Agile + User Experience: How to navigate the Agile landscape as an UX Practitioner
Summary
In 1993 Don Norman coined the phrase User Experience (UX), suggesting software be built with user’s needs at the core. In 2001, Agile was formally introduced as a framework to accelerate and improve software development. We’ve come a long way in 20 years, but there’s often still questions about how UX and Agile fit together. In this session we’ll share best practices we’ve found helpful in creating alignment, managing workflow, and improving outcomes. The goal is not to endorse a specific framework but to speak broadly to agile concepts and their application for UX practitioners in navigating the Agile landscape.
Key Insights
-
•
UX practitioners often play multiple roles but sharing these across a team improves quality and velocity.
-
•
Embedding one UX member per scrum team works for small teams but can limit specialized UX focus.
-
•
A shared UX service team enables fluid support across multiple scrum teams and encourages swarming.
-
•
Attending only necessary agile ceremonies avoids overloading UX practitioners while maintaining alignment.
-
•
UX work ahead of development aligns with agile when done collaboratively during discovery and exploration phases.
-
•
Writing clear, scoped UX Jira tickets with acceptance criteria improves transparency, predictability, and stakeholder buy-in.
-
•
Decomposing UX work into manageable sprint-sized tickets helps improve delivery cadence and planning.
-
•
Effective documentation for accessibility ensures all team members, especially newcomers, understand domain context.
-
•
Using Confluence or similar tools as a centralized repository makes UX knowledge easily accessible and maintainable.
-
•
Creating video walkthroughs of UX flows aids comprehension across non-design teams and clients.
Notable Quotes
"If we can do many of these UX roles, we’re unicorns, but it still takes the same amount of time."
"A smaller agile team may require less documentation but has less scope and velocity impact."
"A shared UX service team can swarm to support different scrum teams as needs arise, increasing impact."
"UX work done ahead of development is not un-agile; we draft blueprints before building."
"Tech, business, and UX should collaborate through discovery, exploration, build, and evaluation phases."
"A good UX ticket is just like any other ticket — clear title, description, acceptance criteria, and scope."
"It’s really helpful to ask for meeting agendas in advance to attend only ceremonies where UX dependencies exist."
"If it’s not on Confluence, it doesn’t exist — having a living document repository is critical."
"Recording videos with voiceover to walk through user flows has become invaluable for sharing complex scenarios."
"Trust your UX team to represent each other when attending different scrum teams’ ceremonies."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"We wanted them to see the government not as an old machine, but as people who see themselves as users."
Sofía Delsordo Kassim VeraPublic Policy for Jalisco's Designers to Make Design Matter
December 8, 2021
"Curiosity and asking lots of questions helps push boundaries and improve solutions."
Product and Design at Bloomberg: A 15-year Evolution
December 6, 2022
"People were doing incentives in different ways, using their own cards, which was confusing, so I centralized it."
Liza Pemstein Jane DavisScaling Research Via an Ops First Model at Clever
March 27, 2023
"High-level leadership changes in government often result in shifts in organizational moods and priorities."
Kara KaneTheme One Intro
November 16, 2022
"Think of AI not as a magic eight ball, but as a highly educated intern that can help with routine tasks."
Mark Interrante Harry MaxAI for Prioritization (3rd of 3 seminars)
July 11, 2024
"People with disabilities often pay more to buy from stores they trust are accessible and where they feel confident."
Sam ProulxOnline Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
October 3, 2023
"UX really doesn’t have a seat at the table yet and that has some implications for us."
Rich MironovHow Can Product Managers and UXers Help Each Other (and Why are Product Folks so Annoying Sometimes)?
December 6, 2022
"Designing healthcare means thinking about how your city, state, and nation work."
Juhan SoninDesign Now! The Agenda for Action
September 4, 2025
"Snow clearing policies choose to clear roads before pavements, deeply ignoring responsibilities that are likely to fall on women."
Mansi GuptaDrawing from Feminist Practice to Make Inclusive Design Operational
September 9, 2022
