The Design Sprint is a staple structure in the business world for solving big challenges through innovation and whole-team incorporation. The design sprint is a five-day process, initially developed at Google Ventures, used for validating ideas and tackling a business problem. The process guides teams through a design-based thinking process to uncover insights, prototype an idea, and test it with users.

Understanding the ins and outs of the Design Sprint is important when preparing to run your own. This process will bring new ideas to life, open collaboration between teams, and unleash everyone in your organization.

What is a Design Sprint

Design Sprints have multiple functions and benefits. They are broken down into five days to develop innovative and actionable solutions for your organization effectively. The five days include:

• Map

The map phase is dedicated to exploration. It will jumpstart creativity and encourage multiple solutions throughout the next Design Sprint phases. At this point, participants will identify the long-term goal and map out the plan of action to tackle the challenge. 

• Sketch

The sketch phase is to develop different action plans that will result in viable and creative solutions. It is critical to take as many variations as the team comes up with to ensure the best and most sustainable solution. 

• Decide

In the decision phase, your team will have many solutions to consider. This is the time to decide on a solid plan of action and select the ideas that will be prototyped. In this phase, the team will no longer be generating ideas. They will be deciding which solution is sustainable and effective.

• Prototype 

The prototype in this phase is essentially an experiment used to test a hypothesis. In this phase, the team decides what they will build to receive feedback and validate the hypothesis.

• Listen

The final phase is likely the most crucial one. Team members will test their prototype with live users. Prototyping will demonstrate to the team that the solution is, in fact, a viable one and will allow the team to move forward with confidence.

Who Should Run a Design Sprint?

The Design Sprint is especially useful for leaders looking to accelerate innovation. Product managers, designers, and founders looking to optimize product-market fit. Marketers looking to enhance product positioning. Consultants and facilitators looking to boost their impact. Regardless of role, people find the Design Sprint an unrivaled tool to validate ideas and business problems. Many organizations have benefitted from running a Design Sprint, and consumer packaged goods companies have used the process to improve their product design. Technology companies have created better products and gotten to market faster than they would using their standard approaches. Likewise, leaders in healthcare have designed new patient experiences. The Design Sprint is extremely effective and can be put to use by leaders and teams across various industries.   

Why Run a Design Sprint?

When teams and organizations have an opportunity or challenge that has great business potential, it can be difficult and time-consuming to build and sustain momentum toward change. Design Sprints offer a rapid and effective alternative to the status quo. For example, when kicking off a new initiative, a Design Sprint can help focus your team and resolve debates or conflicting opinions the team may have on where to start, what the process will be, or what the final result should look like. Or, if your team is looking for breakthrough features on a product, a Design Sprint can help generate new ideas and, through prototyping, uncover what your customers will react positively to. It is an excellent way to get months of work accomplished in a week. These are just a couple of examples of the benefits of the Design Sprint. Your team may also be in need of switching gears or iterating on a new product or when you need a way to talk to your users to untangle what is working and what is not.  Design Sprints help you avoid rework and save you money by spotting opportunities and gaps in one week rather than waiting months. Design Sprints offer customer insights that will transcend egos and opinions by prioritizing prototypes & roadmaps rather than lengthy specification documents and assumptions. 

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When to Run a Design Sprint

Design Sprints are beneficial at various project or product life cycle stages. The following are some excellent times to turn to a sprint:

• When kicking off a new initiative.
• When looking for new breakthrough features for a product.
• When you need to switch gears or iterate on a current product.
• When you haven’t talked to your users enough.

How to Find the Magic

Design Sprints help organizations find the magic and deep value for their end-user before committing to a solution that may not hold the most value. The sprint helps teams identify each individual responsibility and discover what’s most important to focus on within the project and how to achieve the best possible solution effectively. 

The Design Sprint helps us make sure we are building the right thing rather than obsessing about getting the thing exactly right.

Focus on Desire

The Design Sprint is targeted at testing desirability–keep this at the forefront of your mind. When you create a simulation of your concept and use it to test your ideal vision, you gain deeper insights into the ideal state and desirability from the end-user. You can then take those insights to the table when you build out the final solution. While it is efficient and a big win when your prototype becomes the initial spec for what you end up building, its primary goal is to answer your questions and gain insights.

While the main focus of a Design Sprint is testing desirability, we certainly don’t want to waste time testing completely infeasible things. At Voltage Control, we recommend including someone in the Design Sprint who understands the logistics (ex: engineer, operations, hardware, software, materials, etc.). A person with relevant insight into logistics can lend a perspective that might inspire others with the confidence they need to explore certain ideas they may have been afraid to approach. This person also serves as a built-in filter to keep the group from wasting time on outlandish, impractical ideas. That said, the facilitator must ensure that the logistics and status quo aren’t stifling innovation but rather informing and directing it. 

Where to Run a Design Sprint

The five-day sprint was originally developed as an in-person workshop. People come together for an engaging, interactive experience and participate in hands-on, visual, and deep work collaboration. 

Sticky notes are aplenty, and whiteboards are used to write and sketch out ideas. However, you don’t need to wait to be IRL to undergo a sprint. Remote Design Sprints are also incredibly effective and can be run with your remote team asynchronously. There are many tools in the virtual landscape to help your team experience effective and productive remote collaboration. Tools like virtual whiteboards can be used to promote visual collaboration just as you would in person.  

Design Sprints Aren’t Just for Designers

If you want to run a Design Sprint but are not a designer, that isn’t a problem. Any qualified facilitator can run a Design Sprint, and these sessions benefit companies of every industry. The best Design Sprint facilitators bring the necessary knowledge and skills to share with their teams. 

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Changes in business and technology are occurring at a rapid pace while companies simultaneously fight to free themselves from the residual effects of the pandemic. Companies and teams must invest in innovation not only to stay ahead but to simply survive in today’s extremely fast-paced environment. Utilizing innovation exercises and innovation training can help create impactful, powerful results. 

A McKinsey study of over 200 organizations across industries found that 90% of surveyed executives said they anticipate the effects of COVID-19 to fundamentally alter how they conduct business in the next five years. 85% of executives said that they expect the pandemic will also impact their customers’ needs indefinitely. Innovation is the critical component companies need to heal from the current crisis, transcend its lasting effects, and adequately meet their customers’ needs.

“The truth is that there is no one ‘true path’ to innovation, no silver bullets and no shortcuts. There are, however, effective strategies that managers can pursue to dramatically increase their chances of success.” -Greg Satell, Mapping Innovation

In this article, we’ll explore five innovation exercises that you can incorporate with your team or organization to spur innovation and get creative juices flowing. There is no one way to approach innovation. Explore what methods work best for your team by applying these innovation exercises and strategies.

1. Group Brainstorming

This innovation exercise is great for getting the entire team involved, regardless of what project or role each team member has. Group brainstorming can take place in person using sticky notes and a whiteboard or wall or virtually for distributed teams using a virtual whiteboard tool like MURAL (and digital stickies). Have everyone write down any challenges they are facing on sticky notes and tape them to a wall or create them in a MURAL template. Next, everyone walks around the room and stops at each sticky note to add an idea with their own sticky note that can potentially solve that problem or challenge. For best results, have everyone write an idea on every sticky note and build upon what others said. This exercise increases productivity and creativity as employees have the chance to interact with individuals from different areas of expertise and perspectives, which helps spark new ideas to solve challenges. It also promotes full participation without anyone feeling self-conscious about sharing their ideas. 

2. Liberating Structures

Liberating Structures is a framework for facilitation that consists of 33 microstructures designed to build trust and enhance cooperation and communication between teammates. Incorporating Liberating Structures into in-person and remote team collaboration strengthens communication and improves attention management so you can do exceptional work as a team. When there is equal participation amongst the group, you get the best performance from everyone, i.e., you are able to create meaningful solutions together. Check out our library of Liberating Structures templates for MURAL and Miro.

3. Mind Maps

This innovation exercise can be done either alone or in a group setting. Start by writing a general idea in the middle of a blank piece of paper. From there, begin making connections that build off the main point and write them down. For example, if your idea or project is developing a mobile app, a connection that might branch out is Android vs. iOS. Continue building on each connection to generate a stream of new ideas. If you find your team is struggling to come up with connections, try to reframe the main idea and start a new mind map to get a new perspective. The output will be many new ideas to start working with.

4. R&D

Research and development is a series of innovation activities to develop new products and services or improve existing ones. This is a reverse version of Group Brainstorming (or standard innovation process). Instead of starting with problems and brainstorming solutions based on them, encourage your team first to examine the latest technological developments and then ideate their application to your organization’s challenges. This is the flow in many engineering industries, where technology comes first. The Design Sprint process is effective for exploring R&D and solving big challenges quickly. The 5-day structure allows you to align team members and key stakeholders to solve a problem, rapidly prototype and test potential solutions, avoid costly delays in the innovation process, as well as decrease the time to bring the idea to market. Learn more about how and when to incorporate a Desing Sprint into your innovation journey here

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5. Template Exercises

Exploring innovative ideas can be daunting. Where do you start? How do you bring an idea to fruition? We’ve created a library of interactive and customizable digital templates for you to use with your teams to ignite and accelerate innovation. The templates are created for MURAL and Miro, digital whiteboard tools that allow teams to work together async and in real-time in a shared space. Each template serves a different purpose in your innovation process. For example, the How to Remix Anything Template helps you vary your points of inspiration and approach to achieve a different outcome for an existing idea. The Beyond the Prototype Template helps you overcome roadblocks in innovation by navigating slumps and maintaining momentum. Explore the full library of free resources here.

Innovation is more important than ever for companies to stay relevant in today’s economy. Stay ahead of the curve by utilizing various innovation exercises and implementing innovation training to incorporate effective strategies for your team to succeed.

Want to learn more about innovation training?

We can help! Voltage Control offers a range of options for innovation training. We know that no two teams are alike. Companies are complex, with their own unique set of structures and company culture. That’s why we build and curate custom workshops to find solutions based on your team’s exact needs.

Voltage Control’s experts will guide you through your choice of experiential, interactive learning workshops and coaching sessions where individuals and teams learn and practice how to successfully apply the best of today’s innovation methodologies and facilitation techniques to any business challenge. Contact us if you want to learn more about innovation training, design sprints, or design thinking facilitation.

The post Innovation Exercises: 5 Ways to Spark Innovation in Your Team appeared first on Voltage Control.

The best and most successful products and services are designed with the end-user in mind. When you understand your customer, you can effectively create what they want and need. That’s the idea behind design thinking– a human-centric approach to ideate and solve problems creatively. The methodology is both a mindset and a process to generate bold and innovative ideas and tackle business challenges and problems. You can better understand the human behind your next product, method, service, or process idea using design thinking exercises during any phase of your project. These exercises offer an engaging, interactive, hands-on approach to problem-solving.

Design thinking exercises and design thinking workshops encompass the 5-step design thinking process:

1. Empathize – Understand the perspective of the target audience/customer/consumer to identify and address the problem at hand.
2. Define – Define the problem statement clearly.
3. Ideate –  Brainstorm ways to address identified unmet needs.
4. Prototype – Identity which of the possible solutions can best solve the identified problem(s).
5. Test – Test the product with your target audience to get feedback.

This five-step process enables teams to come up with impactful solutions to real problems that are vetted by the people they intend to serve before they’ve even been built. There are specific design thinking exercises that can help you and your team get the most out of each step. Let’s take a look at some of our favorites.

Design Thinking Exerices

We’ve compiled some of our favorite design thinking exercises for you to use among your teams as soon as tomorrow. Plug them in where you need them in your project process and watch the magic unfold.

1. Warmups

At your next meeting, don’t dive right into logistics or action items. Open with one of these warm-ups or “icebreakers” to set the tone for the meeting. They help shake people up and establish that you will be thinking differently in this session. Use one or two of these design thinking exercises to start your meeting or workshop on the right note. They can also be used to punctuate the day and energize the group after long activities or breaks.

Yes, But vs. Yes, And

This warm-up shows the power of building others’ ideas versus shooting them down. Taken from one of the principles of improv comedy, in this activity, you pair people and have them do the following:

• Part One: Person A suggests doing something with Person B, who has to answer with a reason not to do it, starting with “Yes, but…” Person A responds with a counter-suggestion also using “Yes, but…” (Example: Person A: “Let’s go to the grocery store.” Person B: “Yes, but our refrigerator is broken.” Person A: “Yes, but, we still need to eat.”)
• Part Two: Person A makes a suggestion, but now Person B answers with “Yes, and…” And so on… (Example: Person A: “Let’s go to the grocery store.” Person B: “Yes, and let’s get avocados.” Person A: Yes, and let’s make guacamole.”)

Impromptu Networking

In this exercise, take about 20 minutes for participants to meet in pairs and introduce themselves to each other and answer the question: “What big challenge do you bring to this gathering? What do you hope to get from and give this group or community?” By the end, each person will talk to about four people and learn something new about their colleagues or teammates. Impromptu Networking is excellent when your meeting attendees don’t know each other, or even when they do; either way, participants quickly gain new perspectives on the people they’ll be working with throughout the meeting or day.

Nine Whys

Like Impromptu Networking, the Nine Whys is a Liberating Structures activity. Here’s how they describe this warm-up:

“Ask, “What do you do when working on ______ (the subject matter or challenge at hand)? Please make a short list of activities.” Then ask, “Why is that important to you?” Keep asking, “Why? Why? Why?” up to nine times or until participants can go no deeper because they have reached the fundamental purpose for this work.”

By asking “Why?” so many times in a row, you can ultimately get to a clear understanding of why you are gathering and what the purpose of your meeting is.

2. Empathize

Empathy is a critical starting point for any design thinking endeavor. It means making design and business decisions from the perspective of the end-user or customer and truly understanding and anticipating their needs. These design thinking exercises help you get into the minds of your users, identify patterns and challenges, and relate these to the problem your team needs to solve.

Personas

Creating personas is an effective way to focus on your user and ensure that you are designing for their top needs. Personas are a representation of your target user — their typical characteristics, challenges, and desires. On average, you create one to three personas for your project so that you can focus on different needs and inspire divergent ways of looking at a problem.

This worksheet (available for download here) shows you the different aspects you might define for your persona.

Find another good explanation for how to create a persona here.

User Journey Mapping

User or customer journey mapping is another critical exercise when you are trying to build empathy for the user and uncover new ways to answer their top needs. Start by identifying all of the moments that a user goes through from start to finish when interacting with your particular product, service, or experience. These are your moments or milestones along the top of your journey map.

For example, imagine that you are designing a new experience of going through the TSA checkpoint at the airport. Your moments along the top of this user journey map might be: Pack for Trip — Travel to Airport — Arrive at Airport — Find Security Line — Show ID to TSA — Go through Security — Find Gate — Arrive at Destination.

Once you have your top-level journey moments or touchpoints, use your personas (see above) to go step-by-step and capture what your user is feeling, thinking, and doing at every phase. Through this process, you can begin to map the breadth of problems your user faces to identify the most prominent issues to tackle through design or innovation.

Read more about journey mapping here.

3. Ideation

Ideation is the phase of your project when you need to generate many different possible solutions or answers to your user’s problems or challenges. You don’t want to come up with one idea and put all your energy and focus into that. The goal of ideation is to go wide, come up with tons of ideas (even crazy ones) so that you have a lot to work with when it is time to focus on some ideas to prototype and test. When you need to get the creativity flowing, these design thinking exercises will unleash your thought process.

SCAMPER

SCAMPER is a method of focused brainstorming. But, rather than just saying “Come up with ideas!”, the SCAMPER acronym runs you through seven techniques for idea generation: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate and Reverse.

You use SCAMPER like this: first, identify the product or service you’re working with or the business question at hand. Run through the SCAMPER list and ask yourself questions based on the letters. (You can feel free to jump around and focus on the ones that are inspiring you the most.)

For example, let’s say you work at Uber. You need to think of ways to innovate. You take Combine and think: How could I combine Uber with another experience that riders need? You say to yourself: Riders need food when they are coming home in an Uber late at night. This might lead you to think of an experience where Uber riders can order pizza and a car at the same time. Their driver arrives with a hot pizza in the car and the rider can eat it on the way home. (Ok, this example might just describe UberEats, but you get the idea.)

Read more about SCAMPER and find prompting questions for each letter here.

Crazy 8s

Crazy 8s is an activity that we run as part of every Design Sprint, but it can be used anytime you want to come up with a bunch of ideas quickly. The simplicity of this one is wonderful:

1. Grab a piece of paper and fold it into eight sections
2. Set a timer for 8 minutes
3. Have participants sketch a distinct idea in each section. (Remind them that the ideas don’t have to be amazing, or even viable. The point is getting ideas down on paper and not censoring themselves.)

Find out more about Crazy 8s here.

4. Decisions

It can be easy and fun to come up with new ideas and solutions. But, making decisions? Not always as fun or straightforward. Thankfully, design thinking provides us with some great methods to help filter information. Try these design thinking exercises to help you make creative and impactful decisions.

Affinity Grouping

Affinity grouping is a way to bubble up big themes in a large group of ideas. Assess all of the ideas you’ve generated as a group. Hopefully, you’re working with Post-its, and you can start to move or cluster like ideas together. Create a name or theme for each group of ideas. Once you have a set of big ideas, you can vote as a group about what is most important to focus on.

Dot Voting

Dot voting is another way you can get a sense of what ideas are resonating as most important with the group. Give everyone in the group 3–5 (or more!) sticky dots. At the same time, have everyone put their dots on the idea or concept that they like the most. In the end, you have a heat map of the ideas that the group gravitates toward.

Note and Vote

Note and Vote is another method that comes out of the Design Sprint. The benefit of this exercise is that it gives everyone an equal vote or voice in decision-making. It’s super simple but effective.

Let’s say you have a series of ideas that you are reviewing as a group. Have everyone silently write down which idea is their favorite on a Post-it note. Once they’re done, have everyone put their vote up on the wall or whiteboard at the same time. Review the votes, see what idea has the most votes, and have a conversation around the pros and cons of the 1–3 “winners.”

Design thinking exercises are a highly effective way to ensure your next project is a success. Incorporate them with your team today and create meaningful work together. Pro-tip: use our Liberating Structures templates to get the most out of the design-thinking process with your team.

Learn more about design thinking and facilitation at one of our workshops or events!

We host regular Facilitation Lab meetups, boot camps, summits, and virtual workshops. See a full list of upcoming events here.

The post The Best Design Thinking Exercises for Each Phase of a Project appeared first on Voltage Control.

Where you hold your Sprint is critical. Whether you are running a Design Sprint, Innovation Workshop, Visioning Session, or another type of workshop, your venue or space is part of the event’s success. When planning your next workshop, I recommend that you consider these seven things.

1. LOCATION

Location is often the first consideration. Start with any geographical or budgetary constraints. Often, we pick a location based on where the majority of the workshop participants reside in order to reduce travel costs.

However, it’s important not to settle for whatever rooms might be available at your office. Many offices lack spaces that are ideal for workshops, so we recommend that you consider remote offsite locations. The investment is worth it. Working offsite might be helpful to get people out of their typical mindset. A change of scenery can be helpful for some companies, especially environments entrenched in the status quo.

Sometimes, instead of prioritizing the budget, we have to consider the availability of resources. Is there a participant or expert that we really want to include in-person? Perhaps we want to co-locate with our target users so that we can do our interviews in person. The opportunity cost could easily eclipse any additional cost of an outside venue.

Pro Tip: Check out websites Peerspace and Breather to find great creative spaces to hold your Sprint!

2. SPACE

It might seem nit-picky, but you should carefully consider the details of the room itself. First, it can’t be too small! Choose a space that is big enough to accommodate all attendees at the table(s). Don’t forget that you need enough room to move around and huddle at the walls.

A good rule of thumb is to pull all the chairs out from under the table so there is just a bit of space from the seat of the chair to the table. Is there still enough room to walk past the chair? That’s the absolute smallest room you should accept! Make sure to select a room that can proportionately accommodate the expected number of participants while respecting their personal space.

Pro Tip: For a Design Sprint with seven people, we recommend a room no smaller than 12 x 20 ft.

To take a more scientific approach, consider Proxemics. Proxemics, the study of personal space and boundaries, can give you some quick rules of thumb. During a Sprint, where seven people are in a single room, everyone is operating for an entire workweek in the Personal Distance Zone, which ranges from 2–5 feet. This space is reserved for friends and family — people you know and trust. It’s an easy and relaxed space for talking, shaking hands, gesturing, and making faces.

3. ENVIRONMENT

Think about how the workshop space will make your participants feel. This isn’t touchy-feely stuff, it’s actually key to the success of your event. Is it conducive to focus and fun? Is the space pleasant to work in and free from distractions? Consider air quality, decor, lighting, and the general vibe of the space.

Windows are always nice so that folks don’t feel like they are locked in a closet all day. A room that gets natural light from a window is always a good bet. Fun fact—daylit environments are known to increase productivity! A related consideration is the room’s temperature. Make sure you can control the temperature of the room so people aren’t too hot or too cold. (Or, make a note of it, so you can tell participants to bring a sweater!)

Pro Tip: Music is a powerful way to make your environment more inviting. Bringing a small speaker so you can play appropriate tunes when people arrive, during breaks, or even during brainstorming sessions.

4. FURNITURE

Ideally, your venue comes equipped with all the furniture you’ll need. You’ll need at least one chair for every participant. But, you also don’t want too many chairs or superfluous furniture cluttering up space.

Look for rooms that have tables that are easily moved and can be configured into different arrangements depending on your activities. For example, do you need to be seated in one large group for brainstorming? Or, will you be breaking into smaller groups? In that case, you need tables that can be utilized for breakout teams.

Pro Tip: Factor in time before your workshop starts to rearrange the room and make it *just right* for your agenda and participants. You’ll need at leave 20–30 minutes and more than one person to help!

5. WALL SPACE & WHITEBOARDS

One of the most important features of a great workshop venue is space for creation. You absolutely need dedicated space for hanging ideas, posters and/or Post-its. Make sure there is enough space on the walls to pin or tape things or that there are plenty of whiteboards.

For Design Sprint and most other workshops, you typically need two large whiteboards or 3–5 small ones. If you can’t get whiteboards, the 3M flipcharts can work. If so, consider buying an easel stand or two so they have something to sit on.

Pro Tip: If you have walls to hang on, they should be smooth enough that Post-it notes will stick to them. Avoid the comedy of errors of constantly falling Post-its at all costs!

6. AV / TECH

Ask about the venue’s audio-visual features and make sure it covers your needs. Usually, you can get by with a TV or projector with HDMI, VGA, or Airplay, which is used for projecting your presentation.

Also, having WiFi is preferred, but you could get away without it. Although, your participants might not like it!

7. REFRESHMENTS

When you are looking at venues, think about where the participants will eat. Well-fed participants are happy participants! If you do not have a separate space for lunch, there should be room in your space to accommodate lunch. Have an additional table at the ready where you can lay out your lunch spread without disturbing your workspace.

Lastly, this might sound mundane, but be sure that there are adequate recycling, compost, and landfill containers for the team in the space. Bonus points if you can get the waste bins out of the room after lunch to prevent any distracting odors throughout the afternoon.

These are the criteria we use at Voltage Control when planning and facilitating Design Sprints and innovation workshops for our clients.

Pro-tip: with these considerations in mind, use our Workshop Design Canvas download to design your workshop like a learning experience pro.

Are you in need of a facilitator for your next meeting or workshop? We’re here to help. Voltage Control facilitates events of all kinds, including design thinking workshops, innovation sessions, and Design Sprints. Let’s chat!

The post 7 Things to Consider When Choosing a Workshop Venue appeared first on Voltage Control.

The Design Sprint is a staple structure in the world of facilitation for solving big challenges. It’s a five-day process, initially developed at Google Ventures, used for validating ideas and tackling a business problem. The process guides teams through a design-based thinking process to uncover insights, prototype an idea, and test it with users. 

Whether you are preparing to run your own sprint or are going to partake in one as a participant, it is important to know the ins and outs of Design Sprints to get the most out of them. Let’s take a look.

Why Run a Design Sprint?

Design Sprints have multiple functions and benefits. Here are some of the top reasons to run a sprint:

• Align a team around a shared vision.
• Answer critical business questions.
• Discover the essence of a creative challenge or problem.

Cut through endless internal debate by building a prototype on which your customers can give feedback.

When to Run a Design Sprint

Design Sprints are beneficial at various project or product life cycle stages. The following are some excellent times to turn to a sprint:

• When kicking off a new initiative.
• When looking for new breakthrough features for a product.
• When you need to switch gears or iterate on a current product.
• When you haven’t talked to your users enough.

How to Find the Magic

The Design Sprint is a platform/tooling agnostic. It helps companies find the magic and deep value for their end-user before building anything. The sprint helps teams identify their core “jobs to be done,”; what’s most important to focus on, and how to get there.

Think of the Design Sprint process and prototyping as the evolution of Mario in the image below:

The Design Sprint is a process to begin iterating toward your customers’ ideal version of fire-spitting Mario. The end-users experience with your product is the focus–the magic you want to create! Follow-on activities are how you actually build the product and what you build it with. After sprinting, your team will have more confidence in the core value and needs of the end-user before the heavy work of actually building the product.  

The Design Sprint helps us make sure we are building the right thing rather than obsessing on getting the thing exactly right.

Ready to get started? Let our expert facilitators guide you through a design sprint to spark a change in your organization and drive new ideas. Please reach out to hello@voltagecontrol.com for a consultation.

Focus on Desire

The Design Sprint is targeted at testing desirability–keep this at the forefront of your mind. When you create a simulation of your concept and use it to test your ideal vision, you gain deeper insights into the ideal state and desirability from the end-user. You can then take those insights to the table when you build out the final solution. While it is efficient and a big win when your prototype becomes the initial spec for what you end up building, its primary goal is to answer your questions and gain insights.

While the main focus of a Design Sprint is testing desirability, we certainly don’t want to waste time testing completely infeasible things. At Voltage Control, we recommend including someone in the Design Sprint who understands the logistics (ex: engineer, operations, hardware, software, materials, etc.). A person with relevant insight on logistics can lend a perspective that might inspire others with the confidence they need to explore certain ideas they may have been afraid to approach. This person also serves as a built-in filter to keep the group from wasting time on outlandish, impractical ideas. That said, the facilitator must ensure that the logistics and status quo aren’t stifling innovation but rather informing and directing it. 

Start our Design Thinking Foundations course today!

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Where to Run a Design Sprint

The five-day sprint was originally developed as an in-person workshop. People come together for an engaging, interactive experience and participate in hands-on, visual, and deep work collaboration. Sticky notes are aplenty, and whiteboards are used to write and sketch out ideas. However, you don’t need to wait to be IRL to undergo a sprint. Remote Design Sprints are also an increasingly popular option due to The Great Pause. With adjustments to cater to the virtual landscape, your team can still experience effective and productive remote collaboration. There are even virtual whiteboards (yes, digital stickies!) and other remote tools to promote visual collaboration just as you would in-person.  

Who Participates in a Design Sprint

Everyone involved in a Design Sprint plays a vital role.

The sponsor is the person with the big idea; they have the vision. They seek to answer: What is the problem you are addressing, and what is your desired outcome? The sprint is designed to build and leverage something that comes closest to the “right thing.” On some occasions, multiple sponsors in an organization champion the Design Sprint to help solve their shared problem. When they have opposing opinions on how best to solve it, it’s super exciting too if one or neither of them is right!

The sprint team is a curation of 7 people who you feel will provide diverse and critical perspectives on the project. Who’s opinion and insight do you value? Who’s voice and input do you need most to get you from point A to point B? Think about who understands the problem deeply. Who has to deal with it on a regular basis? Who will have to implement and support the solution? Who understands the needs of the customers? Who will build your prototype? Who can represent operations and logistics? Who understands the voice of the brand and how to position the solution?  Who understands the finances? Who always figures out how to break things? Who is really creative about breaking the rules? 

Finally, you’ll need to consider a few special roles when planning a Sprint:

The Decider is one of your sprint team members who will make all the critical decisions. Perhaps it is the CEO or a stakeholder; they have the final say. It is their approval you seek to take the generated idea to the next level of integration. Ideally, they will be in the entire Design Sprint. If they can’t make it to the entire sprint, they should proxy to someone else or make sure to attend at key moments when decisions are made. Pro Tip: Good Deciders listen carefully, ask questions of the team, and make swift and concrete decisions.

The Prototyper is one or more of your sprint team members with the skills needed to build your prototype. Depending on the opportunity or challenge you seek to solve, your prototype may take different forms. If you know you are building a mobile app, then you’d want to select a prototyper with UX & UI design skills who is familiar with app prototyping tools like Figma or Invision. If you aren’t quite sure, you’ll want to use a prototyper with deep design skills and diverse prototyping experience to ensure they are ready for anything. 

The Experts are 3-4 people that we invite to join us on Monday so that we can ask them curious questions while we write How Might Statement to unlock potential solution ideas. Curating experts is a great way to include people whose input is crucial but just don’t have enough time to attend the entire sprint. 

The Facilitator is a non-biased and neutral leader who is an expert in facilitation and the Design Sprint process. This person can be internal or external to your organization.

Pro tip: Hire an outside facilitator when dealing with big or sensitive decisions.

They are removed from office politics, making enforcing good behavior from the group easier and protecting the leadership from including a specific agenda. A workshop facilitator increases engagement and positivity in the group, and an outside facilitator is a fresh new face and personality who can help to break old patterns and create new ones for optimum productivity. 

Now that you know the “who, what, when, where, and why’s” of Design Sprints, you are more prepared to utilize the 5-day workshop to tackle your big challenges and ideations. Happy exploration! 

Want to learn more about Design Sprints?

We are here to help you succeed from expert facilitation to in-house training. Please reach out to us at hello@voltagecontrol.com.

We also host regular meetups, boot camps, summits, and virtual workshops–from Professional Virtual Facilitation Training to our annual Control the Room Facilitator Summit. To sign up or learn more.

The post What is a Design Sprint For? appeared first on Voltage Control.

As with almost anything in life, planning is essential. Design Sprints are no exception. Design Sprints are a 5-Day process development by Jake Knapp who documented the process in his NYT bestselling book Sprint. With the Design Sprint method, Jake distilled Design Thinking into a simple and repeatable structure that anybody can follow. This simplicity is both helpful and problematic. Since Design Sprints present such great promise, the idea of doing one generates great excitement. This excitement, combined with an easy-to-follow structure, causes many people to dive in without the requisite thought and preparation. Don’t be one of them!

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” ― Benjamin Franklin

This article is an extension of a prior post on Design Sprint planning tools and resources. In my previous post, I assembled some of my favorite links and assets so that you might more easily find them. In this post, I’ll provide a bit more structured guidance on the types of things you’ll want to consider as you embark on your Sprint. Whether it is your 1st Sprint or your 100th Sprint, you’ll want to keep these things in mind, so bookmark this page!

Figure Out Your “Why”

Just like the Sprint starts with the end in mind, so should your planning. While I don’t advocate that teams lock their goal in stone prior to the Sprint, it is helpful to explore the Goal and have a thoughtful perspective on where you’re generally pointed. The last thing you want is to begin the goal exercise on Day 1 with everyone staring at you like deers blinded by headlights. Start off your Sprint with a solid understanding of the purpose and how that fits into your company’s vision.

TOOLS TO CONSIDER

Liberating Structures is an effective set of methods that are great for planning and aligning stakeholders. If you are struggling with planning, Purpose to Practice (P2P) is a simple-and-rigorous method that you can use to layout the essential elements of your Sprint. This tool works well for both small groups and extremely large groups and is an excellent tool for building alignment early in your process. After using P2P for a few different projects, it will become an everyday method you can use to do anything from planning staff meetings to outlining key elements of your next product design process.

Within each element of P2P, you can use different methods to get at your answers — or you can simply invite your stakeholders to assist by asking core questions for each element. Below are a few things to consider for each element.

1. Purpose: For many teams, purpose is elusive or at least not a daily topic of conversation. There are a few Liberating Structures (LS) that are well suited for helping you articulate your purpose. 9 whys, TRIZ, 1–2–4-All, and 25/10 are great places to start.
2. Principles: If you find it challenging to define or agree on your principles, check out these LS activities: Appreciative Interviews, TRIZ, and Min Specs are effective tools for teasing the details from your team.
3. Participants: Select your facilitator, decider, and other key roles. Consider who is missing.
4. Structure: Think about how you will document the Sprint, prepare for your kickoff meeting, schedule a space, and order coffee/food.
5. Practices: Consider pre-work like: upfront research, unanswered questions, and lack of clarity.

“Who” Matters

I hear from folks all the time who are struggling with who to invite to their Design Sprint. Worst of all are those people who don’t even realize it is such a critical concern and simply invite their peers. If you do not include a diverse set of stakeholders across all the functions of your organization, then there is considerable risk that your project will falter.

Lucky Number Seven

You must limit the number of attendees in the Design Sprint to seven people. For every person you include above seven, you increase the risk of generating so much content that you can’t stay on time and devolving in to an uncontrolled conversation that is difficult to steer. Everyone won’t be heard and it’s difficult to break into small groups. More is not more.

The Sprint book recommends that you include someone who understands the customer, the financials, the messaging, the logistics, and prototyping. You should always remember to include someone who can ensure the project will have support post-Sprint. Within the Purpose to Practice framework, the key question one asks when looking at Participants is: “who must we include to meet our purpose?” Another question I find helpful, which I learned as part of my Liberating Structures learning, is deceptively simple: “who’s missing?”

Strike a Balance

Don’t forget to account for the mindset or attitude of the attendees. It is important to strike a balance. While you want to cultivate an environment conducive to collaboration, you don’t want to avoid the skeptics and cynics either. It is not about seniority or stroking egos, it’s about different points of view and people who will really be able to engage and bring an open mind.

For large organizations, consider tools within the Liberating Structures repertoire to determine who should be in the room. 25/10 Crowd Sourcing can be used to generate ideas from a large group and could be used with either “who must be included to meet our purpose” or “who’s missing” from the discussion thus far. Social Network Webbing, TRIZ, and Discovery and Action Dialogue all have the potential to generate great ideas for composing your sprint participants.

Invite Others In

An excellent way to involve more people in the process without going over the 7 person limit is to bring them in on Monday as an expert or invite them to a daily readout. I’m a big fan of the daily readout as it exposes more of the team to the process and the progress that is being made.

Figure Out Recruiting

You should also have a solid game plan for how you will recruit your testers and who will be in charge of running the interviews. Sometimes I recommend starting your recruit beforehand, but most of the time you can do it during the week. Make sure that your test moderator is skilled at interviewing, knows how to put together a discussion guide, and has an unbiased approach.

Prepping Participants

Always take the time to educate your participants. Most of them will not have heard of Sprints, much less read the book. Even ones who have read the book may have missed parts. It’s important to set expectations. I recommend having a 30-minute kick-off meeting about 1 week prior to the Sprint. This is an opportunity to set expectations with the team and agree on any last-minute items that need to be addressed before your Sprint.

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“What” You’ll Need

Do not wait till the last minute and buy whatever your local office supply store happens to have in stock. Jake carefully selected the supplies he recommends based on running hundreds of Sprints and they really do provide better results.

Don’t Skimp on Supplies

You can follow my supplies post to make sure you get all the correct items. Unfortunately, Amazon doesn’t have good support for a bill of materials, but I have put links on each of the supplies so you can make sure to get the correct items.

Two common mistakes to avoid are the pop-up Post-Its since the sticky side alternates from top to bottom and the Avery dots as they are difficult to remove from surfaces. If you do decide to get the Avery dots, you should also consider getting a putty knife.

I also like to include a pair of scissors, a Bluetooth speaker with a playlist, 3M flip charts, and a set of Tibetan chimes as sometimes the time timer alarm wears out its welcome.

Brain Food

Design Sprints are deep and intense work. This work requires that our body and mind are functioning at their best. Don’t short circuit your progress by bringing in unhealthy snacks and comfort food. This is tempting for some as they consider these treats a benefit or reward for this special event. Don’t fall prey to that trap. Bring in healthy food that’s high in protein and low in sugar. Nuts, fruit, protein bars, and vegetables are a great place to start.

Also, order delivery for lunch. Going out to lunch with a group this large always takes too long and disrupts your schedule. Also, the team will need time for bathroom breaks, checking email, etc.

“Where” is Critical

Space is critical. I’ve participated in enough Design Sprints in inadequate spaces that I make it a priority to discuss the venue in detail prior to starting the Sprint. There are some great pointers in this article on the pitfalls of facilitation.

You’ll want to have ample room to move around. Consider the fact that you’ll be hanging things on the wall and organizing them as a group. With all attendees in the room, can you comfortably cluster around the walls and still easily move from one side to the other?

Are the plenty of whiteboards? You will write up the goal, the questions, and the map, so you’ll need 2 large or 3 medium whiteboards. The smaller 2′ x 3′ whiteboards aren’t recommended.

Consider the location. Is there natural light and is the environment free of obnoxious sounds and odors? Ensure that there are minimal distractions. For some companies, working off-site might be helpful to get people out of their typical mindset. A change of scenery can be helpful for some companies, especially in environments entrenched in the status quo.

Have you also scheduled time to review? Did you schedule a room to conduct your interviews? Will they be in person? You may also need to consider how you will connect the two rooms for observation.

“How” to End Your Sprint

Reflecting on your Design Sprint after is important. If you are uncertain about how to best conduct your retrospective, consider the Liberating Structure, What, So What, Now What. WWW is well suited for synthesizing your Design Sprint insights because it supports you in building a discipline of reflection and action.

The more you and your team build a reflection-and-action habit, the more capable you become at adjusting in real-time, together. It also helps reduce unproductive conflict and makes space for people to get a sense of what others are oriented to before jumping to action, which is helpful when you are trying to make progress quickly and who don’t want to have to backtrack.

I hope that these tools are as effective for you as they are for me. If you have any questions or have found other approaches that work, I’d love to hear from you.

Want to find out more about planning a Design Sprint? Check out Design Sprint Resources & Planning Tools next!

The post Essential Tips for Planning a Successful Design Sprint appeared first on Voltage Control.

The term Design Sprint refers to the five-day process that centers on design methodology and uses design thinking as a framework. Though the word design is involved, the reality is that anyone can learn how to execute the Design Sprint phases, whether they are a designer or not.

In this article, you’ll learn:

• What Are Design Sprints For?

• The Five Design Sprint Phases 

• Design Sprints Aren’t Just for Designers

What Are Design Sprints For?

A Design Sprint is a process used to validate ideas and problem solve. Created by Jake Knapp, Design Sprints are “The ‘greatest hits’ of business strategy, innovation, behavioral science, and more — packaged into a step-by-step process that any team can use.” 

Every sprint consists of five Design Sprint phases, each of which encourages participants to consider human-centered solutions to complex problems. 

Within each phase, facilitators will work to help their team:

• Understand: Identify and understand the end-users problem areas 
• Ideate: Develop potential solutions to the main problem
• Decide: Transform the best ideas into a hypothesis
• Prototype: Create a realistic prototype
• Test: Get feedback from users in real-time

The Five Design Sprint Phases 

Successful sprints begin with first-hand experience of Design Sprint phases. While Design Sprints range in complexity based on one’s needs, thoroughly understanding each phase of a Design Sprint will make the entire process easier. 

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Though each phase varies, the five Design Sprint phases are easily broken into a five-day process.

A typical sprint includes the flowing phases:

1. Monday: Exploration Phase

The main goal in the exploration phase is to jumpstart creativity and to encourage multiple solutions throughout the next Design Sprint phases. At this point, participants will identify the long-term goal and map out the plan of action to tackle the challenge. 

Beginning: You’ll start the Design Sprint off with a structured discussion to plan out the weeklong process. In the initial phase of the Design Sprint, your team will begin by considering their business from different perspectives. 

Middle: Experts will then share their experiences and knowledge with the team in 10 -14 minute sessions. Participants will use shared knowledge to focus on collaborating as a unit and developing a shared brain.

Each member will share different elements relating to the problem while the facilitator captures all the information shared through a whiteboard. The other team members will reference this information throughout the sprint process. Ultimately, the team should explore as many possibilities as they can, regardless of how viable or realistic they are during this phase.

End: As the first phase concludes, the team selects a target: a manageable part of the problem the team will solve during the week.

With a better understanding of the end-user and the product, team members can move on to the next phase.

2. Tuesday: The Sketch Phase

The main objective of the sketch phase is to develop different action plans that will result in the most viable solutions.  

Beginning: In the next phase of a Design Sprint, team members will begin to translate ideas into tangible solutions. The design process during this phase may include adding new features or redesigning a project. 

The day will begin with inspiration as the team reviews which ideas to improve and remix. At this part of the process, facilitators will encourage continued brainstorming.

Middle: By mid-day, team members will sketch using a four-step process to emphasize critical thinking:

1. Review key information

2. Design ideas on paper

3. Consider many variations

4. Create detailed solutions

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These activities help team members develop well-formed concepts as they clarify the challenge. Facilitators can use templates like Mural and Miro to stimulate further ideation.

End: The team will finish the phase by identifying customers to include in the final testing phase.

3. Wednesday: The Decision Phase

During the decision phase, your team will have many solutions to contend with. At this point, it’s time to decide on a solid plan of action and select the ideas that will be prototyped. 

Beginning: Start this phase by critiquing each solution. Team members should consider the solutions that they’ll be able to achieve with the time and resources available.

Middle: Toward the middle of the day, the team will choose the solutions that are most viable for meeting the long-term goal. Consider voting to determine the best solution to pursue. 

End: Team members will choose the best options from the sketch phase and implement them in a storyboard. This is the step-by-step plan for the prototyping phase. 

4. Thursday: The Prototype Phase

The prototype in this phase is essentially an experiment used to test a hypothesis. In this phase, the team decides what they will build to receive feedback and validate the hypothesis.

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Beginning: This phase starts with the team developing a realistic prototype to test with users. This prototype should be finished in one day.

Middle: After developing the prototype, confirm the schedule for the test, review the prototype, and develop an interview script.
End: Finalize everything for the Friday user test.

5. Friday: The Validate Phase

The final phase is likely the most crucial one. Team members will test their prototype with live users. 

Beginning: Live users will test the prototype and provide feedback. This information will pinpoint various issues in the product’s design. This will allow team members to make improvements.

Middle: In a Design Sprint, each team member will participate in the validation session.  The goal is to capture the learnings and apply various concepts as the team gains user feedback. An interviewer is necessary to facilitate the discussion with five potential users. The end-users involved are target customers that will react to the solution.

End: As the Design Sprint phases come to a close, your team will know exactly what steps to take to finalize the solution and what comes next.

Design Sprints Aren’t Just for Designers

If you want to run a Design Sprint but are not a designer, that isn’t a problem. Any qualified facilitator can run a Design Sprint and these sessions benefit companies of every industry. The best Design Sprint facilitators bring the necessary knowledge and skills to share with their teams. 

These facilitators effectively lead group discussions and manage team dynamics as they select the next course of action in their Design Sprint scenario. The best facilitators are those that are in tune with design methodology and are well-versed in Design Sprint phases. Most Design Sprint facilitators also work as agile coaches, strategists, UX designers, consultants, product managers, and similar roles. 

Want to get started running Design Sprints?

Design sprint certification can help you learn the ins and outs of Design Sprints as you strengthen your facilitation skills and gain confidence in the process. 

With Voltage Control Design Sprint classes, you’ll learn more about the five-day process and how you can run your own. Sign up today and stay tuned for information on our Design Sprint certification. 

The post The Facilitator’s Guide to the Design Sprint Phases appeared first on Voltage Control.

Though many people associate design thinking with the role of the designer, experience in design isn’t a prerequisite. Anyone can use design methodology to host transformative design sprints. 

In this article, we’ll discuss the following topics:

• Design Thinking Benefits Everyone
• What Are Design Sprints?
• Who Runs Design Sprints? 
• What Do Design Sprint Facilitators Do?
• The Power of Expert Facilitation
• What it Takes to Be a Facilitator 
• Facilitator Certification Programs
• Facilitation Certification and Beyond

Design Thinking Benefits Everyone

Design thinking is at the core of any design sprint and centers around prioritizing the needs of the end-user. Just as design sprints aren’t solely for designers, design thinking is one methodology that benefits everyone. 

71% of companies report that design thinking improved their working culture while 69% share that the methodology accelerated their innovation processes. 

Ultimately, design thinking is a framework, not a form of design. Whether you’re an actual designer or you’re a member of the c-suite, applying design thinking in the workplace will have incredible benefits for your business. Everyone can learn design thinking and apply this approach by running a design sprint. 

What Are Design Sprints?

Design sprints are a five-day process designed to answer critical questions through design, ideation, prototyping, and testing. In a design sprint, facilitators aim to merge business strategy, behavior science, innovation, and design thinking into one innovative process.
The design sprint originated in 2010 as Jake Knapp’s brainchild. Knapp was Inspired by Google’s product development culture, IDEO design thinking workshops, and similar innovative ideas from industry leaders. In 2012, he brought the design sprint process to Google Ventures and the team continues to refine the process further.

Who Runs Design Sprints? 

While design sprints quickly gained popularity with startups and tech companies, businesses of any industry and size run design sprints as well. Design sprints are an excellent solution for brands searching to develop a digital product or looking to solve complex problems. 

Jake Knapp shares, “When we talk to startups about sprints, we encourage them to go after their most important problem. Running a sprint requires a lot of energy and focus. Don’t go for the small win, or the nice-to-have project, because people won’t bring their best efforts. They probably won’t even clear their schedules in the first place.”  

Design sprints are ideal for companies with a desire to reduce their invested resources and accelerate learning as they generate and explore new ideas and concepts. These sprints help improve design and development as they jumpstart an innovative and fast-paced environment where results are guaranteed. 

What Do Design Sprint Facilitators Do?

A design sprint facilitator must guide their team through the sprint’s 5-phase process as they manage the dynamics of the group. Facilitators of the most effective design sprints are experts in design thinking and understand what it takes to lead their team to success. 

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It takes a confident and highly motivated facilitator to navigate the complex process of a design sprint. The most effective design sprint facilitators have the necessary knowledge and the capacity to share their expertise with others in the intense and fast-paced environment of a sprint.

Most design sprint facilitators aren’t designers. Ideal design sprint facilitators often have the following roles:

• Strategists
• Project Managers
• Product Managers
• Agile Coaches
• UX Leads
• Innovation Managers
• UX Designers 
• Design Thinkers
• Workshop Facilitators 

Expert facilitation starts with the desire to champion design thinking and spearhead the innovative process of the sprint. Interested in improving your facilitation skills? With a facilitator certification, anyone can hone their facilitation skills and run game-changing design sprints on their own. 

The Power of Expert Facilitation

The power of the design sprint lies in the expertise of the facilitator. In a fast-paced environment like a design sprint, it’s crucial to have a facilitator that can pull the best results out of their team, keep the group on track, and generate the intended deliverables in the available time frame. 

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Good design sprint facilitation boils down to three essentials:

• The capability to encourage synergy while leading a team to effective outcomes
• The capacity to adapt and iterate
• The ability to engender creativity in others 

When preparing to lead a design sprint, facilitators should strive to:

• Align all participants to solve a problem 
• Avoid delays while decreasing time to market
• Encourage rapid prototyping and testing of a solution

What it Takes to Be a Design Sprint Facilitator 

Design sprints hinge on the overarching question: What is the human need behind my process, method, service, or product? As such, becoming a better facilitator starts with learning the essentials of the process and a keen understanding of the five phases of a sprint:

1. Empathize: Facilitators share the perspective of their target consumer, customer, and audience to address the problem 
2. Define: Define the problem with a human-centered, tangible statement 
3. Ideate: Brainstorm to generate as many ideas as possible around this data
4. Prototype: Experiment and prototype possible solutions to best solve the problem
5. Test: Refine ideas by testing to create the most appropriate solution

In addition to understanding the design sprint process, facilitators know how best to prepare for design sprints. Ahead of a five-day sprint, facilitators will identify the most cohesive agenda, the best tools for the job, and the proper environment for the session. 

Facilitators that are serious about executing effective design sprints should explore design sprint facilitator certification to take their skills to the next level. 

Facilitator Certification Programs

The best way to equip yourself with the knowledge, tools, and confidence required to lead successful sprints is through a facilitator certification program. 

Voltage Control’s Facilitator Program aligns IAF (International Association of Facilitators) competencies to provide participants with opportunities to practice, earn feedback, and learn the skills required to lead next-level sprints for your clients or company. 

In the facilitator certification program, you’ll have the opportunity to:

• Cultivate a professional facilitator identity
• Reflect on areas of strength and opportunities to grow
• Implement the most appropriate facilitating approaches and methods
• Select the best tools and methods for your needs

Following a design sprint facilitator certification course, you’ll earn certificates of completion, ultimately receiving full certification once all courses are complete. 

Facilitation Certification and Beyond

While facilitation itself is fairly simple, applying design methodology in the most productive ways takes practice. Voltage Control’s facilitator certification program features the following:

• Facilitation Foundations
  • This is an introduction to facilitation core competencies. Instructors model various facilitation methods to allow learners the opportunity to practice

• Facilitation Electives
  • Elective courses allow for additional exploration and application in key focus areas 

• Facilitation Capstone
  • Course members will create a professional facilitator portfolio to show competency in foundation areas and identify a plan for continued long-term growth 

All successful design sprints begin with a confident facilitator that understands design methodology and possesses the skills for expert facilitation. Becoming a better facilitator starts with a facilitation program that will give you the practice and training you need to strengthen your skills.

Become a better facilitator today! Sign up to get more information about the Voltage facilitator certification program!

The post Design Sprints Aren’t Just for Designers appeared first on Voltage Control.

What What comes to mind when you hear or see “design thinking?” The cognitive, strategic, and workable processes used to develop design concepts are not left to just designers and design teams. At its core, design thinking is a process used for creative problem-solving. When applied to the business world, design thinking has the power to shape and drive innovation. And it works. That’s why many large corporations have instilled the strategic mindset to help evolve their businesses. From IBM and MassMutual to Nike and Airbnb, many successful mainstream companies have heavily profited from the use of this methodology.

What Is Design Thinking

“What is design thinking?” returns hundreds of articles discussing design methodology and its significance in the working world. Much more than a buzzword, design thinking is a well-structured business concept that prioritizes people and champions empathy in the workplace. 

A study from Adobe found that companies that encourage creativity are 3.5 times more likely to outperform the competition about revenue growth. Salesforce incorporated design thinking in their sales team discovery process and found a 100% increase in revenue.

The Approach In the Workplace

So, what is design thinking, and how do you use it? Let’s break it down. Overall, a design thinking approach minimizes uncertainty and reduces the risk of innovation. At the core of design thinking is the human-centric methodology that asks the question, “What’s the human need behind this product/method/process/service?” 

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Ultimately, design thinking is the fusion of what is desirable (from a human perspective), technologically achievable, and economically feasible. It helps to consider all parts of a problem or challenge to understand it holistically, steering projects clear of ambiguity and uncertainty. This approach encourages businesses to focus their efforts on the end-user. Adopting a design-centered approach allows companies to better understand their clients and meet the needs of their target audiences.

The first step in understanding “what is design thinking?” is to identify the problem at hand. Whether the problem is unexpected or a planned innovation, pinpointing the “what” is the crucial first step. From there, the methodology leads teams to understand the “why,” “how,” and “what’s next” in the innovation process, which allows them to create the best possible outcome.

The Five Stages of Design Thinking

1. Empathize

The first stage of the design process is to empathize with the end-user by understanding the perspective of the target audience/customer/consumer to identify and address the problem at hand. It is also a crucial step in the process to clearly understand and work with team members to strengthen team dynamics and overall performance to meet a common goal. This stage is all about gathering as much information as possible to prepare for development in the next step.

To do this, design thinkers are encouraged to cast aside all assumptions (because assumptions can stifle innovation) about the problem, the consumers, and the world at large. This allows them to consider any possibilities about the customers and their needs objectively.

2. Define

Putting together all of the information gathered in the first stage, the next step is to define the problem. Careful analysis of observations made will be synthesized to pinpoint the core problem that needs to be addressed. The goal is to convert the defined problem into a tangible, human-centered statement, rather than focusing on technology, monetary returns, or specifics of a product.

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3. Ideate

In the third stage, information has been gathered, a problem has been clearly defined, and now it’s time to generate ideas around this data. How can you and your team think outside of the box to create alternative solutions to the issue you’ve identified? Proper ideation begins with a clear understanding of your target audience and the ins and outs of the problem. 

As such, the ideation phase consists of brainstorming. Your team will collect as many ideas as possible at the start so that by the end, the team can investigate and test them.

4. Prototype

It’s time to experiment! During the prototyping phase, your team will identify through trial and error which of the possible solutions can best solve the primary problem(s). This typically will include scaled-down versions of the products or systems in question, which allows for proper investigation of the generated solutions.

5. Test

All of the work and information come together when testing the product in the final stage. It’s important to note that this is still an interactive stage. Often, testing the product leads to redefining problems/solutions and a better understanding of the consumer. This stage allows for all details to be flushed out and refined to create the best solution possible.

The Benefits Are Plentiful

The benefits of design thinking are plentiful. From improving team dynamics and productivity to reducing the cost of innovation and getting ahead of competitors, the methodology is a proven working process to create successful change. Just look at the economic impact design thinking has had on IBM. The company reported that the implementation of design thinking has increased its team efficiency by 75%, and it experienced a 301% return on its investment. 

As stated in the IBM Design Thinking Field Guide, “Our approach is to apply design thinking at the speed and scale the modern enterprise demands. It’s a framework for teaming and action. It helps our teams not only form intent but deliver outcomes — outcomes that advance the state of the art and improve the lives of the people they serve.”

How to Implement And Create Successful Change

Experts offer Design Thinking Workshops to help teams navigate the process and create successful change. This leadership is imperative, as design thinking is far from a linear path.

As IDEO founder David Kelley explains it, “it’s a big mass of looping back to different places in the process.”

Once design thinking skills are learned, business leaders can incorporate them into team management to encourage a healthy, sustainable dynamic. This allows businesses to continuously question their products and practices, helping them to generate solutions in the most productive environment possible. Having a critical eye to question what needs to be done for employees to do their best work, how to ensure thought diversity to encourage creative and critical thinking, and how to empower employees to take action when necessary is imperative to maintaining a strong relationship with ongoing innovation–either for products and services or within the company culture.

“The main tenant of design thinking is empathy for the people you’re trying to design for. Leadership is the same thing–building empathy for the people you’re entrusted to help.” -David Kelley, Founder of IDEO.

Interested in learning more about design thinking and how you can adopt this methodology? At Voltage Control, we’re happy to help. Contact us to learn more about the design thinking process and how to incorporate design methodology into your company culture. 

The post What is Design Thinking: A People-First Mentality appeared first on Voltage Control.

With the future of facilitation confined to the virtual realm, understanding the art of conducting remote design thinking sessions is more important than ever. As 76% of employees use video conferencing for remote work, facilitators must be able to drive engagement in their remote sessions. The trick is to bring the power of design thinking to the world of remote meetings. As you work to stir engagement in your team members, using the power of design thinking will help you harness collaborative engagement and reach your objectives at a faster pace.

In this article, we’ll discuss how to easily and effectively conduct remote design thinking sessions with the following topics:

• What Are Remote Design Thinking Sessions?
• The Challenges and Benefits of Remote Facilitation
• 6 Steps of Conducting Remote Design Thinking Sessions

What are Remote Design Thinking Sessions?

The power of running a design sprint is that these sessions can be held anywhere–whether in-person or online. Remote design thinking sessions prioritize design methodology and focus on the needs of the end-user.

Remote design thinking sessions should focus on three main components:

• Empathy
  • Participants must empathize with the end-user and the problems that they face.
• Ideation
  • During ideation, the team develops several potential solutions to the problems at hand.
• Prototyping 
  • Team members will create a prototype of possible solutions and test them.

The ​Challenges and Benefits of Remote Facilitation

Remote facilitation has its unique challenges. While conducting remote design thinking sessions may seem overly complicated due to its hands-off nature, it doesn’t need to be. Emphasizing collaboration and communication will help you conduct remote design thinking sessions seamlessly. 

While meeting virtually may seem like a barrier to engaging participants, it shouldn’t. Using the right strategies and tools will help you perfect this user-centric approach to problem-solving for remote facilitation.

There are many benefits to taking your design thinking sessions online. Conducting remote design thinking sessions makes it possible to collaborate with a more expansive group of people. Moreover, facilitators can assist more readily when working remotely. 

It’s best to face the unique challenges of conducting remote design thinking sessions with the help of an expert. At Voltage Control, we’re happy to help you navigate these virtual sessions.

6 Steps of Conducting Remote Design Thinking Sessions

Preparation and Planning

Preparation and planning are the essential first steps of conducting remote design thinking sessions. During this phase, it’s essential to identify the following components f your session:

Objectives 

As you plan your remote session, clearly identify the goals you hope to achieve. Ideally, you will design the overarching question or challenge you aim to answer through the session. These may be certain improvements you hope to make to a product or experience. 

Agenda 

The agenda will include the schedule for the session as well as the activities you will use. The key is to choose activities that will boost engagement. Popular remote design sprint activities include drawing and storyboarding via software like Jam Board. 

Location 

Your location is important, even when remote as the environment will determine how collaborative your team can be. Consider digital environments such as Mural or Miro for your sessions.

Materials

In a virtual design sprint, materials may include equipment like laptops, tablets, microphones, and other essentials that you’ll use to make sure your connection and meeting have a continuous flow. 

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Introduction

During the intro of your session, you’ll welcome your team and explain your expectations for the workshop, objectives, and agenda. Use this time to put your participants at ease with an icebreaker or exercise that helps them loosen up. 

The next step in your introduction is to explain design thinking. This allows all participants to get on the same page with understanding design methodology. This user-focused approach to problem-solving is an opportunity to highlight the needs of your clients while exploring the best ways to move forward.  

Empathize with the User

The next step in conducting remote design thinking sessions is to empathize with your end-user. During this phase, you’ll encourage your team to adopt the end-user’s perspective. This way, they can start identifying the needs of the user and consider the most beneficial solutions. 

Remote facilitation should focus on activities like roleplaying or using empathy maps to understand the user’s feelings, language, wants, and needs. Be sure to check in with your team to gather their findings before moving on to the next phase.

Define the Problem 

As your team gets in touch with the user’s needs, now is the time to narrow down the problem. Team members may develop a problem statement to help guide the session and kickstart ideation.  

Defining the problem remotely can include a brainstorming session with breakout groups. Facilitators may benefit from having a co-facilitator monitoring participants’ responses and keeping track of all feedback. 

Ideation 

During the ideation phase, it’s essential to stimulate thoughtful collaboration. During this brainstorming session, it’s important to give your team free rein to develop the most creative solutions. Platforms like Google Slides, Miro, or Mural can help with online collaboration. Encourage your team to be output-focused as they use their time to generate potential solutions.  

Facilitators will find it helpful to be as specific as possible by indicating how many ideas teams should contribute. This way, you’ll avoid wasting time on useless chatter or technological minutiae.

Testing and Prototyping

In this phase, you’ll test the results of the ideation phase before putting them into practice. Testing and prototyping remotely require clear and concise planning.

Tools like Marvel, Keynote, Keynotopi, InVision, and ProtoPie make it easy to upload and share prototypes with others.  This way, users can try these interactive prototypes and offer feedback immediately. 
As the feedback comes in, facilitators should encourage real-time discussion about these interactions and prototypes. Tools like Coggle are excellent for brainstorming and visualizing ideas while Lookback can record and test users’ experience to make it easier to track insights.

Explain the Next Steps

As the workshop closes, it’s important to highlight the next steps for your team. During this phase, discuss your team’s final thoughts and takeaways from the session, as well as what action steps your team will take following the session and how you plan to put their prototypes to work.

Simplifying Remote Facilitation

Conducting remote design thinking sessions is an excellent way to improve cross-departmental engagement, accelerate ideation, and develop actionable output. With a thoughtful approach, a concise agenda, and a level-headed facilitator, your next remote session can transform the way your team works.

At voltage Control, our team of expert facilitators is happy to help you get started with a design sprint consultation as you take your sessions into the virtual realm. Whether you want to learn how to run your design thinking sessions or you want to hire a facilitator to do the work for you, we’re here to help.

The post Your Guide to Conducting Remote Design Thinking Sessions appeared first on Voltage Control.