My goal for this portfolio is to demonstrate how user research is incorporated into the Agile development process. Research is a vital component of any product or software design effort and is implemented throughout the development lifecycle.

Using one of the many diagrams available of the Agile development cycle, I obtained the one below from ClearTech Interactive , let’s breakdown the user research methods for each step.

uX Research in an Agile Environment

PLAN

This is the longest and most frustrating stage for stakeholders, but when it’s done well the rest of the process can move at the team’s chosen velocity
Stakeholder interviews - what behaviors do they want to change, what KPIs do they want to improve
Identify the primary users of the system or application
Determine the deliverables from the research and align on the amount of time to complete them - complex deliverables like journey maps and service blueprints take more time to complete
User interviews - five users per user group is generally sufficient to obtain saturation
Field Studies - this method takes the longest amount of time, but provides a wealth of information about the users, their pain points, the context in which they work

DESIGN

All the time spent interviewing and observing the users really pays off at this stage
UX/UI designers can start wireframing and prototyping the solution
UX research can reach out to the users from the Plan stage to get their feedback
Users provide feedback on the wireframes and prototypes

DEVELOP

UX/UI designers should work about 2 sprints ahead of the developers
UX researchers should work about 2 sprints ahead of the UX/UI designers
UX research feeds information into the Agile machine and we really start cranking out the different features and functionality for the system
Design and research continue to iterate on the wireframes while the developers start coding the front and back ends for the system

TEST

Usability testing - this is my second favorite thing to do, my favorite is field study/observation
- Users need to be able to complete a task and metrics need to be collected against it
- It is not a test without metrics and task completion
- A clickable prototype can be used, as long as a task can be completed
- I’ll get off my soapbox now

DEPLOY

As each new feature is deployed, test it with your users
Quick and dirty user testing - 15 to 20 minutes tops

REVIEW

Full end to end usability test of the system

LAUNCH

All of the user interviews, field observation, user feedback session, and usability testing will absolutely launch an excellent product, but there will still be issues uncovered by the users
UX research can help make sense of those issues, identify the frequency and severity of them and help the team prioritize them