The Process
How Rauch Digital executes
Design Thinking
Our approach to creating an experience that connects with your customers.
Rauch Digital values approaching engagements in a thoughtful, focused manor. Placing the intended consumer first, everything from design to content works toward developing a lasting impact on the users who visit your site or use your product. But this process is not bianry. Rather it is a continuous effort that spans the life of the engagement.
Step 1 - Empathy
We begin by working to understand the customer, user, or consumer of your product or service. Leveraging Human Centered Design techniques, we gain a foundational understanding of what the end user needs.
Step 2 - Define
Next we layout a framework based on our empathy mapping to define how we plan to engage with and serve the customer, user, or consumer of your product or service. At this phase the team is primarily focused on ensure the problem as been defined and described.
Step 3 - Ideate
Next we utilize our framework to dive deep into ideating or designing our intended solution. During this step we further engage with the customer and collaborate with them to fill in gaps. The team focuses on answering questions which have developed during both the empathy and define phases.
Step 4 - prototype
During the prototype phase (often referred to as the development phase) we create an iteration of the intended solution. This can be done in a beta environment, or potentially under the live state – depending on the scope of development or changes being made.
Step 5 - Test
In the last phase of the cycle we put our newly developed prototype (or code base) in the hands of the users. This comes in the form of launching to a pilot group, creating an A/B test, or even implementing directly to the current code base.
What's Next?
After the team has ran through the full cycle of empathy mapping, defining the problem/need, ideating solutions, prototyping & testing, the team takes this new knowledge and again asks “What is the need of our customer?” which begins a new Design Thinking loop.
The Scrum Framework
Our approach to executing projects with the Scrum Framework.
Rauch Digital values leveraging a development framework that focuses on validated learning, delivering value & offers transparency. With an estimated 54% of Agile projects utilizing the Scrum Framework, following this journey through the development life-cycle allows teams to learn and adjust as they execute work iteratively.
Product Backlog
The product backlog is a list of all the potential work that the team needs to complete. This list is progressively developed as the team learns more. The role of product owner is responsible for keeping the product backlog sorted with the most important items at the top.
Sprint Planning Meeting
During this ceremony the team reviews the most important product backlog items (which are at the top). They take time during this meeting to ensure that all work is fully understood and meets the definition of ready. From there the team decides what they are able to “pull in” for the next sprint. They commit to delivering this work to a ready state at the end of their sprint timebox.
Sprint Backlog
The Sprint Backlog is created as a subset of the overall backlog. This collection of work items is what the team will deliver in their next sprint. After the sprint planning session the team further develops information they need to complete each work item.
The Sprint
The Sprint is a timeboxed work effort in which the team collaborates and works toward executing the agreed upon work. The team meets daily to review: what they did yesterday, what they will do today & brings up any impediments that are keeping them from executing work.
SPrint Review
The Sprint Review is held at the end of the timeboxed sprint. This meeting serves as the opportunity to demonstrate work to the product owner and other key stakeholders. But more importantly, this ceremony is an opportunity for the team to validate or learn more about current priorities as they prepare for the next sprint. After this meeting the team may elect to release their potentially shipable product based on the feedback from the product owner and stakeholders.
Sprint Retro
The Sprint Retrospective is the final step in our cycle. At this time the team takes a few minutes to reflect on the last Sprint and discuss what went well and what could be improved upon. From there the team takes actionable items and immediately puts them into practice on the next sprint. A great technique for new teams is to pose three “questions” : start, stop, continue.
