What does Agile/Lean look like at The Economist

What does Lean/Agile look like

at The EconomistDanny Setiawan, Senior UX Designer

11 November 2014

Introduction

Photo by Chris Glass on Flickr

CASE STUDY

Mobile web site

Background

• 2012: Significant rise in mobile traffic

• Customer feedback : bad experience, hurting

conversion (bounce rate close to 100%)

• Subscribers couldn’t access paid content

What we knew

• Editorial workflow and CMS would not change

• Only for smartphones

• Project start date (less than a month from

workshop date)

What we did not know

Photo by Merlijn Hoek on Flickr

• Everything else

• Content scope

• Monetization

• Features

• More…

How we felt

Design studio workshop

• Locations: In London and NY, connected with

video conference

• Length: 2 consecutive days, 4 hours each

• Facilitation: Led by UX team and Scrum Master

• Participants : Representatives from stakeholders

( Product, Editorial, Commercial, Dev and UX

1/2

Design studio workshop

• Scope: 12 design challenges based on core user

scenarios

• Format: Sketch (5m), present (3m), critique (2m)

; individually then collectively as a team

• Outcome:

• Sketches with decisions from key stakeholders baked-in,

• Outline for product backlog,

• Potential technical challenges to investigate

2/2

DESIGN STUDIO WORKSHOP PICS

Consolidate solutions

Prototype

bit.ly/ec_mob_proto

To play around with it yourself

on your phone

RITE (Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation)

study

• 8 participants

• At London office

• Facilitated by UX

• Iterate on prototypes

between sessions

• Goal: Uncover major

usability issues

• Outcome: No major issue

• Video recordings were made

available for entire teamScreenshot from one of the recordings

Implementation

Photo by Curtis Pennell on Flickr

Lessons learned

• Collaboration is key

• UX is NOT a step in product development

process

• Free breakfast encourages people to come early

Thank you

dannysetiawan@economist.com

linkedin.com/dnystwn

dribbble.com/dsetia

@dsetia_1

"Anyone who has never

made a mistake has

never tried anything

new."- Albert Einstein

Photo by Juhan Sonin on Flickr