The Design Sprint — Day 2
This is a part 2/5 series of my experience participating in the design sprint as a designer. If you are interested, please read about the rest of the sprint here.
Day 2 — Sketch
Day two of the design sprint was Tuesday, right after Memorial Day. After the long weekend, everyone was rather sleepy and tired than rested. To refresh the memory, we started the day with a quick Standup meeting. During this 15-minute session, we reflected on the problem statement and the main task we were tackling.
“Methodites need a push towards increased engagement with one another, but the current engagement opportunities can be overwhelming or unknown to newer employees. Solving this will be good because it will improve relationships within Method.”
Ideation
Once we refreshed the information we collected during the first day of the design sprint, we moved on to ideation. During this step of the process, we aimed to generate a large number of ideas we could later filter and cut down into the best, most practical, and innovative ones to inspire new and better design solutions and products.
Our second-day expert T.J. Edwards shared some great tips on Ideation Mindset.
- Go for volume. The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of them.
- Embrace constraints. Think inside the box before you think outside the box.
- Make it visual. A picture is worth 1000 words and makes your idea real.
- Be collaborative. Be inclusive, with no judgment.
How Might We
First, we started by creating How Might We statements.
“How Might We” (HMW) questions are short questions that launch future state brainstorms. They create a seed broad enough with a wide range of solutions but narrow enough that the team has some helpful boundaries.
Following the first tip (go for volume), we set a timer for 3 minutes to create as many HMWs as possible. Later we voted to select the ones we thought were the most applicable to the problem. Out of 16 choices, we only left 3 to keep working on.
- HMW facilitate discussion in an already “noisy” Slack server?
- HMW create avenues for casual communication?
- HMW open the doors for people to learn more about each other and the company?
Worst Idea Ever
Once we had our “HMW winners”, we moved on to a fun game. The name of the game is Worst Idea Ever. Starting with HMW as a prompt, a volunteer offers the worst possible way to solve the challenge. The second person states something that would be the exact opposite of that worst idea. This game promotes collaboration, removes the fear of being wrong, and helps to think about the solutions you would not think of otherwise.
Be visual!
After we had some fun generating crazy ideas, it was time to be visual! To give some structure to the task, we used the Crazy 8s method. The goal was to push beyond the first idea to generate a variety of solutions to the challenge. By the end of this exercise, we had 30 sketches and concepts.
Later we chose 1–2 ideas each and dived deeper into how our approach would solve the problem. By doing that, we gained an understanding of possible future solutions and how we could visually implement them.
Conclusion
The second day of the design sprint was fun, engaging, and challenging. We ideated a lot of solutions and prepared ourselves for the next day when we will be choosing the best idea to prototype!
Takeaways
- Do not be afraid of crazy ideas.
- Collaborate. Some great ideas appear during casual conversations.
- Experiment. Be open and curious.
This is a part 2/5 series of my experience participating in the design sprint as a designer. If you are interested, please read about the rest of the sprint here.
