Mastering the Hybrid Dance: Navigating Google Design Sprints for Corporate Success
I’m Thomas, a UX designer at ING Bank in the Netherlands. Having organized and facilitated numerous Google Ventures Design Sprints, I’ve found them highly effective. If you’re unfamiliar with what a Google Ventures Design Sprint entails, you can learn more by following this link.
I oversaw a crucial update of a significant overview, navigating pressure from key stakeholders and handling diverse yet crucial input. Once again, the Google Design Sprint proved to be the optimal tool for the task.
Why I consider them highly beneficial:
- Securing buy-in from crucial stakeholders for the outcome’s ideas
- Providing a clear scope and timelines, essential in large companies where new projects can become time-consuming
- Delivering excellent outcomes based on crucial input, offering practical solutions derived from significant considerations.
However, I did encounter some challenges with the Google Ventures Design Sprint:
- Difficulty in assembling the same stakeholders in one room for five consecutive days.
- Issues arise when moving between different rooms, requiring the transfer and storage of all relevant materials if the days are not consecutive.
- The traditional steps often result in excessive paper usage.
- Individuals may find it challenging to be physically present in the office, opting to work from home due to reasons such as caring for a sick child or disruptions in train services. With the shift prompted by the pandemic, people have grown accustomed to the flexibility of working remotely.
- The Google Ventures Design Sprint appears tailored for testing entirely new products with many uncertainties. At ING, we employ design sprints for refining existing flows or features within our established ecosystem. This approach allows us to create highly realistic prototypes, as my experience attests to the value of closely mimicking a realistic interface for enhanced learning. However, the one-day timeframe suggested by the Google Ventures Design Sprint is often inadequate for developing such detailed prototypes.
I aimed to test alterations to the conventional Design Sprint to enhance its effectiveness in my specific scenario. I discovered some alternative approaches.
Going remote?
You can do the design sprint from afar, and Google Ventures has a guide about it here.
The key points that caught my eye:
- They suggest using a video conferencing tool.
- A virtual whiteboard is recommended, with separate spaces for each task.
- Besides the video conferencing tool and the virtual whiteboard they recommend using separate tools for discussions, customer interviews, and prototyping.
- For sketching, they propose everyone using the same stickies and pens at home for consistency.
While these tips aim to make remote collaboration smoother, having so many different tools, might feel a bit tricky and impractical. It could also be challenging to ensure everyone’s using the same materials to sketch at home.
What about a hybrid approach?
I came across an article from Douglas Ferguson on conducting a hybrid design sprint, both at the office and at home simultaneously.
What caught my attention:
- He proposes having more than one facilitator, one at the office and one at home.
- He recommends using physical paper on walls, even suggesting using a camera for dot voting for remote participants.
- He advises one tool for video conferencing and one for virtual collaboration.
While the idea of multiple facilitators is appealing, it may not always be practical, and I personally don’t find it necessary. Additionally, the suggestion of using paper on walls seems debatable as the optimal solution for a hybrid design sprint.
My plan
Here’s how I approached it, drawing from both my personal experience and insights gained from the articles mentioned earlier.
- Begin the first three days of the design sprint at the office, shifting to home if necessary.
- Conduct prototyping and user testing remotely.
- Extend the prototyping phase to two days instead of one.
- Utilize Teams (the ING tool) for video conferencing.
- Collaborate using FigJam.
- Display FigJam boards on a big screen at the office.
- Employ Figma for the prototyping stage.
- Engage our research team and copywriters during the prototyping phase to enhance both research and text quality within the prototype.
- Allow flexibility for individuals to create solution sketches in their preferred format — whether it’s hand drawing, PowerPoint, or using an iPad.
My FigJam space
In my FigJam file, there are three distinct areas. The first, displayed in purple on the left, is dedicated to the input necessary for day one of the design sprint. The second, presented in blue in the middle, is allocated for the six design sprint days, featuring an agenda for the day and spaces for exercises. Lastly, the green section at the end is designated for user testing, following a proven note-taking format utilized previously at ING.
How did it unfold? (My takeaways)
Unfortunately, no one had childcare issues or transportation hiccups, so no one worked from home during the initial three days. Nevertheless, we smoothly executed all the necessary steps using the FigJam board, enabling easy remote participation. A single facilitator sufficed, and thanks to Microsoft Teams, remote team members seamlessly joined in.
While everyone was present, we occasionally resorted to traditional whiteboard drawings to enhance focus and comprehension. We swiftly captured these on camera and integrated them into the digital FigJam board. Of course, when working remotely, these activities seamlessly transitioned into the digital realm.
Looking ahead, I plan to implement more structure in sketch creation. Allowing complete freedom led to a mix of hand-drawn and digital formats, making it a tad challenging to evaluate ideas objectively. Moving forward, my preference is a standardized approach — hand drawing, identical stickies, and the same pens.
Allocating two days for prototyping proved essential, eliminating the need for late-night efforts. The collaborative effort between designers and copywriters yielded an impressive prototype, further enriched by the valuable insights brought in by involving a researcher in the process.
Closing Thoughts:
Indeed, I utilized ChatGPT, and the experience was fantastic. As English isn’t my primary language, it greatly aided in achieving smoother writing. Initially, I attempted to input the entire article into ChatGPT for a complete rewrite, but it omitted essential parts. Subsequently, I opted for a part-by-part approach, copying small sections into ChatGPT for effective and satisfactory rewrites.
