The Design Sprint — Day 3
This is a part 3/5 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.
Wednesday is the equator of the week and the third day of the design sprint. In my opinion, it was the most challenging day so far. Even though it was not easy, and I had to take multiple breaks, it was also the most productive. The goal was to create a user journey and a storyboard to set us up for the fourth day — prototyping.
We had to keep in mind to walk toward an idea that was getting us closest to the solution, not just the most exciting one. That is the point where the stress levels were rising. But at the end of the day, I honestly found it rewarding to have some debates.
Decide.
Let’s dive deeper into the process! Decide day is a lot more than just deciding. We can split this process into two parts.
- Critique the ideas to narrow down the field of things we are working with.
2. Develop the idea we have decided to move forward with so it is ready to be prototyped.
Here are some tips to have a successful third day.
- Progress over perfection.
- It should be fun.
- You have to be able to speak honestly with each other.
- When feeling lost, DVF is a good grounding.
DVF stands for desirability, viability, and feasibility. It is like the Golden Trio of Human-Centered design.
Voting.
We ended the second day with 1–2 solution sketches each. They had titles and short snaps of scenarios to pitch the feature we designed and show how it should work. We began the decision-making process by combining two techniques: voting and the Impact vs. Effort Matrix. We all dedicated some time to reading through everybody’s scenarios and placing our vote on the Matrix. We did it to determine how well each scenario addresses our problem statement and how feasible the solution is.
Now the fun part begins — the discussion. As a team, we spent some time commenting on the impact of the represented ideas. The critique process was a great way to address solutions that might not have been fully flushed but were principal to the product goals.
Before we agreed on the final decision, we thought it would be helpful to include stakeholders. It was important for us to involve them in the decision-making process to ensure that we were going the right way. We were all happy to hear they were ‘digging’ our idea!
The concept.
To solve the current problem and increase the engagement rate, we decided to pursue the idea of collecting cards. Each user will design their card by answering personal/work-related questions. To collect cards from other team members, they will have to communicate.
Hypotheses.
The next step was to take and develop that idea a bit for it to be ready to be prototyped the next day. We aimed to end the day with the design focus and some prioritized hypotheses. We used a framework to help define the questions and solutions and eliminate assumptions.
To be continued.
Takeaways.
- Making a decision can be challenging working as a team. But it is worth it!
- It can be valuable to include stakeholders into the decision-making process.
- It can be overwhelming but you have to trust the process.
This is a part 3/5 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.
