working in an agile way - content creation, delivery and standards
TRANSCRIPT
Working in an Agile wayCONTENT CREATION, DELIVERY AND STANDARDS
In this master class1. DEVELOPING A VISION§Welcome
§ Creating a digital content strategy
§ Exercise – Making a start
§ Break.
2. DISCOVERY AND USER STORIES§ Role of discovery
§ Running a user story workshop
§ Exercise – Course search
§ Break.
3. COLLABORATIVEWORK§ Exercise – Task board
§ Exercise – Stand up
§ Build a community
§ Developing standards
§ Question time.
Who we are§ Richard Prowse – Digital Editor-‐In-‐Chief
§ Justin Owen – Digital Editor
§ Rhian Griggs – Digital Editor.
What we do§ 16-‐strong digital team
§Work with extended teams in our faculties and administrative services
§ Develop platforms and services
§ Set and implement standards
§ Deliver “core” content.
1. Developing a vision
Developing a vision§ You need to have a plan, this will help you to focus on the things that matter
§ In Agile plans often take the form of a roadmap
§ Roadmaps tell the story of what you are trying to achieve in a way that your stakeholders will understand
§ Detailed planning happens as part of the sprint process
§ In Agile the best people to plan how something will be delivered are those who will be working on it.
How to develop a vision§ Set out some principles for your team – this defines the way you’ll work with stakeholders
§ Set some realistic goals that will improve your content
§ Start small and focus on the things that matter the most
§ As you learn more, be willing to change your approach – iterate!
Developing a roadmap§ There are lots of great examples of roadmaps, including Bath and the Government Digital Services (GDS)
§ All follow a similar format: § A timeline§ The problem§ How you’ll solve it § The benefits.
§ The focus of your roadmap should directly relate to your goals.
Roadmap templateWe’ve created a template you can download and use.
Exercise – making a start§Work in pairs
§ Choose one of our themes. Spend 10 minutes thinking about a single problem you’d like to fix with your digital content
§Write down how you’ll solve it and what the benefits will be
§ Use the template provided
§ Swap over.
Take a break
2. Discovery and user stories
The role of discoveryYou can’t build successful products and services based on business needs alone.
Discovery:§ is a collaborative process§ cuts through organisational politics§ helps stakeholders understand their users§ develops a single, deliverable, product vision.
Starting conversations“...we’ve been looking at our website and we want more images so it’s more engaging to users.”
“We want a ‘Book now!’ button at the bottom of the page, so people read all the detail first.”
“We need social sharing buttons on every page so our content gets more reach.”
Changing the conversationDATA
§ Visitor analytics
§ Search logs
§ Conversion ratios
§ Google trends.
OUTCOME
§ Dispel myths
§ Empower stakeholders
§Reset expectations
§ Clear path for discussion.
Get stakeholders involvedRESEARCH
§ Applicant surveys
§ Online surveys
§ User testing
§ Peer review
§ Ethnographic studies.
USER STORIES
§ Straight forward
§ Quick
§ Develop user focus
§ Visual/shareable results
§ Create perception of value.
Running a user story workshop1. Get the right mix of people
2. Make sure you’ve got Post-‐it notes and Sharpies
3. Set a plan and timescales for the session
4. Be clear about what participants will achieve
5. Supply plenty of sweets and biscuits.
Scenario You are an Agile delivery team from a arts-‐based university specialising in media, including computer animation, broadcast production, film makingand journalism.
Your business analyst has reported high levels of dissatisfaction with the course search facility on your website.
§ You need to plan a new course search tool and launch the first version within 2 months
§ You’ll be using user stories to start your planning
§ You must work out what is Minimum Viable Product (MVP)/ Minimum Desirable Product (MDP).
In this sessionWhat user stories are
Exercise: Identify needs for a new course search app
§ Task 1 -‐ Identify user top tasks§ Discuss and prioritise
§Task 2 -‐ Write user stories for functionality and content§ Discuss and refine
User storiesA simple description of what someone needs, told from their perspective.
As a… [role]I need/want… [goal]So that… [benefit]
Epic user storiesAn epic is a bigger, top level story
§ too big to implement in one iteration
§ needs to be broken out.
EXAMPLE EPIC
As a prospective student
I need to know about all your courses
So that I can work out whether anything interests me
User storiesA need-‐focused user story is:
§ detailed
§ topic specific
§ task driven
§ actionable.
EXAMPLE
As a prospective student
I need to know the grade requirements forBA (Hons) in Media management
So that I know whether I am eligible to apply
Task 1: Identify top user needs
TASK
Write down 3 to 5 search features or content that users will need when looking for courses.
Examples:
§ ‘Search by keyword and exam grades’
§ ‘Browseable search by course category’
§ ‘Detailed information on course module options.’
REMEMBER
§Write 1 need per Post-‐it
§ Use Plain English
§ Keep descriptions short
§Write clearly.
You are a prospective student looking to come to University.
What are the main features and /or content you want from South West University’s course search?
Task 2: Write user storiesUsing the list of Minimum Viable Product needs, write 3 user stories that clearly explain why the user needs the features or content.
As a… [role]I need/want… [goal]So that… [benefit]
Think about one thing you’ve learnt today that you could implement and which would transform your organisation.
Take a break
3. Collaborative work
Setting up a task board§We use a free online tool called Trello (you don’t need to use the paid version)
§ Task boards are made up of five columns:§ ‘Icebox’ – where you store user stories you aren’t working on§ ‘To do’ – the stories you plan to work on in the next 2 weeks (we call this a Sprint)§ ‘Doing’ – the stories you’re working on right now§ ‘Review’ – the things you’ve completed that need reviewing§ ‘Done’ – stories that have been reviewed and accepted.
§ The aim is to move every card from left to right. Anything that isn’t completed returns to the ‘Icebox’ to be rescheduled.
Group exercise – task boardHow to set up a task board based on your user stories§ Add your user story§ Prioritise the stories§ Break into tasks.
Task board templateWe’ve created a template you can copy
Holding a Stand-‐upEvery morning the team meets for 10 minutes. We tell each other:
§ the single most important thing we worked on yesterday
§ the single most important thing to work on that day
§ anything that is blocking us from completing our work.
This helps the team to:
§ find out what everyone is doing
§ focus on the tasks to be completed that day
§ share blockers and get help to remove them -‐ saving time.
Exercise – Stand-‐upBefore the break we asked you to think about one thing you’ve learnt today that you could implement and which would transform your organisation, tell us what it is.
Let’s stand up!
Building a community of publishersA community is a group of individuals who share a common culture. This doesn’t mean they need to sit together, however, they should share a common understanding.
Agile helps to build relationships by:§ sharing a way of working and a common goal§ bring people together from different disciplines§ using their skills and expertise to solve a problem.
Building a community is more than just Sprinting, it’s:§ encouraging best practice§ listening to feedback§ a willingness to change§ treating those individuals as part of an extended team.
Developing standards§We use our blog to communicate our plans to our publishing community
§ New guidelines start as blog posts before we adopt them
§We encourage feedback and our guidelines are considered collaborative documents
§ Our standards are easily accessible through our website
§ Adopting the same guidelines helps to improve the quality and consistency of our content
§ Examples of our standards include:§ Editorial style guide§ Image guide
§We invite people to use our digital tools.
Questions and answers
Thanks for coming§ If you’d like to chat more, please join (buy) us for drink later
§Follow us:§ @richprowse§ @justinowen§ @rhiangriggs
§ Follow the team @uniofbathdmc
§ Find out what we’re doing at blogs.bath.ac.uk/digital.