Day 2 – Designing in a Pandemic: Integrating Speed and Rigor

Work blended into personal lives — there was no starting or stopping anymore. 

Groceries became the center of the pandemic. To accommodate — 

  • Pick-up service: Many locations hit full capacity; asked for volunteers within the org.
  • To address capacity issues: make updates to the time slot sector.

“The most important thing to remember is to be flexible in your concept of deliverables. Not every feature change needs a fully interactive prototype or a pixel-perfect mock-up. Not every research study needs a big report written.” — Laura Klein

Adapting to ship faster

  1. Parallel workstreams
    • Laid lo-fi artifacts, user flows — showing only the changes
    • Moving faster? Doesn’t mean to cut out scope, but simply reordering. 
  2. Horizontal vs. vertical slices of work
    • Pause the happy path, think of breadth, instead of depth.
    • To need a general outline — look at horizontal slices, focus on specific part of experience — look at vertical slices
      (Stick to plan? Or launch first and fix later?)
  3. Prioritize the human need
    • Continue with launch first and fix later (launch imperfect but usable experience, and add fast follow fixes)

People use products to achieve an outcome.