Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Aligning Teams with Choreography
Gold
Monday, January 8, 2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Share the love for this talk
Aligning Teams with Choreography
Speakers: Séamus Byrne
Link:

Summary

External agencies augment internal enterprise teams by providing fresh perspectives and adding energy. However, often the agency's capability is not being utilized to its full potential due to poor engagement strategy. In this talk, Séamus highlights obstacles to "inter-team" integration and presents tactics to prevent engagement issues and empower teams to work better together. We can achieve successful inter-team alignment with choreography, but it involves learning new routines, moving to the same beat, and not stepping on each other's toes. Séamus based this talk on real client stories from running an agency for 12 years.

Key Insights

  • Unprepared internal teams often greet external agencies with skepticism or resistance, harming collaboration from day one.

  • External agencies frequently receive only partial snapshots of a client's organizational landscape, limiting their effectiveness.

  • Shifting project scopes without clear role definitions lead to confusion and diluted responsibility among teams.

  • The 'dancing monkey' culture pressures agencies to perform theatrics instead of focusing on genuine collaboration.

  • Choreography—a practice of designing coordinated movements—can serve as an effective metaphor to align teams and workflows.

  • Clarifying four dimensions—space (zoom level), time (roadmaps and deadlines), people (roles), and routine—improves team integration.

  • A dedicated discovery phase of at least one or two sprints is critical for external teams to onboard deeply and make sense of complex products.

  • Informal 'first rehearsal' sessions before official kickoff meetings facilitate relationship building and realistic collaboration expectations.

  • The Team Alignment Canvas helps surface ambiguous product definitions, vague timelines, and unclear collaboration practices early.

  • Internal champions who proactively manage onboarding and bridge-building are vital to agency-client success.

Notable Quotes

"No two teams are the same. Every team comes with its own unique relationships, expectations, interpersonal dynamics."

"When teams gel well together between outside and inside, that elevates the success of the project."

"Often internally, teams are unprepared for us; they look like, oh my God, not again, they brought an external team."

"As externals, we only get a snapshot of the client's organizational landscape, missing deeper complexity."

"If the nature of the engagement is not precise, expectations are mismatched and scope starts to grow legs."

"The dancing monkey culture expects agencies to turn up and be entertaining, but that doesn't help real collaboration."

"Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements where motion and form are specified—just like aligning teams."

"Clarifying space means understanding the level of zoom of the project—from interface to CEO level involvement."

"We need more than just a kickoff; we need a 'first rehearsal' where teams informally get to know each other and their tools."

"The champion on the client side is the ideal choreographer, building trust and managing onboarding proactively."

Ask the Rosenbot
Dave Hora
Advice for Establishing Research (Videoconference)
2022 • Advancing Research Community
Russell Blair
[Case study] Killing the blank page
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Sam Proulx
To Boldly Go: The New Frontiers of Accessibility
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Mike Oren
Design Research Strategy & Strategic Design Research (Videoconference)
2022 • Advancing Research Community
Nathan Curtis
Design Systems for Us: How Many One-Source(s)-of-Truth Are Enough? (Videoconference)
2019 • DesignOps Community
Bria Alexander
State of DesignOps Panel
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Laura Weiss
There is No Playbook: Leader as Coach During Challenging Times (Videoconference)
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Courtney Kaplan
Taking it to the next level: Career paths in DesignOps
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Nalini P. Kotamraju
Two Jobs in One: Being a “Leader who is a Researcher” and a “Researcher who is a Leader"
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Dem Gerolemou
Climate technology fundamentals (Videoconference)
2024 • Climate UX Interest Group (Rosenfeld Community)
Brad Peters
Short Take #1: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Holly Cole
Understanding Experiences: When you have to do more than work
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Billy Carlson
Ideation tips for Product Managers
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
JP Allen
Navigating the UX Tool Landscape
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Matt Duignan
Atomizing Research: Trend or Trap
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Louis Rosenfeld
Opening Remarks
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold

More Videos

Alex Hurworth

"Knowledge is power; empowering communities leads to better conservation outcomes."

Alex Hurworth Bonnie John Fahd Arshad Antoine Marin

Designing a Contact Tracing App for Universal Access

October 23, 2020

Laine Riley Prokay

"Building connections early in their career could create even more opportunities further along their career path."

Laine Riley Prokay Lisa Gordon

Carving a Path for Early Career DesignOps Practitioners

September 9, 2022

Eniola Oluwole

"If you come with a big idea, they’ll try to dial you back to the smallest iota you can test first."

Eniola Oluwole

Lessons From the DesignOps Journey of the World's Largest Travel Site

October 24, 2019

Nathan Shedroff

"Living personas refreshed constantly with new research allow others to connect with real customer behaviors."

Nathan Shedroff

Double Your Mileage: Use Your Research Strategically

March 31, 2020

Sam Proulx

"The smaller screen makes it easier to angle the device for adequate viewing, which computers just can’t replicate."

Sam Proulx

Mobile Accessibility: Why Moving Accessibility Beyond the Desktop is Critical in a Mobile-first World

November 17, 2022

Feleesha Sterling

"Product and design teams are usually the best initial stakeholders to engage for rapid research programs."

Feleesha Sterling

Building a Rapid Research Program (Videoconference)

May 18, 2023

Neil Barrie

"You get to those iconic signature actions when product excellence meets cultural tensions and what people need."

Neil Barrie

Widening the Aperture: The Case for Taking a Broader Lens to the Dialogue between Products and Culture

March 25, 2024

John Devanney

"We move here. We never actually become New Yorkers."

John Devanney

The Design Management Office

November 6, 2017

Katy Mogal

"If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair."

Katy Mogal

But Do Your Insights Scale?

March 12, 2021