How to Avoid Last-Minute Scope Changes (3 Critical UX Questions, Part 5 of 7)
Ғылым және технология
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: You’re in the home stretch of development heading toward toward launch, when people in the organization you’ve never heard from suddenly swoop in and mandate changes to everything you’ve done.
Author and tech business guru Guy Kawasaki calls this a “swoop and poop.” It’s what happens when people with power and influence swoop in, dump all over everything that’s been done and fly away - until the next time. And everyone is left grinding their teeth and moaning “how (and why) did this happen?”
It happened because from day one, from initial planning to requirements sessions to prototyping, they weren’t at the table. Why do they have so much influence? Because they’re carrying the most risk. If the project fails, it’s their necks on the chopping block. And if you don’t know that - and proceed without their input - the scenario above will play out repeatedly over the life of the project. You’ll go down one, two, six or eight paths, and the target will keep moving. You’ll be stuck in a situation where nobody can agree on what you’re supposed to be designing or building.
And no matter how good you may be, you will find that the target moves much faster than you do.
In this fifth installment of our video series, I’m going to show you how to figure out who needs to be at the table from day one, and I’ll give you a formula for identifying the often “hidden” stakeholders that should be involved (but almost always aren’t).
ALSO IN THIS SERIES
Part 1: 3 Critical Questions You Must Ask
• 3 Critical UX Question...
Part 2: Which UX Features and Functions are Most Valuable?
• Which UX Features and ...
Part 3: Convincing Stakeholders to Shorten the Feature List
• Convincing Stakeholder...
Part 4: Eliminating Misunderstanding: What Are We Creating?
• Eliminating Misunderst...
Part 5: How to Avoid Last-Minute Scope Changes
• How to Avoid Last-Minu...
Part 6: The Be-All, End-All Key to Delivering Great UX
• The Be-All, End-All Ke...
Part 7: The Long Wow: Delivering Great UX with Every Update
• The Long Wow: Deliveri...
MORE UX TIPS, TOOLS & RESOURCES
If you found this video valuable, I invite you to check out the following URLs, where you can see more examples of advice, guidance and resources that can help you grow your career, navigate daily challenges and obstacles (and people), work smarter and deliver truly powerful user experiences:
My UX 365 Academy (300,000 + students enrolled):
www.ux365academy.com
My Website (LOTS of freebies in the RESOURCES section):
givegoodux.com
Пікірлер: 8
Representatives from every dept. That piece of advice is gold!!! That feeling you get when you think you've designed something that solves all the problems of the world until you talk To That One Guy or Gal and realize you missed a massive part of the story, and your solution dies on its sword....is best avoided by what you suggested here. And it's that one piece of advice that only comes from hard experience!! Swoop and Poop!!!!
@joenatoliUX
5 жыл бұрын
Something I certainly learned the hard way, Kristin - but never forgot the lesson ;-)
You brilliantly explained this concept. Thank you!
@joenatoli
7 жыл бұрын
Thank you Gail! Thrilled to hear it was useful.
This must be the biggest struggle I have - it is always said to be a to costly exercise. And then everybody body wonders why the poop starts flying.
@joenatoliUX
8 жыл бұрын
Hey Johannes - it's everyone's biggest struggle, so know that you're not alone. And you're correct in that it's tough to get stakeholders to understand that it's a case of pay now (do the work now) or pay later (redo it later). In most cases, the cost of not having everyone collaborate upfront multiplies later when your scope expands, deadlines are missed, budget is blown, etc....but that's why they need us. Keep fighting the good fight!
Thank you. What questions do you ask stake holders?
@joenatoliUX
5 жыл бұрын
Many of the same questions I ask in this series, for starters ;-) Next, you might want to check out this article: www.givegoodux.com/want-stakeholder-buy-in-see-ux-their-way/ Finally, the key questions you need to ask stakeholders all revolve around what they WANT - professionally, of course, but personally as well. "What do you want to see happen once this launches?" "What outcome would tell you this work, time and expense was all worthwhile?" "How soon would you want to see that result happen?" Get to what's driving the request for improvement in the first place. You have to know what success means to them and how they define it before you propose anything.