Collaboration within a multidisciplinary team

Working together to solve design problems more effectively

Michele Ide-Smith Andy Morris Revathi Nathaniel

UX Specialist UX Specialist UX Specialist

Housekeeping

No scheduled fire alarms

Nearest toilets

Questions

Please turn off phones

Timing

Photography

Time plan

10:45 – 11:05 Introduction

11:05 – 12:00 Activity #1: KJ Technique

12:00 -12:15 Discussion

12:15 – 13:15 Lunch

13:15 – 13:25 Post lunch

13:25 – 14:15 Activity #2: Design Consequences

14:25 – 14:40 Q&A Session

Who’s in the room?

Collaboration Vs. Communication

“In the long history of

humankind…those who learned to

collaborate and improvise most

effectively have prevailed.” Charles Darwin

agilemanifesto.org

agilemanifesto.org

So, who consistently performs

poorly?

[Tom Wujec, 2010]

Recent Business School Graduates

[Tom Wujec, 2010]

agilemanifesto.org

Who consistently performs

well?

[Tom Wujec, 2010]

Recent Kindergarten School Graduates

[Tom Wujec, 2010]

[Tom Wujec, 2010]

agilemanifesto.org

Average Business School

Students

Lawyers Kinder-garten

Architects &

Engineers

CEOs CEOs & Executive Admins

10

20

30

Height (inches)

Specialized Skills + Facilitation Skills = Success

[Tom Wujec, 2010]

• Play & prototyping yield better results

• Diverse skills matter

• Facilitation skills increase performance

[Tom Wujec, 2010]

• UX skills make you a better facilitator

• Patience

• Listening

• Empathy

• Sometimes we need guidance on how to

structure collaboration

Innovation Games

Using games for structuring

collaboration

What is the KJ Method?

• Invented by Japanese

Anthropologist Jiro

Kawakita in the 1960’s

• A way to sort lots of

subjective, qualitative data

• Group decision making by

consensus

Why use the KJ Method?

Why use the KJ Method?

• Different perspectives are valuable

• Shared understanding

• Inclusive yet objective – all opinions heard

• Effective for sorting lots of data

• Encourages group ownership of actions

Exploring

product/team

challenges

Analysing

contextual

enquiry data

Brainstorming

product

features

Prioritising

issues from

usability tests

When is the KJ Method useful?

Jared Spool’s experiment

• 8 step version of the

KJ Method

• Experiment with 15

groups of UX

practitioners

“We find the KJ-Method to be very effective for

organizing and prioritizing opinions and subjective data”

The design problem

The design brief

A DIY chain store has approached your UX Agency. They

can no longer afford to employ staff with a high level of

expertise in each store. Your brief is to design a mobile app

that will:

• Enable customers to find out how to solve DIY problems;

• Help customers to identify what materials and tools they

need for DIY jobs.

Propose 3 features that will bring the most value to

customers.

Step 1: Determine a focus question

For this exercise we’ll use the focus question:

“What features do users need?”

Step 2: Organise the group

Developers

Testers

Clients

Project Manager

UX Designers Product Manager

Visual Designers

Step 3: Write ideas, opinions, data on

sticky notes

• Use yellow stickies

• One item per sticky note

• Brainstorm as many ideas as you can

• Do not discuss the sticky notes yet!

Step 3: Write ideas, opinions, data on

sticky notes

Step 4: Put sticky notes randomly on

the wall

Step 4: Put sticky notes randomly on

the wall

• Do not discuss the sticky notes yet!

• Read other peoples sticky notes

• If you think of other ideas, add them at this

stage

Step 5: Group similar items

Step 5: Group similar items

• Group stickies that seem to belong

together

• Feel free to re-arrange and split groups

• Keep moving stickies around until you feel

the groups make sense

• Do not discuss the stickies at this stage!

Step 6: Name the groups

Step 6: Name the groups

• Use blue stickies and name each group

• A group can have more than one name

• If someone has used the exact same words

that you want to use, don’t duplicate

• If a group has 2 themes, split the group

Step 7: Vote for the most important

groups

Step 7: Vote for the most important

groups

Step 7: Vote for the most important

groups

• On your own, choose the 3 group heading

stickies that you feel represent the

features users will need most and rank

them 1st, 2nd, 3rd

• You each have 6 dots – now dot your 3

selected group heading stickies e.g. 1st = 3

dots, 2nd = 2 dots, 3rd = 1 dot

Step 8: Rank the most important

groups

Rank the group name

stickies with dots

Don’t include any

stickies without dots,

even if they came from

the same group

Nominate two group

names that you think

are identical and take

a vote. Did everyone

agree? If not, why?

Discuss!

De-brief discussion

• Each group read out their top 3 group names

• What did you enjoy? What did you find challenging?

• What did you learn?

• How did you feel as participants? Was there

anything the facilitator could have done better?

• When would this method be useful?

• How did it differ from what you’ve tried before?

Lunch

Welcome back!

Design Consequences

What is Design Consequences?

• Put together by Leisa Reichelt and her

colleague

• Helps generate great design ideas

• Encourages discussion to develop consensus

with your team

When to use Design Consequences?

• Early in the design process although its

equally helpful later on in the design process

• Well-defined design problem

• Good understanding of specific constraints

and how other people may have approached

the design problem

Design Brief

Your design team is now ready to start exploring

some design ideas.

You want to share some mock-ups of the mobile app

with the DIY store.

Design Round One

Design Round One

• In your team, choose the highest ranked feature from the KJ

technique that your mobile application will support

• Individually sketch the first level of user interaction for this

feature

• Design what you would like your user to see and do when

she/he opens the DIY app to use this feature

• Spend 7 minutes on this task

It need not be a work of art. Its just a

sketch!

Consequences

Design Round Two

• Pass your sketch to the person sitting on your right

• Review the sketch you have received

• Choose what you as the ‘user’, would interact with

• Sketch what you would like to happen in the next screen

• Clarify any questions you have about the sketch with the

original designer

• Spend 7 minutes on this task

Discussion round

Discussion round

• In your team, describe the sketch you received

• Which aspect you chose to interact with?

• What did you design as the next screen?

• Discuss some of the ideas your team has come up with

• Decide which sketches/design ideas would you take

forward to show to the DIY Store

Show and tell Round Two

• What did your team decide?

• Did the discussion with your team help bring out any

interesting observations?

• Were there any conflicting ideas?

• How did you resolve them?

De-brief

• Generates lots of design ideas

• Seeds discussion topics- ideas and challenges • An opportunity to ‘usability test’ designs on the go

• Includes all team members even the ones who prefer to stay

quiet during meetings

• Helps the team reach consensus • It helps designers work better as the responsibility to ‘design’

doesn’t stay, as ‘only’ the designer’s job

Your Thoughts

• What did you enjoy about the technique?

• What did you find challenging?

• How have you conducted this technique? How was it

different from today?

• When would you use this technique?

• Was there anything the facilitator could have done better?

Thank you for listening

Tom Wujec’s Marshmellow Challenge

http://marshmallowchallenge.com

David Gray, James Macanufo, Sunni Brown Gamestorming

http://www.gogamestorm.com

Jared Spool version of the KJ-Method

http://www.uie.com/articles/kj_technique

Leisa Reichelt’s Design Consequences technique

http://www.disambiguity.com/design-consequences-a-fun-

workshop-technique-for-brainstorming-consensus-building/

Image Credits

http://dailytoyz.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/lego-national-day-parade.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/d2clon/4402993445/

http://dribbble.com/shots/347309-Mobile-Sketches

http://innovationgames.com/show-tell/

http://adpu.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/show_20and_20tell.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IB-qSfEKljc/T9yf_nD3V0I/AAAAAAAAAUY/vB3kdvCR71A/s1600/forgiveness-and-consequences-

300x204.jpg