Continuous Design: One eye on the horizon and the other on the next wave
Summary
How do you create the conditions for delivering a great customer experience on a rapidly changing platform? In 2016, Norway’s national railway company began building a new technology platform. As designers, we yearned to address the customer’s actual needs and desires, not just a fresh look and technical upgrade. But with no process, principles, tools, or internal design resources, where do you start?
Key Insights
-
•
Privatization forced MSB to relinquish control over ticket machines and IT, compelling a new digital-focused strategy.
-
•
Designers initially faced tension with developers due to different paces and priorities within agile.
-
•
Introducing 'waves' as outcome-focused releases helped align design and development processes beyond fixed sprint durations.
-
•
Design sprints kickstarted collaboration and built shared understanding across cross-functional teams.
-
•
Users prefer familiar interfaces, valuing trust and habit over new designs, complicating redesign efforts.
-
•
Simple, quick feedback tools like a 'give feedback' button can generate valuable and actionable user insights.
-
•
Open access to user feedback motivates developers to solve real user problems proactively.
-
•
Ecological validity in user research is critical—testing must happen in users’ real contexts to be meaningful.
-
•
Continuous learning loops enable teams to adapt products iteratively based on real user data and changing business goals.
-
•
Successful design in agile requires processes that create space for designing great experiences rather than forcing designers to keep up with rapid deliveries.
Notable Quotes
"The starting point was a very technical one: please make the user experience exactly the same a year from now."
"It’s not about old versus new. It’s about trust and deeply rooted habits."
"Designers felt like hamsters in a hamster wheel, always reacting, never exploring."
"Waves are defined by the outcome we want to achieve, not just by time frames."
"Google Design Sprint is the best inception strategy I know for design thinking."
"Giving the whole team access to feedback made them feel responsible and inspired to solve user needs."
"Ecological validity means the test must happen in an environment as close to reality as possible."
"We’re not building to build, we’re building to learn."
"How can developers and designers work together to create great products? That’s the question."
"One eye on the horizon and the other on the next wave is the perspective teams need to deliver quality digital products."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Data sovereignty is about who owns your data, which country’s laws apply, and how vulnerable groups are fairly protected."
Xenia Adjoubei Sean BruceEmpowering Communities Through the Researcher in Residence Program
March 29, 2023
"We were reinventing the wheel every time we entered a new market, which was incredibly slow and inefficient."
Tamara KartoziiaThink global, adapt local: how service design accelerated B2B market entry by 6 months
November 20, 2025
"It is not our job to know all the answers, but to make sure the right questions are asked."
Jay BustamanteNavigating the Ethical Frontier: DesignOps Strategies for Responsible AI Innovation
October 2, 2023
"Not everyone has the same capacity to aspire to a future; this is critical when working with marginalized communities."
Nicole AleongFuture Orientations to Everyday Life: Futures Anthropology as a Methodology
March 26, 2024
"Creative constraints can actually bring out the most creative solutions."
Nick LewisDesigning and building low-carbon websites independently
November 18, 2025
"Even if you had designed it, I wouldn’t have prioritized it."
Vicky Teinaki Michele Marut Tim ParmeeShort Take #3: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers
December 6, 2022
"The presence of conflict is often an indication that something new is trying to emerge."
Laura WeissTurn Down the Heat: 3 Ways to Handle Conflict in the Moment
November 20, 2024
"We believe in coexistence of our tool, ChatGPT, and real customer visits where possible."
Joerg Beringer Thomas GeisScaling User Research with AI: Continuous Discovery of User Needs in Minutes
June 10, 2025
"Be present, put devices down, turn off Slack notifications, and really engage."
Shelby SwitzerMaking Space for Community Knowledge-sharing in a Distributed World
December 10, 2021
