Bringing Human-Centered Design into Agile

Human-Centered Design is interested in understanding users' attitudes, behaviors, and expectations to better inform development work. In Agile development, cross-functional teams are formed with the goal of understanding user needs and then testing solutions by delivering small batches of value rapidly and getting user feedback before iteratively and incrementally enhancing the solution. When teams and organizations transition from waterfall to Agile, figuring out how design fits into the new delivery method can become confusing. Agile frameworks like Scrum and XP explicitly support the Agile mindset that gives teams of knowledge workers the "permission" to experiment and the tools to ensure that learning from their experiments is channeled into future endeavors. Product Owners own and prioritize the backlog on Agile teams, and this is true in Human-Centered Agile as well. Agile helps focus on value, the outcomes a team hopes to achieve with their work.