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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Agile Meets Design Thinking by University of Virginia

4.7
stars
3,382 ratings

About the Course

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....

Top reviews

AA

Sep 8, 2020

I absolutely recommend this course for everyone who really wants to develop their skill or want to learn new skills. this amazing course will assist you to understand the user in a more strategic way.

TD

Oct 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.

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1 - 25 of 940 Reviews for Agile Meets Design Thinking

By Anna S

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Sep 21, 2018

This course is about product design rather that than about agile management, so be wise while choosing. In general, it contains a number of interesting technics and a lot of practical assignments where you can master you knowledges. It was a bit hard for to concentrate on topis, because the tutor uses too much general words and adjectives

By Abhishek P G

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Jun 24, 2020

Thank you for this course. I get know experience and knowledge in using different kinds of online tools which are useful and effective. I'll use some of them during my lessons. And lots of thanks.

By Oliver T

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Feb 23, 2017

This course was an excellent introduction to Agile, particularly for a 'newbie'. Having heard about Agile I've been interested in learning more and found this course to be exactly what I needed.

By Mark H

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Feb 14, 2020

Alex Cohen really knows Agile. That is probably because he has real world experience starting new ventures and using Agile methods to deliver great software products. Alex is super clear in all of the video sessions. And a really big plus are all of the extra materials that Alex provides. His website dedicated to Agile is also fantastic, super clear, and an extremely valuable resource. In fact, the template provided to complete the course assignment is perfect for using with your own Agile team.

Thanks Alex!

By Kamakhi P

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Mar 17, 2021

The course is very well designed & Alex has wonderfully explained the concepts very nicely...the pace of the course is fairly balanced...a big thanks to Alex and coursera for organizing this course

By Josue D

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Apr 16, 2018

This course provides the basements in terms of concepts but also drives you to build knowledge by exercising. Describing personas and storyboarding were the best topics for me.

By Dru M

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May 25, 2020

The course provides a general overview. I wish the slides that were discussed stayed on the screen instead of showing the instructor while he was talking about the slides. Also, there were some typos. And lastly, the final assignment was a bit confusing. For example, it had certain prompts you were supposed to respond to, but at the end it of the document it tells you to make sure you included x, y, z, and the "z" wasn't included in the assignment prompts. The rubric wasn't always consistent with the assignment template either, so it wasn't clear what you're expected to do exactly.

By Ico R

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Apr 1, 2016

Classes are ok, but there is no support at all, no advisors to answer your questions, even if you pay for the course.

By Jaison D

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Apr 5, 2020

Excellent overview of Agile fundamentals, including explanation of personas, how to create user stories, and how to nest those stories within the design process. Useful to all members of the design teams as a way to rethink how to approach the process and better interface with users and customers.

By Tarinee S

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Apr 20, 2020

Great course, recommend for who's a basic knowledge about Agile and would like to integrate with Design Thinking that make you will more understanding your customer (users) and know the alternate ways to connect and collaborate with your team

By Oleksandr R

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Jan 10, 2019

This course structured my understanding of User stories and approaches how to identify and describe personas and use them for creating User stories. Thanks!

By Amaresh K P

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Dec 25, 2019

Not of much relevant for people who already know little agile.

By Manuel d P

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Feb 20, 2017

Longer than it should be

By Thiago D

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Oct 24, 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.

By Marshall S

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Jun 27, 2019

instructional and good interface of skills by creating personas and user stories but some of curriculum was repetitive and predicated on venture design and not necessarily how agile and design thinking intertwine

By Eva P R H

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Jan 8, 2020

I expected more about Design Thinking

By Jaime S

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Jan 31, 2018

This was a very useful course, even if you understand or have used agile practices like I have. I found this course helpful in sharpening my skills, particularly with the use of personas. The content of the course is appropriate, professional, and applicable. The instructor gives clear explanations and examples, and I found the content engaging. The videos are short, so learn at your own pace. The assignments were good practice to reinforce the techniques learned. I also found the materials to be very useful. Lastly, I liked the guest speaker videos. That adds variety and perspective to the content.

By Martin S

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Mar 29, 2020

A great refresher if you're already in this way of working. Some useful tools to add and great reminders about the purpose/why working in these ways is an improvement on waterfall, especially in a creative environment.

By Asma A

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Sep 9, 2020

I absolutely recommend this course for everyone who really wants to develop their skill or want to learn new skills. this amazing course will assist you to understand the user in a more strategic way.

By Marco B G

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Apr 15, 2020

Overall, the content of the course is good and the examples are thought through. I also enjoyed the dry runs with actors. The one thing that could be improved perhaps is how the topics are being introduced. Sometimes it feels like the teacher is trying to make things look harder than they are, or at least he uses a rather complex way of explaining the concepts.

By taiwo o

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Feb 5, 2023

Very detailed course

Took the digital product management:Modern Fundamentals first but this is such a deep dive into personas, user stories, epics, etc

By Gerard

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Mar 8, 2020

Students need a bit more guidance with regard to formal (BA) terminology. Also, storyboarding needs to get some more involvement (practise). I liked the way was discussed and put into context.

By JIng Z

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Feb 6, 2020

Class design are not the best , some video are very long ,and the instructor speaks in a very plain ,long-sentence,dry way to lose interests very easily .

By Colin E

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Aug 4, 2020

The delivery is a little dry and there's clearly been some editing and rearranging of content. More than once, the instructor refers "back" to material that has not yet been presented. It's confusing and I ended up wasting time reviewing content because I thought I had missed it. Instead, it was just missing. or got a presenter much later in the course. There's a lot of repetition of concepts that seems pointless and the interviews don't really add to the understanding of the key points. The instructor also keeps referring to there being 5 courses in this specialty when there are 4.

By Deniz G

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Jul 26, 2018

This course and all the other modules of the Agile Specialisation is awesome. Alex is a great teacher and the things he teaches are very practical. The videos from the experts are great too, it gives a realistic point of view on the topics of interest. I especially like the resources provided with the course. Alex`s website is full of useful and practical information such as the Venture Design Template. I feel like I can start the job immediately after I complete each module. Alex - thanks for your style and humble approach on the topics of you accept that you are not an expert (such as mood boards etc) and yet try to provide some useful guidelines to us.

Finally I am happy that there are assignments that force us to practice what we learn and they are designed in a smart way. It is really great that there are not only quizzes but also these assignments that I really feel I learned something after I pass the assignment. It also showed me how hard some of the topics can be and that need so much thinking than just watching the video and saying that `yeah, it is straightforward!` cause it is not that straightforward and one need to spend the time to think over these topics and practice.

The only thing that I don`t like much is that the assignments are also peer graded. I wish to have also an expert`s correct and true opinion. Also peer assignment grading should be a little tougher as it is hard to fail someone`s assignment that really needs to fail. We should be ready to fail if it is deserved but it is hard through the grading rubric.