The Power of People-Centered Development: Agile, Lean UX , and Transparency for Awesome Products
Tuesday, Oct 15 2:45 - 3:30
Presented by Laura GarlingWhen you work with open-source technologies like Drupal, the sky’s the limit. Setting the limit a little lower, so that your team builds solutions that work well within your organization’s digital ecosystem, get done on time, and are things your users actually want, is even better.
The Web Services team at University of Michigan-Dearborn is cross-functional, and our use of Agile development, Lean UX, and open communication have transformed our process, team dynamics, and stakeholder relationships. Now, our solutions are more effective and efficient from technological, business, and user perspectives.
In this session we’ll use UM-Dearborn’s recently developed events calendar as a launching point to share how a people-centered development process can:
* Make stakeholder kickoff meetings and user research sessions goal-oriented and (possibly) fun
* Make user stories and requirements more real and generate more empathy within your developers
* Bring UX and development into the room and make tough choices together, earlier
* Strengthen your cross-campus relationships and build trust
* Make training documentation relevant and clear for your content editors
* Reduce rework, leverage tools you already have, and increase the efficiency and happiness of your team
About
Laura Garling
Director, Web Strategy and ServicesLaura Garling doesn't think that websites need to be hard. She leads the Web Strategy and Services team at University of Michigan-Dearborn to keep the user in mind, build smart web features, and champion best practices across campus. She has over a decade of experience in making websites, working in nearly all aspects of production and project management. Her bachelor's degree is in English from Baldwin Wallace University, and she received her master's degree in communication planning and information design from Carnegie Mellon University. Laura is also a yoga instructor, wife, mother to an enthusiastic toddler, and the only person she knows who literally ran into a baboon at the Cape of Good Hope.