High level presentation held at a UX meeting in Berlin at 4. April 2011 for immobilienscout24.de, xing.de and otto.de to present the "operational excellence" approach at eBay and how a UX manager / consultant could use that for (agile) project kick-offs.

1. UX definitions in agile kick-offs
How to define UX objectives and goals using a
"lean" six sigma approach
Nikki Tiedtke, EU Senior Content Strategist
Presented at a UX meeting in Berlin with:
Immobilienscout 24 :: XING :: Otto.de :: eBay :: Nokia
April 2011

2. Disclaimer
• This is not a full-fledged presentation showing the one solution to include User
Experience definitions for agile projects.
• It’s not a full-fledged presentation about six sigma, either.
• Instead, it just shows a couple of “light” techniques and ideas you might want
to combine to try to integrate any User Experience (UX) requirements and
prioritize them in an agile, fast-moving environment.
• I showed the slides at an informal UX meeting in Berlin which was organized
by Immobilienscout24.de and attended by XING.de, Otto.de, Nokia and eBay.
UX meeting :: Berlin :: Immobilienscout 24 :: XING :: Otto.de :: eBay :: Nokia
Nikki Tiedtke, EU Senior Content Strategist

3. Project charters should be defined for
any (agile) project during a kick-off with
all key stakeholders. A UX or UER
Project charter exoert should attend and be the „voice
of the customer“.
Important: Define a measurable goal
(key perfomance indicators / metrics).
Business Case Scope (In)
Explanation of why we’re doing the project. For example, will it What process will the team focus on? What are the
improve customer satisfaction, decrease defects, increase market boundaries of the process you would like to improve?
share, increase employee satisfaction, save dollars . . . relate it to Scope (Out)
the Business Y’s. Do NOT restate the problem.
Other processes, areas that will NOT be reviewed in
this project scope
Process (Start and End Point)
Process Start Point:
Problem Process End Point:
Description of the problem/opportunity & objective in clear, concise, Estimated Benefits
measurable terms. Address: How often is the problem occurring? Stated in terms of revenue, cost, productivity, quality,
Where the problem occurring? Who is it impacting? State the time, etc.
current performance level. Do NOT say why the problem is important
as that is part of the business case.
Goal (SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timebound) Phase Completion Status
How much of an improvement are you aiming for, e.g. XX% defect
DEFINE Mm/dd/yy GREEN
reduction, XX% cycle time reduction? When do you want to have the
improvement in place? For example, Deliver an improved process to MEASURE Mm/dd/yy YELLOW
reduce rebooks in the Business Center by 50% by 12/31/01. ANALYZE Mm/dd/yy RED
Deliverables IMPROVE Mm/dd/yy GREEN
Are you delivering a set of recommendations and a plan for CONTROL Mm/dd/yy GREEN
implementation, or fully implemented and validate solutions? > 2 weeks behind
1 day – 2 weeks behind
On Track
UX meeting :: Berlin :: Immobilienscout 24 :: XING :: Otto.de :: eBay :: Nokia Complete
Nikki Tiedtke, EU Senior Content Strategist

4. A UX project charter could support the
project charter as user-centered project
goal. Ideally both charters would then
UX project charter* be merged into one, covering a holistic,
business and user-centered approach
to a projects. Important: To also define
measurable success metrics.
UX Concept User requirements
• What are the new pages / the flow / the new product for our customers? • What are the user requirements?
• What is it not? • What are the root cause we are trying to fix?
• What is the biggest benefit for our customers? • In which order of priority? (prioritize within team,
balancing user and business needs)
[User requirements have to be phrased in natural, plain
language and should not contain interface solutions, or
functional requirements.]
UX goal (SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timebound)
• What is our overall user experience goal?
• How can we measure Usability success? (qualitative and quantitative) User research needs
• What is our user experience goal for the next project phase? • What user research do we need?
Target audience • In which format?
• Who are our target audiences, personas? • When?
• Which ones of these is more important for us? • What exactly do we want to find out?
Use cases
• What are the main user cases (red routes) for our target audience /
persona?
• Which use cases should we focus on for the next release? (prioritize
within team, balancing user and business needs)
* Based on an idea from Isabella Fröhlich, User Exprience
UX meeting :: Berlin :: Immobilienscout 24 :: XING :: Otto.de :: eBay :: Nokia Manager, Autoscout 24, ifroehlich@autoscout24.com
Nikki Tiedtke, EU Senior Content Strategist

5. Root cause analysis can help a project team to
identify and focus on root causes for a customer or
business problem. This approach has helped us
Root cause analysis at eBay to differentiate between symptoms and
root causes. Try to identify success metrics for
each root cause, too, so you can measure if you
have fixed it after you launched your new product.
What do we know from user research? What are the key customer pain points?
Create a “fishbone diagram” by listing potential problems. Ask “why does this problem
occur” 5x times to get to a potential root cause.
Discuss with the team if each potential root cause could be measured to track success
Two examples of a fishbone diagram
UX meeting :: Berlin :: Immobilienscout 24 :: XING :: Otto.de :: eBay :: Nokia
Nikki Tiedtke, EU Senior Content Strategist

6. Example of how a team could prioritize solutions
to fix root causes of a problem. Ideally you map
them with user requirements – but of course you
Solution prioritization can modify the table for each project as you see
fit.
The scoring system helps to calculate the
importance and thus the priority of each solution.
Root cause OR Possible User Effectiveness* Feasability* Cost /benefit Overall score
use case (user‘s solution requirement ratio*
view)
* Scoring: 1 – None 3 – Low 6 – Moderate 9 – Extreme
Example: Great cost /benefit ratio = score „9“. High effectiveness as solution would tackle use requirement = score „9“ etc. Then calculate
numbers in each row to calculate overall score.
UX meeting :: Berlin :: Immobilienscout 24 :: XING :: Otto.de :: eBay :: Nokia
Nikki Tiedtke, EU Senior Content Strategist

7. At eBay we currently implement an „operational excellence“
approach for huge projects. As UX consultant and content
strategist I see a huge opportunity to develop any UX or
Process improvement approach at eBay content strategy using those methods and tools for process
improvement. This can help an UX team to marry internal
and external user / stakeholder needs and help using typical
„putting strategy into practice“ methodologies (aka six sigma).
Solving for Quantified Root cause Fix it Control
1. Know the customer 1. Know baseline 1. Identify potential root 1. Develop solutions to 1. Validate solutions is
being impacted performance causes address root causes working
2. Clear problem and 2. Validate data 2. Validate root 2. Prioritize and 2. Develop control
goal statement accuracy causes with data select solutions plan
3. Understand 3. Identify all data 3. Prioritize root causes 3. Pilot and implement 3. Scale solutions as
business impact needs by impact solutions appropriate
The Lean Six Sigma Pocket ToolBook: A Quick Reference Guide
By: M. George, J. Maxey, Rowlands, J. Maxey, M. Price
Blends Lean and Six Sigma tools and concepts, providing expert advice on how to
determine which tool within a "family" is best for different purposes. Packed with detailed
examples and step-by-step instructions, it's the ideal handy reference guide to help Green
and Black Belts make the transition from the classroom to the field.
UX meeting :: Berlin :: Immobilienscout 24 :: XING :: Otto.de :: eBay :: Nokia
Nikki Tiedtke, EU Senior Content Strategist

8. Questions? Love to hear your experience and thoughts
https://www.xing.com/profile/Nikki_Tiedtke
http://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkiberlin
UX meeting :: Berlin :: Immobilienscout 24 :: XING :: Otto.de :: eBay :: Nokia
Nikki Tiedtke, EU Senior Content Strategist