Week 1 - Google's Sprint
I read I lot of great posts about Google Design Sprint, besides Jake Knapp's book itself, so it's not like I'm going to create a new text about it. But, after the first week at Ironhack, I decided to register here in the most visual posible way, how was being part of a Sprint.
As you probably already know, Sprint is a method created by Google Ventures, to help anyone solving big problems in 5 days. For that, the following steps take place, one per day:
Day 1: Empathize
First of all, define your goal! Write it on a place everyone can see, and look at it every time it's necessary during the week.
At the Sprint I was part of, we were working for an Flower-Gifts e-commerce and the goal was:
"The shopping experience has to be as simple, fresh, and fun as their flower boxes are."
Then, follow those steps:
The sprint questions we define at day 1 were:
- Would we be able to please our clients looking for customized or preset flowers?
- Would we be able to show to our clients the quality of our products?
- Would we be able to be customer friendly?
Then, are voted and defined HMWs were:
- How might we make a fresh and fun website?
- How might we transfer the in store experience to online shopping?
- How might we make our clients know our quality and trust our product?
Day 2: Define
Day 2 is based on Lightning Demos and the 4 steps method.
Lightning Demos consist on reviewing great solutions from other companies (in any industry) and searching for ideas to synthesize that can be used to inform your solutions.
The 4 steps consist in taking notes, doodling ideas, thinking quickly on 8 variations to the same idea (what is called crazy 8’s) and presenting a solution sketch.
Day 3: Ideate
Today we have to hang on a wall all the sketches created on the day before and vote for the solution(s) we'll be developing. Everyone in the team quietly observes the sketches (this is called Art Museum) and votes.
Then, a storyboard is created, including the winner ideas.
In our case, the winner ideas were: a quiz to help users to find the perfect flower-gift, the product page to preset kits and the about us page.
Day 4: Prototype
The prototype has to be realistic, so, when it's tested, users can provide their real impressions. But, as it's only a prototype, it has to be disposable. For this reason, the team should build just enough to learn, but no more.
We used Keynote for creating our prototype.
Day 5: Test
Today, the interviewer that was defined yesterday applies the interview with 5 users. The rest of the team silently takes notes and at the end of each interview places on a board negative, neutral and positive notes per user and per target.
After having a short discussion about the results and reactions found during the tests, the Decider decides how to follow up… then, it's time to go on with the product or (mostly all times!) go back to the beginning of the Sprint and start all over again considering everything learned!
In our case, we decided that the quiz was a great idea, but it would be necessary to review its content! So, the cycle starts again! :)
