An Agile and UCD Approach to Optimising our Digital Strategy

Mia HorriganSeptember 2011

Health Insurance Industry

• $6.8 billion Industry• Heavily Regulated industry• Not known for innovation• Risk Adverse• Baby Boomers and Ageing Population• Difficulty attracting Gen Y members

Traditional Channels

The Result

Return to Sender

Get Users Engaged or Loose $1.9B

• Legislation to cut funding by $1.9B• Previous mass media channels not measurable,

responsive or targeted • Customers embracing social media• Take debate to consumers: digital campaign

Moving Towards a Digital Strategy

Modernize • Systems architecture• Publishing processes• Engagement methods to increase trust,

usability and responsiveness

Needed Users to Engage & Act

• ADKAR

• Three months to do it !!!!

• Awareness• Desire• Knowledge• Action• Reinforcement

Change our Info Centric Approach

What We Did

• Used Agile and User-Centered Design (UCD) tools to elicit requirements

• Adopted Scrum and Kanban to prioritize and groom backlog

• Agile and UCD tools developed iteratively to help determine value to stakeholders

• Agile process allowed alignment of needs to prioritize & provide most value

Why Agile

Agility in healthcare is critical as it is one of few industries

where lives are quite literally on the line

continuous integrationvalue stream

build knowledgefrom retrospectives about ‘value’

skinny solution + release 1.0

+...+release n

SCRUMembed inUser stories

More value = act to save the Industry

Prioritise delivery of value in backlog

Approach

ADKAR

Kanban

UCD Design Elements of User Experience

Awareness to Action & Reinforcement

Scrum

• 2 weekly sprint cycles• Continuous integration to build upon skinny solution

to respond to evolving needs• Collaboration between product owner, scrum master

and team • Needs changing so estimation of what could be done

and definition of done important • Cost ($$$ vs Time vs Opportunity)

Scrum Lifecycle

Kanban

• Lean principals • Prioritise tasks from product backlog to ensure

campaign remained responsive to stakeholder needs• Visual tool to manage the backlog, focus team on

the ranked priorities• Process to manage workflow and remain flexible• “Be Lean and JIT happens”

Task Board

Committed Backlog Item

Tasks not started

Tasks in progress

Tasks Completed

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Task Board

Committed Backlog Item

Tasks not started

Tasks in progress

Tasks Completed

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User Centered Design • Wanted to be responsive to users• Engage and produce what is of most value • Based on ISO 13407 Human Centred Design • Great synergy with Agile

Specify context of use

Identify need for Human Centred design

Specify requirements

Produce design solution

Evaluate designSystem satisfies

specified requirements

Elements of User Experience

Why Agile & UCD ? - “Humanise a technical world”

Create Efficiency & Save Money Earn Money/Build Relationship

Use

is c

ompu

lsor

yU

sers

opt

-in

Internal IT Projects

Internal System but Not Mandatory Use

ConsumerCommercial

Projects

EnterpriseCommercial

Projects

Agile & UCD is crucial here

Agile starting to be used

here

What about Operational efficiency?

But if it doesn’t work for the User they will work

around itAbout the process not

the person

What about Value?

Sprint Planning

Elements of User Experience

Strategy, Scope, Structure, Skeleton and Surface

Things to Produce

Things to Do

Things to Consider(e.g. requirements)

Engagement of Stakeholders

Wants and needs

Profile and background

Pain pointsValue of info

providers

Agile Personas

Generation

Communication Channels

• >4/5 people use Web 2.0 mthly• >2/5 make contact with agencies through social media• 3/4 aged 55-64 use internet and 2/5 aged >65 use internet • 2/3 searches are conducted using mobile device• 39% of people use RSS • 26% use Social networking sites

The Nielsen Company, 2009. Social networks & blogs now 4th most popular online activity, ahead of personal email, News Release. New York, NY. 9 March.

Channel Preferences• Personas used to refine Comms Strategy as we learnt

more about these users

Sprint 1

Sprint backlog in ranked priority

Tasks being produced

What has been produced

Develop User Stories • As a Gen X consumer thinking about starting a family, • I want to know how much rebate I get now and how the change to rebate will affect me• So I can understand the out of pocket cost

• As a consumer in a rural area, • I want to access information via my 3G Smartphone • As there is limited internet access

• Breakdown Features • Task card = User Story• Minimum marketable feature

•As a …• I want to …• So I can ….

User Stories – Test Scenarios

• As a Gen X consumer thinking about starting a family, • I want to know how much the change to the rebate will affect me• So I can understand the extra costs

• Given I am concerned about the changes..• When I complete info input via drop down menu…•Then I will see in $$$ how much extra….

• As a Gen X consumer thinking about starting a family, • I want to know how much the change to the rebate will affect me• So I can understand the extra costs

• Given I am concerned about the changes..• When I complete info input via drop down menu…•Then I will see in $$$ how much extra….

• Acceptance criteria• Testing scenarios• TDD, BDD

• Given I am a …• When I …• Then I ….

Writing Good User Stories

• Short title• Add a concise description (What and Why)• As a [User]…. I want to [Task].. So that [Goal]• Add relevant notes, spec, sketch• Write acceptance criteria• If the user story is too big (task>1 day) then

break it down into smaller tasks & add detail

Combined User Stories – Scenarios

Title: Rebate Calculator As a consumer on a tight budget I want to know how much the change to the rebate will affect me. So when I input info into calculator via drop down menus I will see how much extra $$$ I will pay via graph and text

Feature to be built

TestableOutcome “done criteria”

User need

Describes behaviour

• As a … [Role]

• I Want to [Needs/ Values]

• When I … [Uer interaction]• • Then …. [Result/Outcome]

Content Design

• Validate & iterate personas and user stories• Card sorting - understand how consumers classified

the information• Prioritised features of value

Structure

Sprint Review

Sprint 1

Sprint 0

Sprint 2

Sprint 3

Sprint 4

Sprint 5

Sprint 6-8

Sprint 2 - Skeleton

Prototypes

• Prototype was a “skinny” version of the site• Used to communicate functionality and desired look

and feel and structure• Design part of the sprint• Designers paired with developers• Validate the site features with consumers• Built widgets based on prototype

Prototypes

If One Board is Great, Why Not Two?

Shared resources

Project interdependencies

Managing Multiple Projects

• Interdependencies• Simultaneous Execution• Change

“Scrum of Scrums” Board• Viewed all 3 projects within the campaign• Multidisciplinary teams across the projects• Applied learnings from one to the next

Three different sprints in progress

Three projects on the board

Streams of work with shared resources

Project interdependencies

Sprint 3- Wireframes to Screens

• User stories and scenarios incorporated into design and execution

• As a … [Role]• I Want to [Needs and Values]• When I … [Uer interaction] • Then …. [Result/Outcome]

What if New Requirements are Requested Mid Sprint?

• Option 1 -Terminate Sprint • Option 2 - Continue to deliver agreed tasks

for current Sprint

Development Team continued on current work-in-progress tasks for current Sprint

Did not commence any new tasks Design Spike to look at new requirements

Sprint 4 - New Microsite Features

• Added to new features and uncompleted Sprint 3 tasks to Product Backlog

• Prioritised by Product Owner

• Assigned to Sprint 4 based on new priority

Branding

New $$$ PrioritisesMobile App Requirement

changed to Mobile CSS requirementBranding

Branding

Storyboards

• Evolving need• Used storyboards to

visualise the flow of video

• Re-use: based on personas and user stories

• Reaching new channels not envisaged up front

Branding

Sprint 5-8 Continuous Integration

• Launched with skinny site• Iteratively built upon skinny site • Continuous Integration of new features• Utilised learning across projects

Continuous ImprovementLearning part of processReuse of widgets across projects = reduced costs

BrandingBrandingBranding

Branding

From Info Centric to User Centric

Well accepted by users and enhanced findability of content

BrandingBranding Branding

Branding

Branding

Branding

My Favourite Board

What we learned

• Multidisciplinary approach allowed us to remain flexible, responsive and adaptive

• Kanban Board great visual tool• Scrum process an effective way to continuously

integrate features • Value of Scrum master • Design as part of the Scrum team

Outcomes

• Agile methods paired with UCD tools are effective in fostering communication and buy-in from stakeholders and Team

• Using a multidisciplinary approach enables you to ensure that the website is useable, adaptive and meets the digital needs of the modern 21st century consumer

Thank you

@miahorri

www.zenagile.wordpress.com

Mia Horrigan

Mia Horrigan

http://www.slideshare.net/miahorri

Mobile: +61 412 821 852 (Australia)Web: www.zenexmachina.comEmail: zenexmachina [at] gmail.comTwitter: @zenexmachina

Zen Ex Machina