4.7
stars
3,286 ratings

Alex Cowan

154,905 already enrolled

Offered By

University of Virginia

About this Course

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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. 
This course is supported by the Batten Institute at UVA’s Darden School of Business. The Batten Institute’s mission is to improve the world through entrepreneurship and innovation: www.batteninstitute.org.

Flexible deadlines

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Shareable Certificate

Earn a Certificate upon completion

100% online

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Beginner Level

Some familiarity with software development is helpful, but not required.

Approx. 9 hours to complete

English

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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

Could your company benefit from training employees on in-demand skills?

Try Coursera for Business

Instructor

Instructor rating

4.8/5 (672 Ratings)

Alex Cowan

Faculty & Batten Fellow

Darden School of Business

425,776 Learners

21 Courses

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.

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Syllabus - What you will learn from this course

Content Rating94%(13,604 ratings)

Week1

Week 1

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

17 videos

Agile Specialization Intro4mWelcome to the Agile Specialization (Spanish)7mWelcome to the Agile Specialization (Chinese)6mWhat Is Agile?5mAgile for Managers4mAgile for Specialists4mAgile 1017mToday's Best Practices9mScale Friendly vs. Innovation Friendly4mWhat Makes Agile Hard5mThe Blue Button Moment7mCulture of Experimentation5mThe Manifesto in Practice6mA Hypothesis-Driven Approach to Agile4mGreg Cohen on Getting Started with Agile6mBill Wake on Getting Started with Agile10mHow We Learn3m

2 readings

Course Overview & Requirements10mGet to Know Your Classmates in Discussion Forums10m

1 practice exercise

Week 1 Quiz15m

Week2

Week 2

2 hours to complete

Focusing Your Agile with Personas, Jobs-to-be-Done, 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)

10 videos

Design Thinking for Agile User Stories9mMeet the Companies: HVAC in a Hurry and Enable Quiz3mCreating and Using Personas8mFocusing Your Persona: Think, See, Feel, Do7mDemo: Using the Hypothesis-Driven Development Template (UPDATE)2mDemo: Drafting Personas12mDemo: Drafting Think, See, Feel, Do7mCreating User Stories that Matter7mSkit: Meet the HVAC in a Hurry Team5mSkit: Dani's Meeting with the CEO2m

1 practice exercise

Week 2 Quiz15m

Week3

Week 3

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)

14 videos

User Research for Busy People7mResearching Personas9mDemo: Creating an Interview Guide: Personas7mDemo: Creating an Interview Guide: JTBD5mSkit: Interviewing Trent the Technician5mDemo: Designing Google AdWords3mDemo: Drafting Jobs-to-be-Done, Alternatives, and Value Propositions (UPDATE)3mPreparing for Great User Stories3mWriting Great User Stories6mAdding Test Cases to User Stories4mSkit: From Problem Scenarios to Epic User Stories2mDemo: Drafting Epic User Stories1mDemo: Storyboarding an Epic3mDemo: Drafting Child Stories3m

Week4

Week 4

4 hours to complete

Focusing on Customer Value with User Stories

4 hours to complete

12 videos (Total 47 min)

12 videos

Better Narrative, Better Story6mInvestable Stories2mBill Wake on INVEST7mCoaching for Better User Stories5mA Prototype Is Worth a Thousand Meetings5mFrom Design Thinking to Agile Analytics1mDesigning a Meeting with User Stories6mUsing "Day in the Life" to Drive Empathy4mSkit: Drafting Epics from Problem Scenarios1mSkit: Storyboarding an Epic1mSkit: Child Stories and Test Cases2mAnd on to Course 2!1m

1 practice exercise

Quiz on User Stories15m

Reviews

4.7

932 reviews

5 stars
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2 stars
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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 GNJan 15, 2020

It's a great overview of what can be achieved with putting agile into the center of discussion and why is it important, and also how to achieve those goals which are set out in a practical way.

by HYFeb 7, 2018

All kind of professional should take this course. It will add definitely different point of view in your career and even in your personal life. Thank you Alex for this great course.

by TDOct 23, 2017

Rich and well-structured content about Agile and Design Thinking, shows how to approach and include personas that will somehow be touched by the solution being created, and deliver outcomes to them.

View all reviews

Frequently Asked Questions

When will I have access to the lectures and assignments?
Access to lectures and assignments depends on your type of enrollment. If you take a course in audit mode, you will be able to see most course materials for free. To access graded assignments and to earn a Certificate, you will need to purchase the Certificate experience, during or after your audit. If you don't see the audit option:
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What will I get if I subscribe to this Specialization?
When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. Your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile. If you only want to read and view the course content, you can audit the course for free.
Is financial aid available?
Yes. In select learning programs, you can apply for financial aid or a scholarship if you can’t afford the enrollment fee. If fin aid or scholarship is available for your learning program selection, you’ll find a link to apply on the description page.

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Agile Meets Design Thinking

About this Course

What you will learn

Skills you will gain