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.

Design is Not the Frosting on the Scaled Agile Layer Cake
Gold
Thursday, October 24, 2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Share the love for this talk
Design is Not the Frosting on the Scaled Agile Layer Cake
Speakers: Erin Hauber
Link:

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

  • Large legacy organizations experience layers of overlapping change that complicate design adoption.

  • Scaled Agile Framework initially obscured design’s role, triggering frustration among designers.

  • Empathy must be applied inwardly to understand designer and employee feelings during change.

  • Design research revealed employee overwhelm, confusion, and a lack of clear starting points amidst change.

  • Tailoring SAFe to company needs requires breaking down silos and clarifying cross-functional teams through shared value definitions.

  • Successful cross-functional collaboration can enable domain experts, like lawyers, to co-create compliant yet user-friendly solutions.

  • Design teams must demystify their work and demonstrate immediate practical value to overcome resistance.

  • Framing multiple changes as one cohesive movement helps reduce paralysis and encourage adoption.

  • Courage is necessary to question and adapt established frameworks like SAFe in service of design integration.

  • 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."

Tess Dixon
C'mon Get Happy
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Wendy Johansson
Be a Product Boss!
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Richard Buchanan
Creativity and Principles in the Flourishing Enterprise
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Mark Interrante
AI for Prioritization (3rd of 3 seminars) (Videoconference)
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Uday Gajendar
Theme 1: Introduction
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Emily Eagle
Can't Rewind: Radio and Retail
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
Gonzalo Goyanes
Design ROI: Cover a Little, Get a Lot
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
The Many Faces of Operations
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Gold
Shelby Switzer
Making Space for Community Knowledge-sharing in a Distributed World
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Frances Yllana
The Big Question about Impact: A Panel Discussion
2024 • DesignOps 2024
Gold
Lais de Almeida
Designing Data Services
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Theresa Neil
Just Build Me a Dashboard! (Videoconference)
2019 • Enterprise Community
Prerna Makanawala
Achieving Balanced Design Consistency
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Tim Parmee
Changing Our Design Pressure Points
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Emily Danielson
“I mean, I can lift a shovel”: Design Skills in Disaster Response
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Making People the X-Factor in the Enterprise
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold

More Videos

Monty Hammontree

"Our mission is to empower everybody to learn, not just have a few people learning on behalf of the rest."

Monty Hammontree

The Future of UX Research (Videoconference)

December 3, 2020

Liz Ebengo

"We always begin our research from the future to the future: start with the community’s envisioned future to guide design."

Liz Ebengo

The Burden on Children: The Cost of Insufficient Post-Conflict Services and Pathways Forward

December 4, 2024

Billy Carlson

"Tell a story with your design by starting with background, introducing the users, and demonstrating how the design benefits them."

Billy Carlson

Tips to Utilize Wireframes to Tell an Effective Product Story

June 6, 2023

Saara Kamppari-Miller

"Nothing about us without us means bringing people in throughout the research and design processes."

Saara Kamppari-Miller

Inclusive Design is DesignOps

September 29, 2021

Ian Swinson

"Leadership does not mean standing in front of a room. It means mentoring, influencing, and helping others grow."

Ian Swinson

Designing and Driving UX Careers

June 8, 2016

Jonathon Colman

"Where there’s life, there’s hope — failure teaches us, but resilience and rebuilding are even more meaningful."

Jonathon Colman

How to Maximize the Impact of Content Design

January 8, 2024

Maria Skaaden

"Designers felt like hamsters on a wheel, always reacting and never able to explore or refine ideas."

Maria Skaaden

Continuous Design: One eye on the horizon and the other on the next wave

November 8, 2018

Bryce Benton

"I copied and pasted that from GitHub back into ChatGPT, and now it's writing markdown formatted documentation for me."

Bryce Benton

[Demo] AI-powered UX enhancement: Aligning GitHub documentation with USWDS at Austin Public Library

June 4, 2024

Marc Fonteijn

"This report is really about finding clues to make smarter career decisions, not necessarily about giving you definitive answers."

Marc Fonteijn

First Insights from the 2025 Service Design Salary(+) Report

December 4, 2024