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Iteration and divergence-convergence are not alternative approaches

Purposefully consider alternatives to make better decisions and reduce wasted time on each iteration.

Alberto Zamarrón
UX Collective
5 min readSep 14, 2020

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Design, among other things, is about risk assessment. It is about helping to make informed decisions that reduce the risks of failure.

Agile is not about going faster but reducing the risk of losing time. It targets velocity rather than speed.

Lean is about maximizing value for the customer through a good value creation process with zero waste. It is focusing on what really matters.

Iteration-Refinement versus Diverge-Exploration
Adapted from Bill Buxton — Sketching User Experiences (2007)

To iterate is to evolve a solution based on learning. You can learn about the problem to solve or the solution, mainly from testing, researching or measuring a launched product. Although, sometimes, just by working on representations of the solution your point of view changes.

To diverge is to look for alternatives to a solution and postpone their evaluation to a second stage, convergence, which results in one or a few prioritized options.

Iteration and divergence are not…

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Published in UX Collective

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Written by Alberto Zamarrón

Designer, learner, mountain biker, music powered

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