the essentials of a digital project
DESCRIPTION
This presentation covers how organisations should approach a new digital project such as a web portal, system or mobile app (or combination of all) while considering the brand strategy, marketing or growth hacking approach and technology. The keynote examines the principles of a strategy and different methodologies for the product/project production such as agile, sashimi waterfall, lean and user centred design (UCD). The deck then delves into how to write a concise brief, how to go about resourcing and pick a technology platform or framework (such as Laravel or Ruby on Rails). The presentation covers how great design and project management is fundamental to success and why the design heuristics are so important. Finally the presentation also mentions why PM tools like JIRA, basecamp and Trello are important.TRANSCRIPT
THE ESSENTIALS OF A DIGITAL PROJECT
DANNY BLUESTONE, NOV 2014
TODAY
1. About Danny 2. Strategy 3. Approach 4. The Brief 5. Technology 6. Execution 7. Recap
ABOUT ME
WHAT IS A STRATEGY?
Image: https://www.pehub.com/2013/10/want-some-time-with-reid-hoffman-just-ask-him/
Image: http://blog.codinghorror.com/chess-computer-v-human/
A HIGH LEVEL PLAN TO ACHIEVE ONE OR MORE GOALS UNDER
CONDITIONS OF UNCERTAINTY
A DIGITAL BUSINESS NEEDS THE FOLLOWING INNOVATIONS
Image: https://www.pehub.com/2013/10/want-some-time-with-reid-hoffman-just-ask-him/
THE PRODUCT HAS TO BE UNIQUE
‘SHAREABILITY’ IS KEY
DISTRIBUTION SHOULD BE BUILT-IN
INNOVATIVE BUT ADAPTIVEImage:http://beta.robocast.com/roboshows/1233-eric-ries-the-pivot
Image: http://blog.codinghorror.com/chess-computer-v-human/
THERE ARE 4 TYPES OF DIGITAL PROJECTS
Image: http://blog.codinghorror.com/chess-computer-v-human/
DIFFERENT PROJECTS NEED DIFFERENT STRATEGIES:
1. Branding and marketing projects
2. Information and content rich projects
3. Functional, system and IoT driven applications
4. Combos, as most projects combine at least two of the above. When going ‘cross-channel’ further consideration is required.
APPROACH
HEROES ONLY LIVE IN MOVIES…
Image: https://wherebadmovieslive.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/macgyver-monday-ugly-duckling/
BUT HELP IS HERE. HERE ARE APPROACHES TO HELP DELIVER AND EXECUTE YOUR STRATEGY:1. Agile and Scrum - Geared towards (2-3 weekly) sprint releases that
include QA, little to no documentation, a self managing team with a ‘product owner’. Planning is done within each sprint via user stories.
2. Waterfall - Normally a phased approach with upfront planning and specifications followed by design. Development is normally done in the middle with user acceptance testing (UAT) at the end.
3. Lean - More of a set of principles and philosophy, encouraging experiments and pivots via MVPs, learning, iterating and improving. Lean propagates avoiding development waste at all costs.
THE PROJECT TRIANGLE TO THE RESCUE
Image: http://gs4securitywallpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/escher-triangle.html
QUALITY
TIMELINEBUDGET
FEATURES
SPRINT 01
Release login and registration screens
SPRINT 02
Release shopping cart experience
SPRINT 03
Release data import and blog
SPRINT 04
Release indexing, search and UAT fixes
PLANNING PLANNING PLANNING PLANNING
SCRUM
WATERFALLRequirements
User Experience (UX) & Design
Development& QA
Deployment
Continued Support
LEAN
Ideas
CodeData
BUILDLEARN
MEASURE
Split tests Customer interviews Five Whys root cause analysis Cross-functional teams
Unit tests Usability tests
Continuous integration Open source components
Product owner accountability Cohort analysis Real-time alerting
Innovation accounting Eliminate waste
Net promoter score
Agile Waterfall Lean
Individuals and interactions Processes and tools Proven and people focused processes
Working software Software and documentation Validated software and wikis
Customer colloboration Contracts and negotiations Smart, flexible and challenged proposals
Responding to change Following a plan The build, measure, learn loop
SUMMARISING THE APPROACHES
Using the agile manifesto as a base
THE BRIEF
KEEP IT BRIEF
Image: https://wherebadmovieslive.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/macgyver-monday-ugly-duckling/
THINGS TO INCLUDE IN A BRIEF:1. Outline strategy - Reference to your original strategy, your
hypothesis and goals for both the launch (MVP) and beyond! 2. Approach - What type of methodology do you want to take? 3. Resources - Who’s going to do what and when? It should be clear
what you expect from each partner and stakeholder. 4. Content strategy - This requires careful thought. 5. Marketing - How will marketing be built-in to your new project and
what happens when the project launches? 6. Branding - Your brief should refer to brand guidelines which are
important and will expedite the production if done properly. 7. Technology - It’s always worth outlining what you need in the brief.
TECHNOLOGY
I CHOOSE A LAZY PERSON TO DO A HARD JOB BECAUSE A LAZY PERSON WILL FIND AN EASY WAY TO DO IT.
Image: http://billgatesstrategies.com/
TECHNOLOGY CONSIDERATIONS:
1. Touch-points - Based on the touch points and channels you are designing for, carefully select proven and scalable technology.
2. MVC Framework - For the backend use a model-view-controller (MVC) framework. The model manages the data and business logic.
3. Platform - Sometimes it’s worth using a platform if all you need is a basic CMS-powered or e-commerce website.
4. TDD - Test driven development (TDD) entails writing test scripts and unit tests upfront to constantly test functionality.
5. Bundled releases - Schedule software releases every two weeks on a staged server so all resources work in tandem.
EXECUTION
DESIGN DRIVES INNOVATION; INNOVATION POWERS BRAND; BRAND BUILDS LOYALTY; AND LOYALTY SUSTAINS PROFITS.
Image: http://www.brandingbricks.com/2014/06/20/post-199-a-brand-interview-with-marty-neumeier-part-1/
FINALLY, EXECUTE:
1. User centred design (UCD) - Regardless of your approach, incorporate UCD so decisions are made based on real user input.
2. Design heuristics - Make sure that both the creative and technical teams adhere to IA and IxD heuristics.
3. Interdisciplinary teams - Make sure the team is cross-disciplinary and works closely together, challenging each other all the time.
4. Presentations and walk throughs - Use ‘show and tells’ to regularly present weekly progress.
5. Use good PM tools - Use tools like JIRA to manage issues, Basecamp for communication and Trello as a lean board.
RECAP
A QUICK RECAP:
1. Strategy - Stick to your strategy but ensure it’s lean and adaptable. 2. Approach - Feel free to pick and choose a methodology that suits
your type of project and organisational setup. 3. Brief - Make sure the brief clearly articulates your goals and KPIs. 4. Experience design - Remember that your ‘experience’ needs to be
thoroughly tested with real people before you go to market. Use UCD to help you really focus on your customers.
5. Putting it all together - Your project consists of branding, technology and marketing elements. Your job is to ‘gel’ it together.
THANK YOU@DANNY_BLUESTONE
@CYBERDUCK_UK