MYOB hasn't been known for its usability and design. In the past 12 months, a UX team has been growing, and their influence on product design and development is continually growing. As User Experience designers and managers of a UX team, getting buy-in from your stakeholders and peers is awesome - especially when you're all new to the company. But what happens when you've increased the interest and buy-in so much that it turns into a monster to manage? You could double the size or your team, or you could do what we're doing - educating the rest of the company about good design and user experience and letting go of the reins a little. Scary? Yes. Learn how we're doing things at MYOB and the exponential change we are seeing in the company culture.

1. @turner_twit Scott Turner
Megan Dell@megandell

2. Topics we’ll cover:
• The rise of the UX team at
MYOB, resulting in their
addiction
• How we have managed to
integrate Lean UX process
into Agile Projects
• Three major challenges
we’ve faced
• Tactics to overcome some
of these challenges

3. Who is MYOB?
• Large company focussed
on Accounting software
• Established ~20 years ago
• Located in Australia, New
Zealand, Malaysia
• Large customer base
• 300+ staff in agile
development teams across
three continents
• UX team of 5

4. MYOB’s reputation:
• Safe, reliable, comfortable,
compliant and meets
customer needs
• Customers don’t expect a
sports car for their
accounting software
• Accounting is often seen as
a chore by small to medium
sized businesses

5. Changing perceptions:
• Make software intuitive and
intelligent
• Minimise the amount of
time and effort needed
• Value attention to detail,
ensure UX is involved with
development

6. The rise of UX @ MYOB:
• New feature being
introduced to software that
was predicted to
dramatically reduce amount
of data entry required
• Project team was formed,
all the usual suspects but
no UX!
• Product owner thought he
could design the interface...

7. • Interface (wireframe)
designed by the product
owner
• Gathered customer
feedback
• Customers didn’t
understand how to interact
with this screen

8. • Interface (wireframe)
designed by the iteration
manager
• Gathered more customer
feedback, discovered it still
wasn’t very intuitive
• After many iterations and
failed attempts at this
design, a UX designer was
hired..

9. • Interface (wireframe)
designed by the UX
designer
• UX designer gained a
better understanding of
customer needs
• Design went through
countless iterations
• Layout is based on real-
world behaviours to
promote familiarity with
this screen

10. UX Designer’s approach:
• Communicate, design
processes and work
transparently
• Create clickable prototype
and test interactions not
just screen layouts
• Bring team members along
to weekly usability testing
• Record sessions with
customers to replay to
team

11. What was tested?
• Mixture of stories coming
up in the backlog, things in
analysis that still had
unanswered questions
• Complicated areas which
need more design
exploration and discovery
Footage of a customer testing an interactive prototype

12. Benefits from this
approach:
• Lift in morale amongst
team, seeing results of their
dev work first-hand
• Footage of customer
struggling with legacy
interactions was powerful
to change developers
habits
• Created a hunger for
customer feedback

13. Making UX and Agile best
friends @ MYOB:
• Lean UX preferred over
traditional approach for
Agile environment
• Both Lean UX and Agile
encourage little to no
documentation
• Both are based on iterative
circles
• Focus on collaboration and
cross functional teams

15. Challenges in managing the
growing addiction to UX:
Three key areas:
1. Expectations as to when
and how design should
happen

16. Design, then agile
development?
• Traditional design before
development doesn’t work
• Tendency for roles to
become siloed
• Mentality of “I’ll do my work
and then throw it over the
fence to the developer, and
move on to something
else..”

17. The IDEAL model…
• Design and development
are always collaborating;
just at different levels and
different intensities
• Peaks and troughs of
development input into the
design process and vice
versa
• UX touch points don’t stop
at the beginning of
development!Copyright © Scott Turner. @turner_twit

18. • Provide influence and
answer questions during
backlog grooming
• Apply the UX eye and
a sanity check during
test
In this ideal model, the UX designer should...
• Pair with the product
owner during
acceptance
• Be available to answer
questions during
development
Copyright © Scott Turner @turner_twit

19. But what if the ideal model
can’t happen?
• Mentality of leaving uni
assignments to the last
minute
• Think holistically but work
iteratively
• Presume little time for the
design before development
Photo by Stewart Black: http://www.flickr.com/photos/s2ublack

20. Design is an iterative
process
• Design before development
doesn’t promote
collaboration
• Risk of losing the shared
vision due to lack of
communication
• Rework often required

21. Change your mindset!
• Work with the team to
determine what should be
designed first
• Short design cycle working
collaboratively before
testing with users
• Get into dev quickly and
continue to test along the
way
• Working collaboratively
fosters trust, the team can
call on UX when needed

22. Choose the right tool for the
job
• Use a wide range of tools
and techniques when they
are really needed
• Examples are: sketching
with Business Analysts, or
pairing with devs to work
on interactions
• Trust one another to work
in this just-in-time approach
to development AND
design

23. Challenges in managing the
growing addiction to UX:
Three key areas:
1. Expectations as to when
and how design should
happen
2. Creating a shared vision
for the product

24. Illustration by Jeff Patton & Luke Barrett who re-created the cartoon from an unknown origin.
Creating a shared vision for
the product
• Work together as a family
with the Agile team
• Don’t be a design hero
• Don’t let processes get in
the way
• Don’t lose your shared
vision

25. Agile processes don’t
always help
• Scrum aims to developing
a shippable product at the
end of each sprint.. but
don’t let this compromise
the vision!
• Anders Ramsay described
it as “Sprint Tunnel Vision”
• Constant push and pull for
finding the balance of
something that meets the
needs of its users and is
easy to use, and is
achievable

26. An example of where Agile
processes compromised the
vision, and where UX and
Design weren’t done
iteratively
• Shown on the left is the
initial mock up created with
the shared vision of the
team
• UX Designer was not
involved in some of the key
conversations when
resources were moved off
the project

27. The end result..
• There was a lack of
involvement from the UX
Designer and the instinctive
reaction of the dev team
was to cut functionality of
the original design
• Feels like half a solution
and has not been released
to customers (shown here)

28. What did we learn?
• Agile and Lean UX support
change but without
effective communication,
things fall apart
• UX Designer needs to be
brought into key
conversations, especially
when it means changing
the deliverable
• UX Designer may suggest
different ways to reach end
goal (pivot)

29. If we were effectively
communicating…
• UX Designer designed a
mini bus, but through
stripping functionality the
project team only put one
seat in it
• UX Designer would’ve
suggested a pivot, to create
a scooter instead
Alternative concept: same functionality, less complexity and development time (Scooter)

30. Challenges in managing the
growing addiction to UX:
Three key areas:
1. Expectations as to when
and how design should
happen
2. Creating a shared vision
for the product
3. Finding the right mix of
roles and responsibilities

31. The right mix of roles and team
structures

32. What if you can’t have a
dedicated UX person?
• Common problem in
many organisations
due to a large range of
factors
• Something we
experience at MYOB as
there is not a 1:1 ratio
of UX Designers to
development teams

33. Managing a UX addiction
with little resources
• Trust the project team to
involve UX when needed
• We’ve had to rely on the
team let us know when we
are really needed at a
stand up or for a certain
meeting, or to park
interaction design topics
until the last 20 mins of a
meeting, where we are
called in

34. Skills transfer and teaching
others
• Teach others basic UX
tools and techniques
• Encourage BAs to “have a
go” and sketch out ideas,
then we’ll collaborate with
them on refinements
• Involve others in design
activities, especially
usability testing
• Let BAs make small
changes to our wireframes

35. So what’s the result of
all this?

36. We aren’t looking like an old
car any more
• Probably still a Volvo: safe,
reliable, leader in its class
• Something you would be
proud to drive; and enjoy
driving

37. Be flexible and willing to
adapt to change
• We will always be finding
better ways to work
together and this is ok
• We’ve got to be open to,
and expect more change in
the future
• By managing and
encouraging MYOB’s UX
addiction, we’re seeing
great improvements in our
product, as well as morale

38. Thanks to @smamol for her support and guidance.