UXcamp Europe 2015 - Day 2/Part 2: Conditio Humana (Why UX in real world sucks & agility stinks & some war stories) & Panel Discussion

Here are my notes from the final two sessions I participated at the UXcamp Europe 2015...
(Previous posts of the UXcamp Europe: Day 1/1, Day 1/2, Day 2/1)

#4 Conditio Humana: Why UX in real world sucks & agility stinks & some war stories - Jevgeni & Uli 

Conditio Humana is a philosophy term.

The Human Condition: We are born. We have to die. End of story. Everybody has to master the transition and they try their best.

BUT the limited perspective is leading to some limited results.

Have you heard of the peter principle? 
.... read about the peter principle.

Advertising & UX contradict each other.
"Let's make a website where people can..."
NOBODY - no user in the real world - ever will to that. Ever. Seriously

UX dies a slow death in advertising
- UX = Ease the pain
- Advertising = Increase the pain. ("Make the logo bigger.")
What is good for the user is bad for the brand.

"We've been working on our brand guidelines for 1 year, but we don't have something yet. Please use the version from 1996." (real quote from telecommunication company)

Why scrum does not work for big companies
General Show Stoppers in bsuiness: Procurement (they want to now upfront the costs in detail) & Legal

Show stoppers in doing:
- Daily business in departments, internal trainings, holiday situations
- Project vs. Operations
- Gap of reponsibility
- Agility in Strategy? Art? Creative Direction?
- Processes take time. Rework takes time. Time is money.

Who has participated in a daily standup taking longer than 1 hour?

"We don't have a product owner." (real quote from insurance company)

What can you do?
- Don't be afraid to fail. That's part of the process.
- Know when you screw up. It's a gut feeling. Act on it.
- Play. Have fun. You can see people smile in the results.
- Build a bridge you can be proud of. At least make some stories.

My conclusion: The scrum implemented in the large organizations was only bullshit-word-dropping, because Scrum with 400 people can't work - and it's not scrum.

... The conclusion: Isolate - Plan - Focus

#5 Panel Discussion

Panel discussion by a failed industrial designer, a failed frontend web developer, a failed project manager, a failed philosopher and a not-failed stage director :-)

Panel Discussion

Discussion on Apple Watch
"I have one so that I get to know the experience."
"I'm still searching for a use case."
"Probably sports is the main use case."
"The main use case of a watch is displaying the time."

Best Sessions/Topics
- Scrum Self Help
- "UX is still not appreciated how we want to have it."
- "The value of UX is there and we should try small steps to move the organisation." (referring to the talk by iversity)
- "We should not sell it, the results will sell itself."
- "A lot of eye opener discussion took place: like context ux, panel with women, education panel, ..."
- "Data collection is changing: is not only about collecting data, but it's about high quality data. But the analysis is done now very quick and dirty - I'm not sure if this is good or bad."
- "Visual User Research - Tools are very useful and easy to use."

The panel discussion closed with thoughts about how the UXcamp can improve... but many agreed that the conference is already at a high level and they should continue focusing on the Barcamp-Way of Conference.

Last but not least I also want to thank the organizational team for there perfect work and there huge engagement that was visible all over the conference.

See you soon :-)