Continuous Design

1 day

UX, Design, other T-shaped people

Dates Announcing Shortly

We all have more ideas than we can ever deliver. And most won't work. In this course, we'll learn how to break down ideas into assumptions and how to iteratively test each assumption aligning the level of investment with our confidence.

What you'll learn

  • Testing approaches
  • Validating assumptions
  • Iterative design
  • Writing compelling content

Modules

1

Continuous Design Introduction

0.5 hours of videos

An introduction to the course on how product teams iteratively design solutions to problems without falling into the trap of designing everything.

Lessons

Stream Teams

15 minutes

What is a stream team, who is involved, who is not involved and where are they in the organisation.

Ceremonies

15 minutes

Stream teams create products. But there needs to be a continuous focus on ensuring that they are headed in the right direction. We examine the daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly activities of stream teams.

Change

10 minutes

It can be hard to identify where to make changes and how to approach it. We'll look at how you can convert ideas into action.

Ownership

10 minutes

The team is responsible for their way of working. This means that they control how they work and any changes that they want to take on. There is no need for centralised sign-off.

Continuous Design Introduction

10 minutes

The purpose of iterative design and the principles that underpin it.

Conflict Resolution

15 minutes

It would be great if we could assume that every team will agree on everything. But this isn't the case. While teams should try to solve issues internally, there needs to be a process for conflict resolution.

2

Validating Ideas

2 hours of videos

How do we continuously reduce risk in product development without requiring excessive investment? We look at how to ramp up investment as confidence increases.

Lessons

Designing Experiments

20 minutes

We take a high level look at the different options available for testing assumptions and how to design your experiments.

Prototypes

25 minutes

As we continue to validate assumptions we will need to make ever more complete solutions. We'll cover the high level principles and best practices behind creating prototypes.

Statistical Significance

15 minutes

We'll discuss what statistical significance is, when it is necessary and, more importantly, when it is not.

Communication

15 minutes

Hidden data is as valuable as no data. We look at the ways that teams can communicate the process as well as the findings to ensure better understanding and buy-in.

3

Content

2 hours of videos

Words matter! Learn the principles behind good UX writing and information architecture.

Lessons

Content Principles

15 minutes

The principles to factor in when creating compelling content.

Information Architecture

15 minutes

Good information architecture enables discovery and usability. We review a few of the common techniques for enabling simple, yet comprehensive IA.

UX Writing

15 minutes

The value of good writing and how to research, write and validate your content.

4

Breaking Up Delivery

1 hours of videos

As our confidence increases from our testing we are ready to move into development. But to build a full feature will likely take a considerable amount of time. We look at the ways that teams can break up delivery into more manageable, and valuable releases.

Lessons

ETP / ELP

10 minutes

Our prototypes have validated directional intent - now we need to confirm that it stays true in the real-world. But building the full product or feature could take a long time (and cost a lot). This is where Earliest Testable and Earliest Lovable Products come into play.

User Story Mapping

15 minutes

User Story Maps enable teams to split complex products into multiple releases in a way that aligns everyone on the current focus while also sharing the larger vision of where we are going.

Handed Solution

15 minutes

It's lovely to think you will always work in an autonomous way - but you will be asked to build solutions. How should you react when there is no research, no assumptions, and no context for the solution?

5

Design

2 hours of videos

We've decided on the incremental releases - now we need to design them. In this module we will look at the best practices in incremental design covering design techniques and critiques.

Lessons

Iterative Design

15 minutes

When you have a vision in your head it can be tempting to design the end state and remove features. But in order to ensure the best success for each release, we need to ensure that each release is designed as a standalone product. (And chances are the end product will change along the way as well)

Flexible Design

15 minutes

With multiple teams building out the same product you need a way to align people without being overly restrictive.Shared principles can help.

Accessibility

15 minutes

Accessible designs are better for everyone. We cover some of the more common accessibility tools and techniques.

Design Critiques

25 minutes

We look at how teams can use design crits to help improve design effectiveness while minimising the subjectivity.

Communication

15 minutes

Teams need to be able to explain their decisions, even to your future selves. The important thing here is to explain the process and neglected decisions as they often provide more context than the decision itself.