Summary
Great collaboration is the secret sauce of successful development teams. At its core, collaboration comes from the culture of your company and the dynamics of your team. This entertaining session will demonstrate how the dynamics of jazz improvisation serve as a model for better teamwork with live music on stage. The lessons from jazz are particularly important for design, much of which involves collaborating with others: gathering requirements from stakeholders, ideating in project teams, and iterating with developers. Great design requires practitioners to be not only skilled craftsmen equipped with the right tools, but also expert collaborators and facilitators. Jazz gives us a model to help us move in that direction in a modern, agile way. Jim Kalbach will be joined by three special guests.
Key Insights
-
•
Jazz improvisation relies on structured rules of engagement, not free-for-all creativity.
-
•
Miles Davis's 'Kind of Blue' album was mostly recorded in first takes, showcasing spontaneity's power.
-
•
The concept of the 'head' in jazz acts like a fixed framework around which improvisation occurs.
-
•
The iterative form of jazz solos resembles agile sprints in software development.
-
•
Shared patterns and rituals enable teams to collaborate effectively without prior rehearsal.
-
•
Planning for uncertainty is a paradox that jazz musicians embrace to enable creativity.
-
•
Frameworks like design sprints function similarly to jazz forms by providing structure for improvisation.
-
•
Establishing consistent collaboration rules and routines in design teams improves outcomes.
-
•
Improvisation in work benefits from focusing on rules of engagement rather than just deliverables.
-
•
The synergy of listening and not trying to outperform others fosters better group creativity.
Notable Quotes
"Within improv, it’s a combination of listening and not trying to be funny."
"Miles gave them the music as they entered. They didn’t know what they were going to be playing."
"Each first take was the only take, which got pressed on the album."
"We’re focused on the outcome. As soon as we count off the song, it’s going."
"Jazz musicians aren’t just making things up; there’s an underlying structure that governs the creativity."
"That unit there is kind of like a sprint."
"Design sprints are popular because they give us that format so we don’t have to improvise how we collaborate."
"Do you have design critique Wednesdays, or user Fridays? Are there patterns or rituals?"
"Collaboration is your secret sauce in the end."
"If you try to improvise both the how and the what at the same time, it gets messy."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Knowledge is power; empowering communities leads to better conservation outcomes."
Alex Hurworth Bonnie John Fahd Arshad Antoine MarinDesigning a Contact Tracing App for Universal Access
October 23, 2020
"Mentors are wonderful partners for feedback, collaboration, and setting employees up for success."
Laine Riley Prokay Lisa GordonCarving a Path for Early Career DesignOps Practitioners
September 9, 2022
"People were very adverse to changes because a small 0.5% conversion increase meant millions in revenue."
Eniola OluwoleLessons From the DesignOps Journey of the World's Largest Travel Site
October 24, 2019
"Strategy should be continuous, circular, and evolve with every action the organization takes."
Nathan ShedroffDouble Your Mileage: Use Your Research Strategically
March 31, 2020
"Voice control on mobile goes beyond digital assistants and can fully control the device for users who cannot use touch."
Sam ProulxMobile Accessibility: Why Moving Accessibility Beyond the Desktop is Critical in a Mobile-first World
November 17, 2022
"If your design team cannot act quickly on findings, rapid research is not the method for you."
Feleesha SterlingBuilding a Rapid Research Program (Videoconference)
May 18, 2023
"Overlaying cultural dialogue on journey maps reveals impactful insights that need to be validated but are promising."
Neil BarrieWidening the Aperture: The Case for Taking a Broader Lens to the Dialogue between Products and Culture
March 25, 2024
"We move here. We never actually become New Yorkers."
John DevanneyThe Design Management Office
November 6, 2017
"It’s not about the specific tool, but about how you expose people to the insights in a way that excites them."
Katy MogalBut Do Your Insights Scale?
March 12, 2021