How have you successfully delivered new functionality with a mature/rounded user experience?

Question

Ok - maybe a bit of a holy grail question but I'm interested in how you have succeeded.

I observe both in my own experience and with many of the popular software applications out there that releases often come in two flavours:

1. Full of fantastic sounding new features but rather lacking in refinement or completeness for the user.

2. No big headlines but a real lift in user experience with things now working the way the user expects and needs them to.

My question is:
What approaches have you had success with for delivering new features in a rounded manner?

I'm not just thinking of beta trials and customers on site, I'm also thinking about developer team profiles, code ownership, internal milestones etc. - e.g. does one team deliver a feature end to end or does one team introduce a feature and a specialist team make it nice to use?

Answer 1

1. You cannot audit the efficacy of any system unless it is in place in actual use.
2. You cannot improve something without auditing it.

So realistically, I would say that nothing replaces real user feedback, for "rounding" any application. And all applications need "rounding" because you can't possibly completely understand the user. (Even the user cannot understand himself until he has used the application!)

Answer 2

In my shop (for internal release, we are not an editor), that involves a release manager.

He/she does not know about all the internal details related to code or label or branch, but a release manager is the interface between:

• the different development teams and their project leaders
• the client (the different stakeholders)

He is the one which must make the reality of development and the expectation of features converge toward a clear goal.

That involves a "top content" meeting where what will actually be committed to go into production is defined once and for all, a few weeks before the release date. (not all current development can make it, some are too complex, other depend on other teams which are behind schedule)

That way, everyone know what to expect:
The constant dialog between dev and client allows the definition of adequate functions, may be not "fantastic sounding new features", but at least features tested and released into production... which is not so bad.