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Design Thinking, Agile, and DevOps Point of View
As a team that engages with many different groups within IBM, we've fielded countless questions around the integration of IBM Design Thinking, Agile and DevOps. Our team was asked to meet with thought leaders in each area and develop a single point of view that explains how the three work together at a high level. Our POV dives into the core intention behind each method, then explains how they can combine to help deliver outcomes to market.
Role:
Research + UX Design
Research + UX Design
Team:
| •
Brennen Thaney - Researcher • Andrei Cervantes - Content Design + Writer • Chris Harris - Content Design + Writer • Jared Gibbons - Visual Design |
Process:
We evaluated workflows from several GBS teams who currently use one or more of the methods to understand the reality of how all three methods were (or weren’t) being used in delivery. Then, we interviewed Agile coaches, DevOps specialists, and IBM Design Thinking leaders to understand intended implementations of each method.Insights:
- Language is everything. Industry buzzwords and acronyms were confusing and meaningless. In our POV we had to be painstakingly careful to avoid using those so our message was clear and concise.
- The lens through which people currently understand one of the methods is a good reference point to position understanding where another could fits in, around, or augment the others.
- The problem lies in understanding the intent behind each framework, not the small activities, steps or outcomes associated with them. Once we got people to understand intent, we were able to differentiate each method.
From that, we re-wrote simple definitions of the methods to a foundation of understanding, and defined a tactical approach of how all three work together. Thought leaders in each area helped us refine messages that were simple and true.
Agile:
- Clarity of Outcome. Define intended outcomes by focusing on a user.
- Iteration Over Perfection. Everything the team makes is a prototype. Don’t wait until something is perfect to release an iteration.
- Self-Directed Teams. Allow small teams to self-direct their work. Don’t micro-mange details. Trust the team will deliver what’s right.
DevOps:
- Test Quicker, Perfect Later. DevOps allows us to quickly deploy and test our assumptions in the real world.
- Grounded in Reality. By gathering data from user interactions, we can quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate the current understanding of users and inform upcoming designs and iterations.
Design Thinking:
- Focus on User Outcomes. Keep focused on user outcomes, not features.
- Restless Reinvention. Treat every iteration as a prototype on how to improve in the next iteration.
- Diverse Empowered Teams. Work across disciplines to achieve a variety of ideas from different perspectives, and align teams across multi-disciplinary efforts.
We then drafted a narrative explaining how all three work together – without using industry buzzwords and acronyms so that our language was clear and concise.
We iterated through 19 versions of our POV, prototyping content with leaders of each area, and IBM Sellers. Our POV was distributed as a PowerPoint, the favorite medium of our Sellers. ;)
Outcomes:
- A unified POV on how to deliver all three methods within a client engagement.
- Larger SOWs signings for Sellers. Now that Sellers can articulate IBM’s outcome-focused delivery model, clients feel more confident in signing deals incorporating these ways of working.