Summary
For many in Design and UX, news that your company or organization is adopting the Scaled Agile Framework can feel like the beginning of the end for fully integrating design and design teams in the software development lifecycle. But it doesn’t have to be this way. I will talk about how Design and Business Agility built a deep and cross-functional partnership at USAA to bake a human-centered approach into the Scaled Agile layer cake resulting in: SAFe Coaches who advocate for design, a Lean Business Case that uncouples business and user outcomes, and a shared definition of value that aligns whole teams on the best outcomes.
Key Insights
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Large legacy organizations experience layers of overlapping change that complicate design adoption.
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Scaled Agile Framework initially obscured design’s role, triggering frustration among designers.
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Empathy must be applied inwardly to understand designer and employee feelings during change.
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Design research revealed employee overwhelm, confusion, and a lack of clear starting points amidst change.
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Tailoring SAFe to company needs requires breaking down silos and clarifying cross-functional teams through shared value definitions.
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Successful cross-functional collaboration can enable domain experts, like lawyers, to co-create compliant yet user-friendly solutions.
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Design teams must demystify their work and demonstrate immediate practical value to overcome resistance.
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Framing multiple changes as one cohesive movement helps reduce paralysis and encourage adoption.
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Courage is necessary to question and adapt established frameworks like SAFe in service of design integration.
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Cultural movements, champion cultivation, storytelling, and covetable materials help embed design practices at scale.
Notable Quotes
"Change is a constant in design."
"The Scaled Agile Framework felt like a step backwards for design at first."
"Design is not just the finishing touch on experiences; it’s a key ingredient."
"Empathy applies to us too, to understand what people think, feel, and do in the midst of change."
"People were working in isolation not because they didn't want to collaborate, but because they misunderstood what collaboration really meant."
"A lawyer became the person who said yes and, not no, by working closely with the team."
"We have to make design immediately usable and valuable, not mysterious or overwhelming."
"Framing all these changes as one change helped open honest conversations about struggles and started people on the journey."
"SAFE is trademarked, but it’s not sacred; we can adapt it to our needs."
"You can’t be what you can’t see—Stories from the field help people imagine themselves working differently."
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