Here's how to rapidly execute and iterate on your next design sprint prototype
There seems to be this sort of ‘black hole’ of nothing after most design sprints are done.
Some teams have the foresight to schedule iteration sprints or start a sprint zero with development and build out the highest value feature from the prototype. Others evaluate the work and decide on next steps.
And the design sprint itself can be a smashing success for the team who participated. You have a shared understanding of the problem, a camaraderie with colleagues where you can appreciate their point of view, and you’ve learned a lot about both the problem space and what kinds of solutions you can pursue.
Still, most Design Sprints seem like they live in a conceptual bubble that doesn’t survive the week. You meet, you design, you're done and it's over.
But what if there was a post-sprint process where making, testing and iterating were done at a lightning fast pace?
Where anyone from the intern to the CEO could put an idea forward and the team iterates/tests in real time with customers?
Here's how it could work:
- Get everyone (both client/stakeholder and the makers (design/dev/etc.) in one Slack channel to iterate on the winning concept represented in the tested prototype.
- The design/dev team keeps aspects that resonated during user testing in the Sprint. Everything else is fair game for iterating, correction and rapid fire testing.
- The team generates realistic demos and/or marketing in the Slack channel for awareness (and not for permission to post)
- Test each idea or approach on social media (Twitter, Instagram, etc.).
- Identify concepts that receive favorable responses and comments, and mark them for further iteration and development.
- The ones the market signals have massive potential are the ones you move forward with / get proper funding for.
By using this sort of centralized, business community type design model, you eliminate a lot of friction in the process and get people talking and thinking about the work that matters. You continue the goodwill generated in a successful design sprint by allowing everyone to contribute on a level playing field. Plus, you can immediately see if a novel idea is going to perform in the market and capitalize on it.
What do you think?
Feel free to leave a comment or question about the concept. I'd love to hear from you.
Project Facilitator | Former IBM
5 年Agree completely. The idea afterlife is most important. Aside from creating innovation, it’s also about energizing support for execution. If you don’t have a plan—you’re planning to, well not plan. Then you fail in expensive fashion.
LifeAfterTech.info ???? & dcx.to - Strategist, author, coach, researcher, and designer finding & solving human problems. "The Mary Poppins of CX and UX"
5 年Also, please define "smashing success for the team who participated." What are typically the success criteria for a design sprint? How are we measuring that success? Because it always seems to be "we had a great week sketching, there was great teamwork, and we have a nice prototype." Is the week still a success if the concept doesn't get to market (for good or bad reasons)?
LifeAfterTech.info ???? & dcx.to - Strategist, author, coach, researcher, and designer finding & solving human problems. "The Mary Poppins of CX and UX"
5 年Why is everything about speed? Fast fast fast lightning fast. What if these prototypes shouldn't go past the week? Why push them through "quickly"? When can we return to quality over speed? Speed over everything isn't driving customer satisfaction well, which won't feed business goals well.