Minimal requirements in the form of written
user stories.
• Hermetically sealed sprints with no
interference from outside.
• We‟ll show you what we‟ve come up with
when its done.
Answer: Maybe? Lean UX is one way to try.
Is Agile Compatible with Modern UX?

5. Lean Manufacturing -> Lean Startup ->
Lean UX
"Lean," is a production practice that considers the
expenditure of resources for any goal other than the
creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and
thus a target for elimination.
- Wikipedia

6. Lean UX in a Nutshell
• Every design is a hypothesis and must be tested.
• The focus on a giant spec doc is replaced by a focus on a
shared understanding.
• Shadow Sprint ( Prototype the Backlog )
• Embedded UX with Cross-functional teams (UX is part of
the sprint, Developers are part of the planning)

7. Shared Understanding.
Shared With whom?
• Business Analysts, Clients and other high-level stakeholders.
• User experience team
• Development team
• QA
Understanding of What?
• Who the user is. (Personas, User testing, User stories)
• What the user wants and needs. (User stories, User testing)
• What solutions are being proposed and why. (Prototypes, detailed
requirements, developer input, documentation, discussion, user
testing)
• How the solutions behave ( Prototypes, written
documentation, discussion, user testing )
• Whether the solution is successful. ( User testing )

8. Shared Understanding: User Stories
• Verbal, user-centered, abstract. (What and why)
• Audience: People who have intimate knowledge of
product.
• Drawbacks: Different people can have radically different
understanding.
• User stories are explored, supplemented, decomposed
and validated using visual prototypes of varying levels of
fidelity

9. Shared Understanding:
Sketches, Wireframes and Prototypes
• Internal validation
• Walkthroughs and Spec Meetings
• Visualizations are a far more effective way than written
specifications to communicate the core vision.
• Start low fidelity, evolve to get as high fidelity as you need
to get your point across.
• Higher fidelity = more engagement. Use this to your
advantage.

10. Creating a Shared Understanding
What is the best way to build consensus among your team?
• Talk about it? You can have a 3 hour conversation
about what the meaning of the word „is‟ is.
• Impose it from above? Risky and difficult.
• Trusted authority? Getting better – over time a UX
practitioner can gain credence.

11. EVERYONE participate in user testing!
• User acts as neutral 3rd party judge.
• Better than actual judge, because you don‟t have to take their
word, you get to watch their behavior.
• There is a galvanizing emotional content to user testing that
will convince even the most obstinate developer.
• Watching someone struggle with YOUR product is
excruciating, exhilarating and hair-pulling.
Bonus! You get to validate your
hypothesis at the same time.

12. An Example:
Problem: We built an awesome library of stencils and widgets
To speed prototyping, but users were having difficulty finding it.
Solution: Place an „advertisement‟ in the UI in a prominent location.

13. How did we do?
Answer: “Not Well”
NO ONE SAW IT. Why?
Inattentional Blindness
When the palette was open, people
focused on the content, not the chrome.
( Google: change blindness gorilla video )

14. Solution: Color, but also, put the ad in the area that had the users attention.

15. Lean UX is User Testing
• Schedule user testing on a regular basis. Don‟t wait
• 3-5 users every week, month or quarter, but do it.
• You can user test paper prototypes, low fidelity
wireframes, high fidelity prototypes or working code.
• Have all team members participate at least once.
• You can sell this approach by having management
participate in some user tests.

16. Start User Testing Early with Prototypes
Internal Validation
• Do this all the time
• Train yourself to share
early
• Regular Reviews
• Part of cadence
External Validation
• Formative User Testing
• Small number ( 2 to 3 )
• Informal
• Face-to-face or monitored
• Validative User Testing
• Larger number
• Analytics
• More formal
• Watching a small subset of
users still useful
• Impractical to watch all users.

17. Prototypes
• Iterate, Iterate, Iterate
• Visual, experiential, concrete ( What and how )
• User Testing: Do this regularly, don‟t wait until you‟re ready.
• Prototypes start low fidelity, and evolve to as high fidelity as we
need them to be.
• Regular review of prototypes by team members creates a
shared understanding
• When are you done prototyping? When developers have a
reasonable amount of certainty that they can build what‟s being
proposed.

18. Iterating in code
• Just because you‟ve started engineering, doesn‟t mean
you‟re done validating.
• Continue Internal and External Validation
• Validative User Testing