What happens when development meets design, creatives start consulting, and project management wrestles between the flexibility of Agile and the traditional Waterfall approach?
DD: A healthy mix of oddballs
Well...You get a culture like Deloitte Digital's; An eclectic mix of specialists and seriously talented individuals from all different walks of life, coming together to drive innovation and deliver value across multiple industries and markets. We’re a diverse bunch, with gung-ho Front-end Developers, passionate Service Designers, all-knowing Psychologists, makers who 3D print sh*t, artists who paint in VR, crazy kids who fly drones with brain waves, you f***ing name it, they’re here.
So, have I drunk the Kool-Aid?
Maybe. But what I find so interesting is how such a diverse group of people with a variety of skill sets can come together as a team and create. It's not always easy mind you. While many of us want to be on the project in the Apple labs in Cupertino, learning new ways to workshop with Users and evolve the design thinking process, Deloitte Digital must still balance game-changing innovation with the work that brings in that oh so desirable
Uncle D (Deloitte Digital) is a business after all so those industry standard projects (e.g. website transformations with CMS integration) we do take on, pay the bills that allow us to innovate in other areas. As our clients start looking towards the future, thinking about tomorrow not today, it means that we can offer them so much more than industry standard. The thing is, these standards are always on the brink of disruption. Not innovating is as big of a risk as daring to explore new frontiers. To this extent, Uncle D is getting better at saying to the kind of work where we update clients' websites and apps, and yes to the creative opportunities that arise, providing us with the ability to push boundaries and shape the future of business and government.
Agencies enter consultancy
Deloitte Digital's creative approach to consulting is making an impact. My friends now understand that just because I work at a Financial Services firm doesn't mean I'm an accountant. The terms User Experience Designer and Front-end Developer are becoming more commonly understood, and with numerous acquisitions of digital, marketing and data agencies, Deloitte Digital is continuing to add diversity of thought and skills to a growing movement. A movement where there is less of a dichotomy between creative and financial, technology and human, data and art, new and traditional. Well Placed Cactus is an example of a Software Development firm that we acquired last year to enable a greater focus on emerging technologies (like VR and AR). We are simply a melting pot of experience.
Development meets design
This hybrid movement is also a personal one. I have experienced first-hand the challenges and rewards of being in both a Front-end Development role and a User Experience Design role. I interned in January 2016 as a Front-end Developer and started full-time in March 2017. Towards the latter half of last year, I started transitioning into a User Experience Design role because, while I love bringing designs to life through code, I sought more input into the solution we were designing. The ability to hone my technical skills as a developer and then apply this skill set as a designer wouldn't be welcomed at every company! I am now able to use my understanding of technical feasibility to improve my designs. The use of both left and right brain is, after all, naturally beneficial. Often we are led down a single path, pigeon-holed into one role, one identity. I'm of the opinion that people are multifaceted and learning about different roles and exploring them can actually improve our area of specialisation.
Do we even Agile?
Working in a hybrid role works particularly well in 'Agile' projects where collaboartion and communication are king. It is not always easy to escape from the approach to project management known as ‘Waterfall’ especially when working with large corporations with established processes and red tape. This approach is evident when different specialists work in isolation and the workload is handed down the chain. This could happen, for example, if in a project, Service Designers were to look at the existing User journey and define the desired state. UX Designers were to test these hypotheses with real Users and validate a solution. The Business Analysts were to then write the business requirements for this solution, and the developers were to build out the technical requirements to make it happen. In this process, we have a Waterfall, and everyone works with minimal knowledge of other team members roles. This can be problematic, because, for example, if the UX Designer has not collaborated enough with the developer, when they go to hand off their “final” designs, the Dev could say "Ha, you're joking, I can't build that in 10 days" or "No way is that technically feasible with their back-end systems". This traditional method of project management is not keeping pace with the adaptive needs of our teams.
This is why Deloitte Digital has adopted a largely Agile approach to projects. In contrast to Waterfall, Agile uses an iterative method whereby the team works together, typically in short, fast-paced 'Sprints' to complete specific tasks. With some of Uncle D's more mature clients we have fully integrated sprints where Designers and Devs work together on building an entire feature within 1 Sprint. In other projects there is still a hybrid Agile approach where the designers hand over to the developers at the end of the Sprint yet, still involve the Devs at the start e.g. during Design Jams, making the handover much easier. This Agile workflow allows for increased collaboration, producing work that is forward-thinking, and purposeful.
More info
Uncle D is transforming, growing and uniting a bunch of creative odd balls along the way. This eclectic bunch welcomes diversity of thought and talent. We're makers and doers who challenge the status quo and we're looking for more like-minded individuals to join the team. Check out the Deloitte Digital website for more info about our work. We're especially looking for Front-end Developers with a creative knack. Get in touch if this is you and join the group of ambitious weirdos with a habit of making cool shit.