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
"Trust is a major enabler for tacit knowledge sharing because people must feel safe to be vulnerable and share their knowledge."
Maria TaylorKnowledge is Power: Managing the Lifeblood of the Design Org
October 3, 2023
"Drag and drop ease, and collaborative affinity diagramming in the tool, were unexpected but very welcome advantages."
Taylor Jennings Joe Nelson Alex KnollRepository Retrospective: Learnings from Introducing a Central Place for UX Research
March 9, 2022
"The best future leaders will embody the qualities, skills and traits of a DEO, a Design Executive Officer."
Maria GiudiceEmpowering change: Reigniting purpose, passion and impact in research
March 13, 2025
"Ethical technology governance means anticipating the long-term social impacts of technology today and acting to protect essential public goods."
Ilana LipsettAnticipating Risk, Regulating Tech: A Playbook for Ethical Technology Governance
December 10, 2021
"We wanted a living network of knowledge so yesterday’s insight connects to today’s evidence and tomorrow’s learning."
Matt DuignanAtomizing Research: Trend or Trap
March 30, 2020
"If something makes you feel unwelcome, the code of conduct explains how to engage with staff to resolve issues."
Bria Alexander Louis RosenfeldWelcome
January 8, 2024
"Most designers join AI projects after the data has been discovered and the model built—that’s far too late for meaningful innovation."
Jodi ForlizziDesign and AI innovation
June 5, 2024
"Most people think that veterans in America automatically get health care. That is not the case."
Marina MartinLives on the Line: The Stakes of UX at the Scale of Government
June 14, 2018
"Only 50% of people in Germany interact with authorities online, compared to 80-90% in Nordic countries."
Magdalena ZadaraZero Hour: How to Get Far Quickly When Starting Your Digital Service Unit Late
November 16, 2022
