Summary
Great collaboration is the secret sauce of successful development teams. At its core, collaboration comes from the culture of your company and the dynamics of your team. This entertaining session will demonstrate how the dynamics of jazz improvisation serve as a model for better teamwork with live music on stage. The lessons from jazz are particularly important for design, much of which involves collaborating with others: gathering requirements from stakeholders, ideating in project teams, and iterating with developers. Great design requires practitioners to be not only skilled craftsmen equipped with the right tools, but also expert collaborators and facilitators. Jazz gives us a model to help us move in that direction in a modern, agile way. Jim Kalbach will be joined by three special guests.
Key Insights
-
•
Miles Davis’s 'Kind of Blue' album was mostly recorded in one take without rehearsals, demonstrating the power of spontaneous collaboration within a structured framework.
-
•
Jazz improvisation is governed by an underlying invisible structure, such as a fixed melody (head), harmonies, and form, which enables creative freedom without chaos.
-
•
Jazz musicians follow established rules of engagement, like alternating solos and returning to the head, which parallels agile methodologies in software development.
-
•
Improvisation in teamwork works best when the team agrees on clear frameworks or rituals, such as design sprints or regular critiques.
-
•
Planning for uncertainty is essential in improvisation; teams prepare themselves to respond spontaneously within known boundaries.
-
•
Breakdowns of complex work into smaller cycles (like jazz measures or agile sprints) allow teams to build, measure, and learn iteratively.
-
•
Collaboration and respectful interaction are fundamental principles supporting successful improvisation and team creativity.
-
•
Design systems require substantive collaboration and dialogue to function effectively, just as jazz requires listening and interaction.
-
•
Team rituals and patterned engagement reduce the cognitive load on how to work together, allowing more energy for innovation.
-
•
Jazz improvisation’s universal conventions enable musicians worldwide to play together from minimal cues, illustrating the power of shared frameworks.
Notable Quotes
"Within improv, it’s a combination of listening and not trying to be funny."
"Miles gave them the music as they entered the studio; they didn’t know what they were going to be playing."
"Each first take was the only take, which got pressed on the album."
"We’re focused on the outcome; as soon as we count off the song, it’s going."
"Jazz has those rules of engagement."
"The head means the melody of a song."
"Instead of playing the melody Miles Davis wrote, the soloist creates a melody spontaneously."
"That unit there is kind of like a sprint."
"Design sprints are popular because they give us a format; we don’t have to improvise how we’re collaborating."
"Collaboration is your secret sauce in the end."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Our learning framework does not prescribe but supports reflection in action and demonstration or action."
Yoel SumitroActions and Reflections: Bridging the Skills Gap among Researchers
March 9, 2022
"It's important not to be a parachute researcher who just jumps in, asks questions, and jumps out without impact."
Prayag Narula Rida QadriHCI 2.0: Humanity Deserves the Attention that UX Research has to Offer
March 28, 2023
"Lift and shift equals timidity—it’s sticking to what you know rather than delivering real value."
Meaghan Waters Fotina KoutropoulousLack of Product Thinking will Doom Your Legacy Modernization
June 9, 2021
"It’s not a one-stop shop, this is people we’re dealing with, not Petri dishes."
Sarit GeertjesPeople, not Petri Dishes: Stories from a Research Recruiter
September 23, 2019
"Transformation isn't just about ideas, it's about infrastructure."
Jenny PriceFrom Tradition to Transformation: Unlocking Startup Agility in a Legacy Enterprise
September 10, 2025
"Community input is invaluable in crafting solutions that work for everyone."
Lena ShenkarenkoCollaborative Wireframing for Creating Team Alignment and Shipping Better Products
October 21, 2020
"Giving ownership to the customer responsiveness department was the game changer to maintain and improve the digital service experience."
Maish NichaniSparking a Service Excellence Mindset at a Government Agency
December 9, 2021
"The 10 am policy extinguished all fires by morning to protect timber but ended thousands of naturally occurring fires, intensifying disasters decades later."
Alicia D. JohnsonDisasters and the 21st Century
December 10, 2021
"Regular face time, honest conversations, and working sessions help keep connection and momentum with new practitioners."
Laine Riley Prokay Lisa GordonCarving a Path for Early Career DesignOps Practitioners
September 9, 2022