Despite everyone's good intentions, hard work and solid ideas, too many teams end up creating products that no one wants, no one can use, and no one buys. But it doesn't have to be this way. Agile and design thinking offer a different--and effective--approach to product development, one that results in valuable solutions to meaningful problems. In this course, you’ll learn how to determine what's valuable to a user early in the process--to frontload value--by focusing your team on testable narratives about the user and creating a strong shared perspective.
Offered By
University of VirginiaAbout this Course
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Flexible deadlines
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Shareable Certificate
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Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.
Beginner Level
Some familiarity with software development is helpful, but not required.
Approx. 9 hours to complete
English
Subtitles: Arabic, French, Portuguese (European), Italian, Vietnamese, German, Russian, English, Spanish
What you will learn
How to evaluate and explain the relevance of concepts and practices from the agile development methodologies
How to create a strong shared perspective and drive to value using design methods like personas and problem scenarios
How to diagnose what software will be valuable to the user and how to test your ideas using agile user stories and prototypes
How to facilitate narrative collaboration with user stories and prototypes
Skills you will gain
- agile user stories
- User Experience Design (UXD)
- Agile Software Development
- Product Management
- Software Development
Flexible deadlines
Reset deadlines in accordance to your schedule.
Shareable Certificate
Earn a Certificate upon completion
100% online
Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.
Beginner Level
Some familiarity with software development is helpful, but not required.
Approx. 9 hours to complete
English
Subtitles: Arabic, French, Portuguese (European), Italian, Vietnamese, German, Russian, English, Spanish
Offered by
University of Virginia
A premier institution of higher education, The University of Virginia offers outstanding academics, world-class faculty, and an inspiring, supportive environment. Founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819, the University is guided by his vision of discovery, innovation, and development of the full potential of students from all walks of life. Through these courses, global learners have an opportunity to study with renowned scholars and thought leaders.
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
2 hours to complete
Problems Agile Solves
The agile practices that deliver excellent product are well understood, but they take focus, energy, and confidence to apply. This week, we’ll identify what’s hard about creating excellent products and how agile can help. We'll begin with a discussion of the Agile Manifesto- what motivated it and how it defines agile. Then we’ll get into the practical part- the problems agile solves, how to focus your time and energy, and how you’ll know if your practice of agile is working.
2 hours to complete
17 videos (Total 104 min), 2 readings, 1 quiz
2 hours to complete
Focusing Your Agile with Personas, Problem Scenarios, and Alternatives
The best way to avoid building something nobody wants is to start with somebody in mind. In the design world, we talk about that "somebody" through a ‘persona’. Personas and problem scenarios (aka 'jobs-to-be-done') focus development on driving toward a valuable outcome for your user vs. just generating output. In this module, you’ll learn to focus your work by developing personas, problem scenarios, and alternatives using best practices from design thinking.
2 hours to complete
10 videos (Total 67 min)
1 hour to complete
Getting to Great Agile User Stories
Now we’re going to transition from drafting personas and hypothesizing user needs to testing those assumptions and translating what you’ve learned into agile user stories. We’ll step through how you create an interview guide to ask your users the right questions and then we’ll dive into agile user stories. User stories are a standard feature of agile and serve as a day-to-day focal point for driving to value.
1 hour to complete
14 videos (Total 67 min)
4 hours to complete
Focusing on Customer Value with User Stories
The agile user story is your day-to-day focal point for making sure you’re building something valuable for your user. It’s how you discuss that within your team and how you anchor your subsequent testing. In this module, you’ll learn how to facilitate the creation and use of stories within your team.
4 hours to complete
12 videos (Total 47 min)
Reviews
- 5 stars80.34%
- 4 stars15.81%
- 3 stars2.46%
- 2 stars0.65%
- 1 star0.71%
TOP REVIEWS FROM AGILE MEETS DESIGN THINKING
by AMApr 6, 2020
I would have given it 4 stars only because when stuck on something, I really didn't know who to go to but if you review the lessons, you can easily find what you are looking for .
by KPMar 16, 2021
The course is very well designed & Alex has wonderfully explained the concepts very nicely...the pace of the course is fairly balanced...a big thanks to Alex and coursera for organizing this course
by PHAug 29, 2020
Great course. It's not too self-contained, however. I understand a lot of the material makes more sense in the context of later courses in the specialization. Cowan is an understanding teacher.
by NOOct 27, 2018
Excellent course to immerse me into this new world of Agile. Appreciated the details and consistency of examples to build my understanding. Enjoying this journey to new understanding.
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