NOTE: This workshop has a FEE of $350. To attend, you must register for the workshop. You can do this when you register for the conference or at a later date.
Workshop Description:
In response to a manager’s query about how to plan products, Alan Kay famously remarked “the best way to predict the future is to invent it.” His answer invokes a paradox at the heart of design: we can’t know the future, yet it’s what we design for. If we hope to practice information architecture, content strategy, and user experience successfully in an era of rapid change, connected ecosystems, and disruptive innovation, we must get better at planning.
To start, we must let go of “the plan” and embrace a dynamic way of planning that’s social, tangible, agile, and reflective. We must engage our colleagues in business and technology to align use cases, prototypes, and roadmaps with culture, governance, and process. In order to design sustainable products, services, and experiences, we must also design the context.
In this workshop, we’ll mix presentation and conversation with “planning together” exercises that invite us all to share stories, solve problems, and invent better tools for strategic design.
Along the way, we’ll cover:
* The relationship between strategy, architecture, design, and planning.
* Why planning is central to information architecture and content strategy.
* How to integrate planning with Agile, Lean, and Design Thinking practices.
* Tools and methods for individuals, teams, and cross-functional collaborations.
* How to make a business case for planning and strategic design.
As we strive to make sense of self-driving cars, conversational interfaces, machine learning, and the Internet of Things, it’s never been more vital to think expansively about how we might organize the future. Fortunately, since planning is a skill, we can improve. That's the goal of this workshop: to get better at planning and strategic design by making planning visible.
Takeaways:
* The relationship between strategy, architecture, design, and planning.
* Why planning is central to information architecture and content strategy.
* How to integrate planning with Agile, Lean, and Design Thinking practices.
* Tools and methods for individuals, teams, and cross-functional collaborations.
* How to make a business case for planning and strategic design.
* Who (which roles and departments) should be involved in planning.
* How to get better at estimating cost, time, and risk.
* How to plan while simultaneously implementing.
* When you should be willing to change goals, objectives, and metrics.
