Megan Leigh McDonald

I recently attended the June meetup for the Agile UX Design Group here in SF at Pivotal Labs. It’s always really interesting to me to walk into someone else’s workplace. It’s always palpably different than every other place I’ve worked at or been to.  I have to say though it’s easy to see a shop that uses Agile or Scrum methodology. The desks are always bare, facing one another for easy access and communication. There are usually releatively few offices. What I liked best about Pivotal was its kitchen and meeting space, both really open and encouraging to what people do best in those spaces: talk.

My first time at this particular meetup, I was immediately brought into the fold of said conversation and given food. Always a good sign. Ian McFarland led us through a very thoughtful deck outlining agile processes. One thing I appreciated was his use of imagery. There were no overwhelming blocks of text. This was no document. It was a presentation. Finally, after several years of corporate decks that would make a sightseer go blind, it was nice to see such a good presentation.

A healthy diversity of people and backgrounds gave us a great discussion at the end around artifacts, processes, etc that set Agile apart. I walked out of that meeting feeling as if I had left a therapists’ office, bathed in the knowledge that outside the heavy walls of corporate design, there was still a place I could go to remember my foundations of XP, Agile and Scrum. And within the week afterwards, I was also pleasantly suprised to see the notes in my inbox. What a great group of people to find here in SF. I heart Agile UX Design Group…if you’re interested in joining us, sign up here through meetup.com.