What is a Design Sprint? The main idea of the Design Sprint is to build and test the prototype of a project in only five days. It is, in a way, a way of projecting oneself into the future to study customer reactions before deciding to invest time and money in the realization of the product/service. Limiting risks, therefore, obtaining an immediate result and testing the potential of your idea, but also stimulating creativity and exploiting the best solutions... That's the Design Sprint!
Why do a Design Sprint
in my organization?
08/12/2021
Conceptualize a solution to a problem in just 5 days
For this week of intense (but calm!) work, we start by bringing together a heterogeneous team of 4 to 7 people to benefit from diverse knowledge and multiple points of view (business expert, customer vision, product vision, IT engineer, designer, etc.).
From day 1 to day 5, the team will go through different stages:
From day 1 to day 5, the team will go through different stages:
- deep understanding of the project (long-term goal, mapping, desired outcomes, knowledge sharing and opportunity exploration);
- prototype sketching (analysis of existing solutions and possible improvements, individual germination of ideas, recruitment of test users);
- the decision (exploration and constructive criticism of the imagined solutions, voting, creation of the user path and the storyboard);
- Prototyping (creation, validation method, writing the user interview and initial testing of the prototype);
- testing (interviews with test users, analysis of results, preparation of subsequent steps).
In only one week, we go from a problem to the user test of a prototype, even with a small team.
Transform and modernize a business process
Do you have a business process that no longer seems efficient enough? Well aware of the need to change it, you either don't know how to transform it, or you are hesitating because several interesting paths are open to you. How can you take the right direction right away, and invest without risk? The Design Sprint is the perfect answer to your needs because of its ability to :
- consider all solutions without wasting time ;
- Identify the main idea that most accurately addresses the problem.
It's a minor investment to get clarity and feedback from target users on your business process modernization.
To offer a new solution to its customers and/or users
By imposing a time constraint to minimize uncertainties related to innovation, the Design Sprint allows to obtain very quickly feedback from a panel of target users on a first prototype (product or service). This prototype is the result of a user-centered design.
Good to know: what is "user centered design"?
It's a product design method that places the user's needs at the center of reflection, with the ultimate goal of creating an unparalleled user experience.
It's a product design method that places the user's needs at the center of reflection, with the ultimate goal of creating an unparalleled user experience.
In most markets, global competition is now fierce. In addition, customers' demands are growing inexorably: they want to benefit from irreproachable products or services (intuitive, fast and efficient)! In order to remain competitive, every company must constantly rework its products and services to offer the best to its customers. The Design Sprint is the perfect tool to create the ideal solution, at a lower cost, before committing to its development.
Find the answer to a larger problem
Bringing together a team from various professional sectors, all of whose members have a more or less close link to the idea to be worked on, is a factor of open-mindedness.
It often happens that, among the multitude of ideas and solutions that emerge during the ideation phase, the collaborators explore new perspectives and imagine answers to a broader problem. The interview phase with the target customers can also bring its share of surprises and allow for a new angle of attack.
It is not uncommon that the result of the Design Sprint leads to a new idea, and consequently calls for a new sprint, or even a reorientation of the original problem... This is not a failure, but an additional opportunity for the company!
It often happens that, among the multitude of ideas and solutions that emerge during the ideation phase, the collaborators explore new perspectives and imagine answers to a broader problem. The interview phase with the target customers can also bring its share of surprises and allow for a new angle of attack.
It is not uncommon that the result of the Design Sprint leads to a new idea, and consequently calls for a new sprint, or even a reorientation of the original problem... This is not a failure, but an additional opportunity for the company!
Example: school Moser
MobileThinking conducted a Design Sprint at the request of The Moser School to answer the question, "How do we create a portal for parents of students to provide them with secure access to all useful information?" The team participating in the Design Sprint included many different trades:
- leaders;
- faculty;
- administrative staff;
- IT department.
This broad spectrum proved to be a real benefit to the success of the process! Based on the project outline defined by Moser management, the team:
- explored opportunities;
- studied existing solutions;
- created the storyboard of the tool;
- realized the prototype imagined previously;
- directly tested the new digital product with future users.
With their feedback and the identification of issues, this Design Sprint gave Moser School all the necessary assets to determine the appropriate solutions.
Conclusion
For your organization, too, doing a Design Sprint will allow you to validate very quickly the new concept you would like to implement with the users concerned. This way of doing things will allow you, for sure, to save time and money on the implementation of your solution!
