1.
Applying Lean UX in designing
enterprise software from ground up
Kok Chiann
UX Manager, Ezypay & iconnect360

2.
I’m here to share about our learnings
Around evolution

3.
How our UX process evolved
Introduction
Infancy
Exponential
growth
Alongside our product growth, and how Lean UX principles
served as an enabler
Just do it
Growing
User
Research
Laser
focus on
outcomes

4.
Let’s dive right in
Here’s how it all started

5.
Before release
It’s all breezy. The primary target market of the
product is gyms.
Introduction
Infancy
Exponential
growth
- Scoping issues
- Endless iterations
- Delayed releases
- Priorities changing
But there were
problems

6.
The UX process during then
Gather requirements
from stakeholders
User stories from
product backlog
Prototype Requirements Internal
validation
Things were going along. Kind of a Kanban approach.

7.
…After rollout
Things were less breezy

8.
iconnect360 was newly rolled out
Our customer base was growing steadily.
Progression towards targeting new market –
Swimschools
- Uncertainty around new target
market’s needs
- Lack of user or customer data to
inform decisions
- Customer impact on changes
- Priorities changing
But there were
also problems
Introduction
Infancy
Exponential
growth

9.
Our UX process had
to evolve…

10.
User research became critical
We’re based in KL,
target customers
are in Australia
?
We don’t
know our
users
personally
We need the
right users to get
the right data
But….

11.
User research practices implemented
within UX process to inform design
Focus groups
(We call them
industry panel)
Guerilla/discount
user testing
Personas

12.
Refining our practices around Conceptualisation &
Prototyping
• Sketch and firm the concept first
• Designing hi-fidelity prototypes with realistic data to validate
designs
• Switched to using Invision for prototyping
- Front-end
engineer
required
- Takes days
- UX designers
can do it
- Takes hours

13.
Lean UX principles adapted into the UX process
Just the ones around user/customer validation.
Gather requirements
from stakeholders
User stories from
product backlog
Prototype Internal Requirements
validation
User research data
(Personas, User
stories, Pain points,
etc)
External
validation
Concept

14.
Case Study: The crude persona

15.
Case Study: Feature request to delete a member
Many support
requests
Manual work by
technical
support needed
Feature got
prioritised
In our site visits, one of
the clients brought
this up
“I’ll need to be able to
delete a member”
When enquired
further…
“Actually I want
debtors that I cannot
recover removed from
the report.”
After digging further,
it led us to a
completely different
solution

16.
Our product fared pretty well
And we got on-board more and more clients

17.
Our growth was exponential
Rolling out to NZ, 6 countries in Asia & new
target market of Swimschools. Process
improved towards monthly release cycles for
both products.
- UX bottlenecked
- Coping with monthly releases
- Paying technical debt
- Endless feature requests
- Endless documentation work
- Priorities changing
More problems
Introduction
Infancy
Exponential
growth

18.
Our UX process had to
evolve…again

19.
A laser focus on outcomes was necessary
We needed to work smarter and focus on the top priorities constantly
User needs
Design goal
Business goals Technology

20.
Empowering execution teams
• Cross functional teams
• Democratising creativity &
decision making
• Sense of ownership
• Skills brought to table
• Collaborate towards the best
outcome
Engineer Engineer
Tester UX designer

21.
The changing role of the designer
Facilitator
Customer
Advocate
Designer
"When you look at design as a process and
not an artifact, everyone on your team
becomes a designer.“
Cap Watkins, “Should Engineers Design?"

22.
Flexing the process
Prototype
Internal
validation
Concept
Internal Requirements
validation
Concept
Concept
E.g.: Improvising for low-risk, low uncertainty features.
Requirements

23.
“Okay” solutions are okay
• Designing for the
best/great
experience is not
always necessary,
nor possible
• Not all solutions
are born equal
• Design towards
the best trade-off
to enable
outcomes
Kano model

24.
Avoid further iterations (if possible)
• Designs that work
would not need to
be iterated further
• Be careful on
designing towards
planning on
iterating as a fail-safe

25.
More Lean UX principles adapted into process
Collaborative focus towards outcomes
Gather requirements
from stakeholders
User stories from
product backlog
Prototype
Internal
validation
Requirements
(Document as you go)
User research data
(Personas, User
stories, Pain points,
etc)
External
validation
Concept

26.
Case Study: Designing the Online Bookings Form

27.
Wrap up
With a quick summary

28.
Be pragmatic in evolving your UX process
Just do it
Growing
User
Research
Laser
focus on
outcomes
1. Know your users
2. Importance of prototyping
with the right fidelity &
realistic data
1. Empowering execution
teams
2. Designers as facilitators and
customer advocates
3. Know when to break the
process
4. Document as you go
5. Not all features are equal
6. Design towards avoiding
future iterations
There is no one-size fit all process. Adapt principles that work for you.

29.
Q & A
Thank You!
kok.chiann@iconnect360.com
kokchiann.com