Design Thinking and Agile

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Martijn Veldkamp

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February 18, 2017

Is it same-same but different?

When to use one or the other

How do we determine which frameworks, organisational models and activities will get us from the products and services of now to those of tomorrow? I think they are both compelling theories but for different pieces of the puzzle

“Innovation is no longer just about new technology per se. It is about new models of organisation. Design is no longer just about form anymore but is a method of thinking that can let you to see around corners. And the high tech breakthroughs that do count today are not about speed and performance but about collaboration, conversation and co-creation.”

Bruce Nussbaum

Design Thinking is used strategically by using “design methods” to find the right question and begin to answer it. Agile is mostly used operationally, usually when building software, where once a question is asked, teams iterate toward a solution.

With some experimenting and some guidance of an outside consultant it must be possible to blend the two approaches as both Design Thinking and Agile emphasize people over processes

Design Thinking and Agile are similar, different and intertwined.

Introduction

Today, most organisations utilise many technologies in order to source, process, transport and deliver products and services. All of these technologies, as well as most, if not all, of the business processes still performed manually, are underpinned by information technology. As Microsoft’s Bill Gates said,

“Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don’t think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without talking about the other.“

Change is occurring in both the business and IT environments at a far more rapid pace now than it has ever been. The rate of change is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition and new technology will probably speed up even more in the next few decades in most industries.

Due to this extensive use of technology in a rapidly changing competitive environment, the need to continually align an organisation’s technology, product and services with its business direction has therefore become increasingly urgent and increasingly difficult. Therefore the rise of methods like Design Thinking and Agile. Both are converging on the challenges outlined above but they have quite different backgrounds.

Characteristics Design Thinking methodology

Design Thinking is used strategically by using design methods to find the right question and begin to answer it. It is a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity.

The methodology is historically applied by designers during their designing processes, but can be used by everyone to solve every-day problems on a creatively manner.

Characterics Agile methodologies

Agile refers to a sort of group of software development methodologies based on iterative software development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration.

Agile methods generally promote a disciplined project management process that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, teamwork, self-organization and accountability and a business approach that aligns software development with customer needs and company goals.

What are similarities of the methodologies?

Both methodologies use input from outside the team doing the work. Designers do user research, gather business needs and discuss technology possibilities. For Agile this looks more like creating backlogs, writing user stories and determining success metrics. Other similarity is the iteration. Both processes embrace iteration as part of the process and therefore establishing ongoing refinement upto the business value. Perhaps most interesting similarity is that both methodologies s that employees (people) are the focal point for creating value. This is stimulated by organising employees in cross functional teams which stimulate cross functional solutions of a product, service or software.

Which differences can be recognized?

There are also some differences. Agile in general doesn’t have a ‘synthesis’ stage. Usually the result from the last iteration are the direct input for the next iteration. It’s common for requirements to be updated and prioritised before work commences again. Design Thinking takes a step back and tries to gather learnings and then spotting patterns to make an informed leap to something new.

Other difference is the staging of the product development. The legacy of Design means that we still often think in terms of projects with a beginning, middle and end of a product development. At the end the final product will be delivered. In between semi manufacturers are deployed and tested. Agile definitely has stage gates of deployment (alpha, beta, launch) but has the ability to deploy a solution which can be seen as finished product at any point in time. The design process of a product or service perhaps needs these points to force a coherent output or avoid high des-investments in unused product-/service developments. Where the design process of software doesn’t have thes hurdles.

Perhaps the most interesting difference is in the range of tools to get the job done. From simple things (like pens and paper) to more complex tools (like the Business Model Canvas), Design Thinking can be as simple as taping some things together.

Blurring or intertwining

Perhaps the biggest cause of blurring is in the teams itself and their use of shared software in all stages of both Agile and Design Thinking. It’s now common to find design teams with software engineers and software teams with designer. When diverse teams bring their processes together blurring is inevitable. The same laptops and the same software are used and it’s increasingly easy for non-technical people to carry out software engineering or modeling tasks. The new software frameworks of today means that designers with their first mockups are actually developing very advanced software. Equally design patterns and libraries like Google’s Material Design or Apple’s Design Bible makes it easier for developers to produce advanced visual interfaces. The difference between a high resolution prototype and production ready code is, in some cases, now zero.

Conclusion

Design Thinking and Agile are similar, different and intertwined.

Where Design Thinking is used strategically by using design methods to find the right question and begin to answer it. Agile is mostly used operationally, usually when building software, where once a question is asked, teams iterate toward a solution.

There’s a term called post-agilism that has its own manifesto that is delightfully to the point. Here’s the core:

If it works, do it.

If it doesn’t, don’t.

Both methods and their usage seems to develop in a new term called Growth hacking, but that is for another blog.