1. The document discusses designing the stakeholder experience in product development. It emphasizes that design is about how products work and how teams collaborate, not just aesthetics.
2. Fear and anxiety are natural responses that can derail projects if not managed. The presenter argues for helping stakeholders understand that transformations take time and focusing on incremental improvements rather than triggering fear.
3. Successful project kickoffs require clarity of vision, aligned goals, and starting from a shared context. The presenter advocates facilitating activities like clarity canvassing and story mapping to achieve stakeholder buy-in from the beginning.
2. 1. Design is more than how it looks:
Why you should design the stakeholder experience
2. Fear is the mind-killer:
Why are fear and anxiety are important to manage
3. Fear and loathing on the project kickoff:
Why starting an agile project right, with clarity and alignment is important
4. Lose them at the beginning and you’ve lost them for good:
How to make stakeholders feel comfortable (and in control) by applying a repeatable framework
5. How we do it at Rangle:
An overview of the kickoff/discovery process
What I’ll cover in this talk:
@mikecostanzo | #webunleashed
3. Why we should design the
stakeholder experience?
Design is more than how it looks
14. Most people make the mistake of thinking
design is what it looks like. People think it’s
this veneer – that the designers are handed
this box and told, “Make it look good!” That’s
not what we think design is. It’s not just
what it looks like and feels like. Design
is how it works.”
— Steve Jobs
“
16. Why we should design the stakeholder experience?
1. Most people don’t know what application designers do.
2. The shift from websites to web apps is so subtle that most
people don’t know the difference. Probably including your
CEO. We have to educate them.
3. Design is more than what it looks like it’s about how it works.
4. We can also design the systems we use to work together.
@mikecostanzo | #webunleashed
17. In the modern world of
business, it is useless to be
a creative, original thinker
unless you can also
sell what you create.
— David Ogilvy
@mikecostanzo | #webunleashed
33. Why are fear and anxiety important to manage
Fear is the mind-killer
1. Agile transformations take time.
2. Fear and anxiety are basic, primordial responses to our
environment. Manage them or they’ll derail your plans.
3. You can’t beat biology.
34. Your stakeholders might associate agile with a broken process.
Part of your job is to help them
understand that agile
transformations take time and
incremental improvement.
35. “The main function of fear and anxiety is to act as a signal of
danger, threat, or motivational conflict… Anxiety is a generalized
response to an unknown threat or internal conflict, whereas fear
is focused on known external danger.”
— Thierry Steimer, Ph.D. from The biology of fear and anxiety-related behaviors
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181681/
36. “...a basic aspect of anxiety appears to
be uncertainty.”
— Strongman KT. The Psychology of Emotion. Theories of Emotion in Perspective.
Chichester, UK: John Wiley & sons; 1996
37. “The Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) plays a pivotal role in executive functions
that include: long-term planning, understanding rules, calculating the
consequences of risk and reward, regulating emotions, problem-solving,
and decision-making. Anxiety, in both animals and humans, appears
to disrupt brain neurones in the PFC that are critical for making
smart decisions.”
— Christopher Bergland, How Does Anxiety Short Circuit the Decision-Making Process?
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201603/how-does-anxiety-short-circuit-the-decision-making-process
38. You can’t beat biology.
Never underestimate the
effects of fear and anxiety on
decision-making.
39. 1. Only time and incremental improvements lead to last agile
transformations
2. Try not to do things that create anxiety in your stakeholders
3. When people are fearful and anxious it leads to irrational
decisions and bad outcomes
Fear really is the mind-killer
40. Fear and loathing on the project kickoff
Why starting an agile project right, with
clarity and alignment is important
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dogseatingdogs/9487200349
1. Clarity of vision
2. Alignment of goals
3. Starting from the same point is space and time
45. 1. Start by defining a clear vision that is agreed upon. Make sure
the right people are in the room
2. Align on goals so you know where you need what you need to
achieve and how to get there becomes clearer
3. Starting with shared context and alignment will make the
project run smoother and the team more effective
Towards a better kickoff
46. Make stakeholders feel comfortable
(and in control) in three easy steps
Lose them at the beginning and you’ve lost them for good
1. Drop your ego
2. Understand their perspective
3. Align on their outcomes
47. #1: Drop your ego.
Your ego won’t help you build a great
stakeholder experience.
(It’ll just make life difficult for you.)
48. #2: Understand their perspective.
They’re the expert about their product,
company, industry.
This makes them a valuable partner.
49. #3: Align on their outcomes.
Build trust.
Show them that you’re committed
to the same outcomes as they are.
50. Stakeholders aren’t approval machines.
Build empathy for them, just as you would
for end-users.
1. Your ego won’t help you build a great stakeholder
experience. It will likely destroy it.
2. View them as an expert and a valuable partner and see
what happens
3. Build trust by committing to the shared outcomes.
51. An overview of our kickoff/discovery process
How we do it at Rangle
1. Clarity Canvas
2. Story Mapping
3. The importance of facilitation
52. 1-844-GO-RANGLE
129 Spadina Ave, Suite 600,
Toronto, ON M5V 2L3, Canada
email: info@rangle.io
twitter: @rangleio
Owen Mullings Naomi Bower Katrina Rempel Justina Choi
Daniel Schifano Claudia Reinoza Fatima Remtullah Lauren Suh
Matt Mischuk Paul Golebiewski Richard Hobeiche Lindsie Canton
55. Clarity Canvas Structure
1. Project Goals
○ What outcomes do you want to achieve, as a result of completing this project successfully?
2. Target Users/Key Stakeholders
○ Whose goals & concerns do we need to address to make this project successful?
3. User Journey
○ Starting with the highest priority goal of the highest priority end-user, create a User Journey Map.
4. Risks and Assumptions
○ These should identified and flagged throughout the Clarity Canvas session by anyone in
the room. The riskier the assumption, the greater chance it can derail the project, and the
sooner it should be tested.
61. Successful facilitation lets you shift
the dynamic in powerful ways for
your stakeholders, for the project
team, and for yourself as a designer:
instead of simply being handed the
'what', and being tasked with
designing and building that thing,
you're delving into the 'why'.”
— Naomi Bower
@mikecostanzo | #webunleashed
“
62. What we’ve covered in this talk:
1. Design is more than how it looks:
Why you should design the stakeholder experience
2. Fear is the mind-killer:
Why are fear and anxiety are important to manage
3. Fear and loathing on the project kickoff:
Why starting an agile project right, with clarity and alignment is important
4. Lose them at the beginning and you’ve lost them for good:
How to make stakeholders feel comfortable (and in control) by applying a repeatable framework
5. How we do it at Rangle:
An overview of the kickoff/discovery process