UX SA 2016 - Design Thinking and Agile

The challenges in introducing design thinking to organisations and teams include educating all parties on the benefits of design thinking activities through practice. This can be achieved by making small marginal changes to existing processes or ceremonies with the goal of improved communication, ideating, and collaboration in problem solving and solution design. One of the key aspects is having all parties involved and invested towards the overall goal - this includes a time and attention from stakeholders as well as the development team. Communication between all parties is crucial. Activities of design thinking help in nurturing communication and collaboration. Improvement in these areas tend to result in better solutions for business and the direct users. It also results in more productive and motivated teams. An important note is not to forcefully include design thinking practices for the sake of it. The activities and approach needs to be carefully thought about and gauged to determine if the right design thinking practices are used in the right areas, if the practices are improving anything, as well as determine the team's sentiment.

Conference website: http://uxsouthafrica.com

My talks and workshops are usually around software architecture, design and design thinking, tech and business, artificial intelligence, and sometimes philosophy. I always try to adapt my content and approach for talks and workshops to align with the context and audience. For more information about my talks and workshops, see here. If you're interested in having me speak at your event, contact speaking@prolificidea.com with the details.