Kalani Kordus

Designer & CCO @kalkor

Karl Adam

Engineer & CTO @thekarladam

Interaction Eleven Feb 9-12, 2011 Boulder, CO

DESIGN

ENGINEERING

QUALITY ASSURANCE

DESIGN

ENGINEERING

We will use Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone and Symposium as case studies to juxtapose a large company (Macro) QUALITY ASSURANCE software development process with our (Micro) software development process. These projects were similar in scope. Yet, we were able to design and develop Symposium at a much faster rate.

DESIGN

ENGINEERING

QUALITY ASSURANCE

The Builders

DESIGN

ENGINEERING

QUALITY ASSURANCE
Each builder reports to a manager who must approve at different stages of the process. They are similar to valves in a plumbing system; regulating the flow of things. Most of management are not builders anymore because their time is spent having formal meetings with other managers and executives.

PRODUCT

DESIGN

MARKETING

ENGINEERING

QUALITY ASSURANCE

RESEARCH INTERACTION DESIGN VISUAL DESIGN PROTOTYPING ENGINEERING QUALITY ASSURANCE PROJECT MANAGEMENT MARKETING PRODUCT

Product Managers are invited to all meetings. Marketing attends all milestone meetings; both act as additional valves to the process. Roles tend to be very specialized in large companies. In contrast, small companies are forced to wear more hats out of necessity.

PROCESS
DESIGN
PRD
IDEATE SKETCH WIREFRAME MOCKUPS SPECIFICATIONS ARCHITECTURE IMPLEMENT TEST ANALYZE
Alpha /Triage

ENGINEERING

IMPLEMENT TEST ANALYZE

Beta /Triage

= MILESTONES

PROCESS
ENGINEERING

PLEMENT TEST NALYZE

Beta /Triage

TEST FIX BUGS

GM /Triage

Deploy

TEST

BEERS!
= MILESTONES

REALITY
DESIGN
PRD
Alpha /Triage Beta /Triage GM /Triage Deploy

ENGINEERING

IDEATE SKETCH WIREFRAME MOCKUPS SPECIFICATIONS

ARCHITECTURE IMPLEMENT TEST ANALYZE

IMPLEMENT TEST ANALYZE

TEST FIX BUGS

TEST

If something goes wrong, it requires going back through this rigid process to fix it. The farther an issue goes back in the process, the more valves it has to go through again. This process is very formal, and usually involves many meetings and stakeholder/management approvals to get the flow going again.

vs
TRAFFIC LIGHTS ROUNDABOUTS
http://www.ted.com/talks/gary_lauder_s_new_traffic_sign_take_turns.html

CONVERT
PRD
Alpha /Triage Beta /Triage GM /Triage Deploy

CONVERT

CONVERT

CONVERT

CONVERT

PRD
Alpha /Triage Beta /Triage GM /Triage Deploy

CONVERT

Managers

Builders

This process could be improved by converting most of the traffic lights to roundabouts; metaphorically speaking. Less meetings, formalities and interruptions. This would improve the flow, and free up management to participate again as builders. Meetings would be minimal and informal because management would once again have a deeper understanding of how it all works on a technical level, resulting in a faster process.
RECOMMENDATION

PRODUCT
CONVERT

Product Management

One Captain

This role is crucial in the macro. They decide what gets built in what order, and are in charge of the overall strategy. This role is often over staffed and confused with project management. Having too many will surely slow down the process. Much like the starship enterprise, a product has the best chance of being nimble and insightful if there is just one captain. Like a CEO to a startup. They should curate the right team with the right dynamic, keep the ship straight and get out of the way.

Product managers tend to have backgrounds in business (MBA), but amazingly do not have much if any experience with product design. Marty Cagans Inspired (How to Create Products Customers Love) explains what to look for in candidates when filling this role.

RECOMMENDATION

PROCESS

Our process is one huge roundabout. Design and Engineering are constantly influencing each other throughout our process. From the earliest ideation sessions, to the last line of code.

Concept to Creation, and everything in between. We flow like water. A constant continuum.

We begin by riffing on potential features during our initial brain dump. Over a period of time, the whiteboard sketches start to slowly gain more fidelity. Once there is a consensus on the core functions, the design moves toward full fidelity with pixel perfect mockups and animated examples of behavior.

SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE

During this time the app logic is built. In the case of symposium, the server side backend as well.

SIGGRAPH 2010

When the final mockups are agreed upon, the front end development begins. Values (shadows, margins, sizes, text size, etc) and sliced PNGs are extracted from the PSD files.

INTERACTION ELEVEN

For the IxDA11 app, I (designer) was able to tweak the existing code to position items, change color values and swap images to match the IxDA11 brand. By wearing another hat, I was able to free up time for Karl (engineer) to work on more complex engineering tasks.

We often start our process in a linear fashion, but quickly find ourselves bouncing back and forth between roles. An idea can spark a series of code tests to validate if something is possible.

While conducting a competitive analysis, a marketing idea might come to mind.

Minor QA issues can circulate for days even weeks in a macro environment, because of their rigid formal process. If we run in to a QA issue, it is usually investigated, discussed and resolved within minutes.

WEAR MORE HATS

FEWER FORMALITIES

BE LIKE WATER
Encourage adaptability by wearing more hats. Get dirty. Learn what your teammates really do by shadowing them for a day or two, or week. Meet your engineer or designer halfway; get a little more familiar with their tools. Teach each other. Design and engineering should be involved from day one in the ideation process. It keeps engineering informed early on of what is expected of them later on, and it informs designers of technological possibilities. Yet, collaboration does not mean Design by Democracy. Rather, allow ideas to flow through the process linear or not and let your opinions regulate the rate. Better software can be made faster if we have fewer formalities. Fewer captains, fewer meetings, means more work force to actually build your product. Captains, stay out of the way.

Links
@thekarladam
contact us: info@smudgeproof.net

@kalkor

TED (traffic stops): http://www.ted.com/talks/ gary_lauder_s_new_traffic_sign_take_turns.html

Inspired (Book): http://www.amazon.com/Inspired-CreateProducts-Customers-Love/dp/0981690408

Bruce Lee Interview: http://vimeo.com/3841165

Gratitude

feedback for this session: http:/ /speakerrate.com/talks/5393-macro-vs-micro