A New Chapter in Collaboration

As Miro unveils its next chapter in collaborative AI at Canvas 2025, we’re reflecting on a journey that began not with code, but with a question:

In an era when most AI tools promised to make individuals faster, we wondered how AI could make teams better. After years of running facilitation workshops around the world, one truth was clear: most innovation problems aren’t about ideas—they’re about alignment. People don’t struggle to think creatively; they struggle to think together.

That’s the problem we set out to solve. And that’s where this story begins.

The Vision Before the Tools

Back at SXSW 2025, we invited a room full of innovators, facilitators, and technologists to imagine a new kind of collaboration—one where artificial intelligence wasn’t a tool outside the circle but a teammate inside it.

Our session, AI Teammates: Facilitating Human Connection in the AI Era, wasn’t about automation or productivity hacks. It was about relationship. We staged a live experiment: participants interacted with fictional “AI teammates”—each with a personality and role to play in the group dynamic.

• There was The Challenger, who surfaced hard truths.
• The Synthesizer, who connected patterns across ideas.
• The Optimist, who expanded possibility.
• And The Historian, who anchored choices in precedent.

These personas weren’t chatbots. They were conversation archetypes designed to stretch how people think together.

As the session unfolded, something remarkable happened. The room came alive—not because of any output the “AI” produced, but because people started thinking differently about how they thought together.

When the exercise ended, one participant said, “I’ve never seen AI make a conversation feel more human.”

That comment stuck with us. It wasn’t about speed; it was about sensemaking. And yet, at the time, there was no product to make this vision tangible. It was still a simulation—a facilitation experiment about what could be.

The Moment Miro Made It Real

Fast-forward to the summer of 2025. When Miro invited us into the early beta of AI Flows and Sidekicks, we instantly recognized it as the missing bridge between concept and capability.

Here, finally, was the interface we had imagined at SXSW:
AI that could listen, synthesize, and act alongside humans, right inside the collaborative canvas.

We began experimenting in August, building facilitation patterns and testing how Miro’s new AI could support real-time group work. What we discovered was transformative.

AI Flows acted as intelligent pipelines—automating the translation of inputs (research, briefs, notes) into structured, visual outputs like user journeys, prototypes, or summaries.

AI Sidekicks took it a step further. They gave form to something we’d imagined months earlier at SXSW: AI as a teammate, not a tool. With Miro’s Sidekick framework, we could finally bring our original AI Teammate personas—The Challenger, The Synthesizer, The Optimist, The Historian—directly into the canvas as participants that offer voices often missing in the room. Whether surfacing dissent, expanding optimism, or connecting overlooked patterns, these AI teammates help facilitators create richer, more balanced conversations. What had been a facilitation exercise in Austin became an intelligent, inclusive system teams can now use in real sessions.

It was the perfect realization of our SXSW philosophy:

We brought our original AI Teammate personas—The Challenger, Synthesizer, Historian, and Optimist—into Miro as Sidekicks. We even added new ones:

• The Sketcher, who makes structure visible.
• The Co-Facilitator, who guides process and inclusion.

Each Sidekick embodied a mindset we teach in facilitation—listening deeply, synthesizing meaning, and supporting clarity.

For the first time, AI could actively participate in a team’s thinking process rather than merely executing after the fact.

Behind the Scenes: Building the Bridge

Our collaboration with Miro’s product and partner teams felt like a masterclass in co-creation. We shared prototypes, tested facilitation flows, and offered feedback on how facilitators actually use AI in live settings.

Our earliest conversations centered on one key distinction:

That question shaped our approach to every prototype.

We realized that the future of collaboration isn’t about speeding up work—it’s about amplifying shared understanding. AI should help teams see patterns sooner, articulate assumptions faster, and move forward together more confidently.

It’s not automation for automation’s sake. It’s augmentation for alignment.

Instant Prototyping: From Insight to Alignment in Minutes

To prove this approach, we built Instant Prototyping—a Miro AI Flow designed to help teams move from an opportunity to a prototype in minutes.

Instant Prototyping turns messy beginnings into momentum.
You paste your opportunity brief, add any research, and click “Run.” Within moments, the Flow generates:

1. Research Insights — a synthesized view connecting what you know.
2. User Flow — a map of how someone might engage with your solution.
3. Screen Requirements — what each step needs to deliver.
4. Prototype — a visual concept you can immediately react to.
   

The process feels facilitative: review, adjust, and re-run. Each iteration invites reflection and sharper focus. When the AI gets it wrong, that’s useful—it reveals assumptions, gaps, and preferences faster than traditional review cycles ever could.

“When the AI is wrong, it’s useful—it surfaces gaps and preferences fast, accelerating alignment.”

This pattern—speed plus direction—has become the backbone of how we help teams build clarity in real time.

Proof of Concept: Breakout Buddy

The first major product we built using Instant Prototyping was Breakout Buddy, a revolutionary Zoom facilitation app that gives hosts unprecedented control over breakout sessions.

In just a few weeks, we went from a blank canvas to a working prototype. Using AI Flows, we synthesized user research, mapped facilitator pain points, and visualized solutions—all inside Miro.

Each iteration made the design clearer. By the end of the first session, we weren’t debating what to build—we were deciding how to make it real.*

That clarity paid off. Breakout Buddy is now in review at Zoom’s marketplace, a tangible example of how facilitation-guided AI can accelerate both design and decision-making.

Instant Prototyping didn’t just make us faster; it made us truer to our facilitation roots—inviting multiple perspectives, clarifying intent, and turning conversation into shared artifacts.

Field Testing with Real Clients

Following the success of Breakout Buddy, we began testing Instant Prototyping and AI Flows with select clients in diverse industries.

• Financial Futures Planning App: A fintech startup used our Flow to translate complex customer research into clear decision journeys. Within a day, they had multiple prototype directions visualized—something that previously took weeks of back-and-forth between product and design teams.
• Local Home Services Platform: A startup supporting plumbers, electricians, and home service professionals used Instant Prototyping to map their booking experience. The team went from vague strategy discussions to a concrete, visual service flow in a single session.

These pilots validated what we believed all along:

Each engagement reaffirmed that the goal isn’t to replace human thinking—it’s to surface it faster, make it visible, and align around it collaboratively.

AI Teaming: A New Paradigm

At Voltage Control, we call this shift AI Teaming.

It’s the practice of designing relationships between humans and AI systems that are purposeful, participatory, and aligned with facilitation principles.

Most organizations treat AI as a personal productivity tool. But true transformation happens when AI becomes part of the collective intelligence of the group.

Facilitation provides the ethical and practical structure for that shift. It defines:

• How we listen to AI (and each other).
• When to pause automation for reflection.
• How to ensure every voice—including digital ones—is used responsibly.

AI Teaming is not about doing the same things faster. It’s about working differently:
more conscious, inclusive, and experimental.

“Facilitation has always been about helping groups find clarity together. Now AI can help us see that clarity forming in real time.”

AI Teaming, Not AI Tooling

There’s a quiet but crucial distinction shaping the future of work: AI tooling is about personal productivity. AI teaming is about collective intelligence.

Most organizations still think of AI as something individuals use to move faster — a personal assistant, a summarizer, a generator. Helpful, yes. But when every person uses their own AI tool in isolation, the result isn’t alignment; it’s fragmentation. Ten people might leave a meeting with ten versions of truth.

That’s why facilitation matters.

AI Teaming is built on three principles we’ve practiced for years in facilitation:

1. Inclusion: Everyone — human or machine — has a voice, but not every voice should dominate. The facilitator’s role is to balance inputs and create psychological safety for contribution.
2. Transparency: The group should always see how conclusions are reached. Hidden algorithms are the enemy of trust. That’s why we design Miro Sidekicks to work in the open — you see every prompt, every output, every change.
3. Purpose: AI should never be busywork. It exists to clarify, not to clutter. When used well, AI helps teams focus on why they’re doing something, not just how fast they can do it.

In practice, this means running meetings where AI participates visibly and democratically:

• The Synthesizer summarizes insights, and the group edits or corrects it together.
• The Challenger surfaces risk, and participants discuss trade-offs transparently.
• The Optimist explores new possibilities, and the team refines them collectively.
• The Historian recalls precedent, and the group draws lessons from what’s come before.
• The Sketcher maps structure, and the team spots patterns, gaps, and next steps.
• The Co-Facilitator proposes next moves, and the team stays aligned and engaged.

When AI joins the conversation like this, facilitation becomes the safeguard that keeps collaboration human.

We’ve seen how powerful this is in action. In workshops where we introduced Sidekicks as participants, teams reported higher engagement and greater confidence in their decisions. It’s not just that the AI saved time; it changed the tone of dialogue.

Participants started talking to each other more — not less — because they had a shared reference point to react to. That’s the paradox of AI Teaming: the more intelligence you add, the more human the process becomes.

“The future of collaboration isn’t human versus AI. It’s human with AI — guided by facilitation.”

Miro Transformation: Turning Capability into Culture

Technology adoption often fails because teams layer new tools on top of old habits.
Our Miro Transformation programs exist to prevent that.

We guide organizations through a facilitation-first approach to integrating Miro’s new AI capabilities responsibly.

• Step 1: Assess How Teams Work
  We observe how information flows, how decisions are made, and where collaboration breaks down.
• Step 2: Introduce AI Intentionally
  We co-design flows and Sidekicks that enhance—not replace—human judgment. This means creating ethical automations that preserve context, learning, and inclusivity.
• Step 3: Measure Real Value
  We focus on results that matter: shorter meetings, higher engagement, faster synthesis, and clearer outcomes.

Transformation in Action

• A global innovation team reduced alignment time by 60% by using Sidekicks like The Synthesizer and The Coach during workshops.
• A leadership group adopted AI Flows for decision documentation, cutting weekly update time in half.
• A product team transformed sprint planning from frustration to flow by running Instant Prototyping to visualize priorities on the spot.

Each story reflects the same truth: facilitation is what makes AI collaboration work—ethically, efficiently, and humanely.

Responsible AI: Designing for Trust and Inclusion

As the world rushes toward automation, facilitation is the counterbalance that keeps technology human.

In our AI Strategy Workshops, we help leaders define what responsible AI looks like in their organizations. Together, we explore questions like:

• How do we make AI reasoning transparent to the team?
• When should a facilitator—not an algorithm—make the call?
• How do we ensure that speed doesn’t silence diversity of thought?
  

Responsible AI begins with inclusion and ends with trust. It’s not a checkbox—it’s a culture.

By grounding AI use in shared principles, we ensure it supports the behaviors that make teams thrive: curiosity, dialogue, and accountability.

Product × Practice × Purpose

At Voltage Control, our partnership with Miro rests on a simple but powerful equation:

• Product gives teams intelligent scaffolding for synthesis and action.
• Practice ensures those tools are used with intention and care.
• Purpose keeps it all rooted in why we collaborate in the first place: to connect, create, and contribute meaningfully.

This triad—Product × Practice × Purpose—is the DNA of AI Teaming. It’s how we turn new technology into new ways of working.

Facilitator Reflections

When we facilitate, we tune into the subtle shift—the instant confusion gives way to clarity. You can see the spark. You can feel the room align.

Seeing that same shift occur with AI present on the canvas is extraordinary. It’s not about replacing intuition; it’s about scaling it.

Facilitators now have new instruments to play with—flows that structure conversation, Sidekicks that spark reflection, and automations that handle logistics so humans can focus on what matters most: the quality of connection.

That’s the art and science of facilitation in the AI era.

The Full-Circle Moment

From SXSW to Canvas, we’ve witnessed a transformation that began as a thought experiment and matured into a new practice of working together.

Today, every team can experience it firsthand:

• Run a Miro AI Flow to turn insights into prototypes.
• Invite AI Teammates like The Challenger or Synthesizer to expand group thinking.
• Use Utility Sidekicks to manage the board and free up human attention.

This isn’t a simulation anymore. It’s collaboration—amplified.

“AI teaming was once an idea we simulated.  Now it’s something every team can do—live, visual, and human with Miro.” —Douglas Ferguson, Founder & CEO, Voltage Control

Join the Movement

Explore how facilitation and AI come together to unlock team potential:

• Explore Voltage Control’s Miro AI Collection
• Join the Instant Prototyping Waitlist
• Discover Miro Transformation Programs
  

Because the future of collaboration isn’t about replacing people,  it’s about inviting AI in to help people work better, together.

The post AI Teaming Comes Alive on the Miro Canvas appeared first on Voltage Control.

As the air turns crisp and the nights arrive sooner, the horizon can feel a bit foggy—especially when teams are staring down big bets and competing priorities. October is a season for lanterns, and in our world of collaborative leadership and facilitation, AI Teammates are exactly that. They throw light just far enough down the path to reveal the next steps with confidence. Not because they’re perfect, but because they are tangible. A first draft beats a first debate, every time.

If you’ve felt the growing tension between moving faster and staying customer-rooted, we’ve been there too. That’s why we’ve doubled down on AI Teaming—collaborating with AI in the room so teams can shift from abstract concepts to concrete artifacts in minutes. Ambiguity becomes visible, discussable, and solvable. You see what you want—and just as often, what you don’t. Either way, you move.

This month, we’re excited to showcase how Miro’s new AI features make collaborating with AI not just possible, but exceptionally practical for facilitators and leaders. We’re Platinum Sponsors at the Miro Canvas Conference, partnering to deploy facilitator-focused product innovation tools on top of these new features. These all roll out into the Miroverse soon; for now, there’s a waitlist as Miro completes the feature release process. Consider this your early lantern beam—what’s now possible and how to harness it for your team.

In the Room

Most organizations still treat AI as an individual productivity tool—something to use before the meeting to prep and after the meeting to summarize. That’s helpful, but it also isolates the learning and amplifies misalignment. You wind up with fast individuals heading in slightly different directions, creating more fog for the group. What teams need is shared momentum, not solo velocity. Bringing AI into the meeting—live, visible, and facilitation-ready—changes everything.

We’ve been experimenting with that shift for the past year. Some of you joined us at SXSW for our AI Teammates workshop, where we introduced AI personas to enrich team conversations. We imagined what it would look like to treat AI as a dynamic teammate, contributing perspective at just the right moment. Now, with Miro AI Flows and Sidekicks, that vision is ready for prime time. You can strategically place one-click buttons on your board to generate artifacts, synthesize research, or introduce a missing viewpoint—right in front of everyone. No toggling. No mysterious magic. It’s collaborative, transparent, and grounded in your team’s context.

This is a competency-building moment for teams. Instead of optimizing individual AI hacks, codify your best prompts and patterns as Sidekicks embedded in your templates and team spaces. That builds a shared library and spreads capability beyond a few power users. You’ll see your facilitation hygiene get sharper: clearer decision rules, tighter timeboxes, faster cycles of consent-based iteration. And most importantly, you’ll collectively build the muscle of collaborating with AI, not just using it.

Think of it like this: AI Teaming speeds up the “what” and “how,” giving you back time and attention for the “who” and the “why.” In a world filled with AI fog machines, your job as facilitator is to design a container where evidence is visible, decisions are crisp, and the team experiences AI as a lantern—lighting the next few steps together.

Activity of The Month: Instant Prototyping

Our new Instant Prototyping Template is a practical example of an AI-powered flow that transforms research insights and strategic vision into tangible prototypes. In minutes, you’ve created the full stack of artifacts needed to move from hypothesis to something the team can react to.

Then the facilitation begins. We pause for structured reviews and workshopping between each step—not to slow things down, but to build confidence. The first draft is a litmus test. It’s usually wrong in useful ways, surfacing gaps in context or fuzzy assumptions that would have stayed hidden for weeks.

Two practical tips make this flow sing. First, version as you go: duplicate frames before regenerating and version-label them (e.g., Flow v1.2). Second, trace decisions back to evidence. As you review outputs, highlight where a flow step or screen requirement connects to a direct quote, a research insight, or a JTBD. Decision clarity grows when the evidence is visible and near. You move faster because you trust the direction.

Speed matters. But what matters more is direction. Instant prototypes give you both—an initial draft to react to, and a concrete way to align around user-centered evidence. You’ll move from research insights to confident product decisions faster, with less debate and more learning. When the fog is thick, create a draft and let the team see the next step together.

From Draft to Decision 

When drafts are easy to generate, the bottleneck shifts from creation to decision. That’s a good shift—as long as you’re working with clear decision rules. We encourage teams to adopt consent-based iteration in place of endless consensus-seeking. Consent asks, “Is this good enough to try for now?” rather than “Do we all love this?” It privileges learning and movement over perfect alignment – small bets beat big arguments.

Put this into practice with lightweight, recurring moves. After each auto-generated artifact, timebox a three-part review: What’s useful here? What’s missing? What will we try next? Use dot votes to prioritize the top two or three changes and capture them as prompt updates or flow adjustments. Then re-run the relevant step. If a stakeholder says, “This isn’t it,” ask them to point to the evidence and translate their feedback into a prompt tweak or a research addition. 

Facilitators, this is where your craft shines. Name the decision up front. “By the end of this session, we’ll have a directionally correct prototype of onboarding plus a short list of open questions.” Timebox the creation of first drafts via the flow, then spend your energy facilitating the review and remix moments. Keep a visible decision diary on the board to track how evidence drove changes. The more you practice this loop, the more your team’s AI competency grows—and the more everyone experiences AI as a teammate rather than a mystery box.

Case Study: Breakout Buddy

We recently used the Instant Prototyping flow to build something our community has wanted for years—a Zoom app we’re calling Breakout Buddy. Many of you have joined our Facilitation Lab Mates events where we run speed networking and match people with accountability partners. The experience is energizing, but the logistics are painful. Zoom doesn’t design breakouts the way facilitators think. There’s no drag-and-drop. Timers are limited. You select number of rooms instead of people per room. And running patterns like 1-2-4-All requires manual, error-prone steps. We had a hunch that a facilitator-first tool could change the experience.

To build it, we gathered research from community listening sessions and Huddles, collected wish lists and gripes, and wrote an Opportunity Brief that detailed use cases like speed networking, group merge and split, and easy time extensions. We dropped all of that into the board and clicked once. The first pass got plenty wrong—exactly what we needed. It misinterpreted “preformatted” in a way that wasn’t helpful and didn’t yet account for saving and recalling group configurations. Those misses illuminated what we hadn’t explicitly included. We added precise requirements, traced the needs to specific quotes, and reran the flow. Within a few hours, we had a prototype that captured the core facilitator workflows, ready for a designer to polish.

Here’s what’s inside Breakout Buddy. You can rapidly set the number of people per room, merge or split groups to run patterns like 1-2-4-All, extend time with a single click, and mark participants who shouldn’t be assigned (think observers or folks with connectivity constraints). It remembers those choices so your cognitive load drops each round. The goal is simple—free you from tedium so you can focus on relationships, process, and purpose. The app is now in Zoom’s approval pipeline. We’ll offer it free to facilitators once it’s live; newsletter readers will hear first. In the meantime, the story behind it is the point: Instant prototypes helped us get from idea to clarity to build in days, not months, and kept us anchored in real facilitator needs every step of the way.

Run Your First Instant Prototype

If you want to try this with your team, block about 90 minutes and pick a clear decision to make. Load an Opportunity Brief and your best research, then run the flow together. The first set of artifacts—Research Insights, User Flow, Screen Requirements, Prototype—will land in minutes. Don’t rush past them.

Facilitate three quick reflections: What’s useful? What’s missing? What feels ready to test? Treat each draft as a conversation starter, not a verdict. Capture insights, update prompts, and re-run the step to see what changes. Keep early versions visible so you can remix later—seeing your evolution builds confidence.

Wrap with a simple consent check: Is this good enough to try for now? Record the decision and next steps in a quick decision diary. Even one or two cycles will shorten time-to-tangible dramatically and strengthen your team’s collaboration muscles.

Advanced Moves

Once you’ve got the basics down, keep evolving your flow:

• Codify what works. Turn great prompts into shared Sidekicks so others can build on them.
• Keep evidence close. Link research and prototypes so every choice traces back to insight.
• Remix intentionally. Combine the best of multiple drafts into a stronger version.
• Slow down to learn. Instant doesn’t mean reckless—pause for reflection where it adds value.
  

The goal isn’t to automate creativity, but to amplify it. Each run builds sharper instincts and a stronger rhythm for thinking with AI, not just through it.

The Facilitation Edge

The more AI accelerates creation, the more facilitation matters. Instant prototypes don’t eliminate the need for structure; they heighten it. Without clear decision rules, timeboxes, and roles, teams will still spin—only faster. The good news is that these AI-powered flows free you from tedium so you can lean further into the work that requires human judgment and relationship-building. You’ll spend less time herding tabs and more time helping people make sense together.

Treat your board like a living workshop. Place buttons where you want to trigger generative moments. Add visible agreement frames to capture consent checks and decision diaries. Name the decisions for each session and timebox the creation. Facilitate critique as remix. When the prototype is wrong—and it will be at times—frame it as a lantern in the fog that illuminates what matters next. Mistakes become maps.

And remember, bringing AI into the meeting is the unlock for team-level competency. Individuals optimizing alone will always struggle to align. Teams practicing together can develop shared habits that stick. We’ve been revitalizing our AI Teammate personas for Sidekicks so you can easily bring missing perspectives into the room. Imagine clicking a button to hear from a skeptical CFO persona or a privacy-conscious legal voice, grounded in your actual company context. That’s not science fiction anymore. It’s simply good facilitation—expanded.

Ready to bring this magic to your team?
Join the AI Teammates waitlist for early access when it launches in the Miroverse.

The post A Lantern in the Fog appeared first on Voltage Control.

We all hit slumps. In our personal and professional lives, challenges are inevitable. Slumps can be defined in many ways. They prevent us from being efficient, effective, and they are the enemy of innovation; they keep us from moving forward. What is difficult is finding ways around these impediments. 

Enter: prototyping– the experimental design-thinking process that helps you shift from ideas and discovery to tangible realizations.

In the world of facilitation, this is a common practice to undergo in a Design Sprint or innovation workshop. Interestingly, many companies and teams can experience road bumps and pitfalls after completing one of these experiences. Why? While most teams emerge from a Design Sprint with a prototype to implement, they often get stuck on the next steps; how to move the project forward. 

So, what’s next? I wrote the book Beyond the Prototype to help you navigate the fuzzy area between ideas and outcomes. If you’ve ever struggled to move a key innovation project forward at work, apply the following post-prototyping practices to launch your next big idea. 

Pro-tip: Use our free Beyond the Prototype Templates to help your team break barriers and excel in innovation.

Purpose

Return to the identified purpose of your project. If you’ve completed a Design Sprint or innovation workshop, you would have chosen a purpose in the goal-setting portion of the workshop. What is the objective of bringing the idea to fruition? What will it do? Keeping your purpose top-of-mind will help you drive your idea forward. Everything you do should be from the lens of your objective; let it guide you.

People

Pinpoint the target audience and then expand your inner circle. Who else needs to be involved in the process to drive the idea/project forward? Keep in mind: Who is the product or service for? Are you meeting all of their needs? Also, decide who the right people are on your team to carry out the necessary tasks to bring this idea to life. Who will be responsible for what? Make sure each person knows their role and hold the team accountable.

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Process

What systems and processes need to be in place to implement your idea and keep everyone involved on track? Start with your end result/goal and work your way backward–identify each step you need to take to reach this end result. Once the process is decided upon, make sure everyone on the team knows the ins-and-outs, what to expect, and what their roles are to carry them out successfully. 

Pro tip: build a roadmap, or a sequenced flow of things you’re going to do to achieve your outcome, to track your process. A kanban type tool like Trello is an effective way to move you forward in the process and make sure nothing falls through the cracks. 

Prep

Gather all of the information and supplies you need to carry out each step of the process. What tools will make completing tasks more efficient and effective? Collect all pieces of the puzzle before you start putting it together. 

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Practical Concerns

It’s important to identify any concerns you and your team have with the project. Voicing worries upfront allows the team to share their perspective and also gives you insight into potential problems. Practical concerns are specific constraints or problems for the idea itself. For example, if the product needs to be under a certain weight, or if it needs to cost less than $5. Once you have identified the concerns, come up with solutions to each of them. If one of the problems arises, you already have a way to solve it. 

Pitfalls

Similar to practical concerns, pitfalls are any obstacles that may arise and cause problems with moving the process forward. A pitfall is anything that might blow up in your face or assumptions that are common and might trip us the team. For example, a pitfall could be that your team has a tendency to keep changing their minds and starting over, which halts the process.

Product

Finally, identify the product, or the output–the tangible thing that must be created. In other words, think about the outcomes that you are driving to. How do you need to package things up for? What’s the narrative you need to tell? What other prototypes do you need to make to gather more insights and achieve your outcome? 

Use these 7 tips to get unstuck whenever you find yourself at a project stand-still. You have the power to not only bring your idea to life but to make it a success. 

For more inspiration on how to navigate the slumps check out, check out Beyond the Prototype the book.

The post The 7 P’s of Beyond the Prototype: Purpose, People, Process, Prep, Practical Concerns, Pitfalls, Product appeared first on Voltage Control.

In several ways, the virtual landscape has made meetings easier. For example, the removal of travel time–whether from a conference room to your office space or a flight across the country–opens up availability; we technically have more time to work when we’re confined to our home offices. And with a conference video chat just a click away, we can get meeting happy. Approach with caution: more meetings is not the answer to meaningful work. In fact, unproductive meetings are one of the biggest challenges of virtual teams. 

Don’t oversaturate your remote team with meetings for the sake of having them.

On the contrary, you should not have a meeting at all unless you have a clear purpose. You must first have an identified objective that you’re trying to obtain or else there is no tangible goal to work toward. The meeting by structure is therefore unproductive before it even begins. Frankly, there are far too many ineffective meetings and we’re on a mission to rid the world of them. A report by Forbes estimated companies will lose $102 billion annually to wasteful meetings in the United States alone. We can change the wasteful meeting dynamic with intentional focus and strategy. The new virtual landscape is an opportune time to adapt and adjust meeting structures to benefit virtual teams, and the same processes can be translated into in-person meetings. Let’s take a look at how we do that. 

Create a Prototype

We often use the mantra “No prototype, no meeting” at Voltage Control. This means if there is not a clear and tangible “prototype” or idea to flush out and explore, then there is no reason to have a meeting in the first place. 

What do we mean by prototype? Nowadays, prototypes can take various forms, and they depend on your objective. For a strategist or project manager, a “prototype” might be a storyboard, written brief, or sample pitch of the idea. A designer may make a mood board; a developer might quickly code something. Whatever prototype best fits your needs, create it, and then plan your meeting to present it and work through it with your team.

This type of structure sets your remote team up to do the work in the meeting, not after, which leads to maximum productivity and ultimately success. We’ve got things backward: we meet and then do “the work” after the meeting.

We’re so busy talking about the work we need to do when we could be rolling up our sleeves and getting to work in the session itself–enter your prototype.

A readied prototype allows your remote team to discuss it, collaborate, and collectively work on it DURING the meeting instead of saving the to-dos for when people disperse back to their own work zones. And when you do the work at the meeting, you eliminate unnecessary team meetups–saving everyone time, money, and sanity.

Tools for Virtual Prototypes

Here are three virtual tools to assist you in building, sharing, and working on prototypes with your remote team for more productive meetings. 

• Mural: A virtual whiteboard tool that allows you to build and share prototypes with remote team members. It also allows you to collaborate on digital Post-it notes and templates (you can also build your own). 

• Figma: Create vector design assets and remotely collaborate with team members, similar to how you collaborate on text in Google Docs.

• Loom: Share your prototype visually/in real-time. Make quick screen captures with a video inset to show your team your idea when you’re not in-person. This is an especially great tool to use for follow-up demos and instructions post-meeting as your team continues to work on the presented idea. When you would otherwise go to someone’s desk to show them how to do something, you can use a Loom video to demonstrate it. 

Practices for Successful Remote Meetings 

So you have your prototype. Now what? The following three practices, from our Virtual Work Guide, will help you structure and lead successful remote meetings. 

1. Schedule with purpose

Have a clear purpose to meet. This should inform your prototype and vice versa. Why do you want to bring your team together? Is it worth their time?

These questions are especially important to ask and answer with remote teams because people are working from home or another location and your meeting is competing against kids, food deliveries, spouses, background noise, etc.

Pro Tip: Address matters that aren’t worth scheduling a collective discussion for via email, Slack, or a newsletter. Remember, a productive meeting is one where you do work together. 

2. Create and distribute an agenda beforehand

Include only essential topics and the prototype you will share. Let people know what you have in mind so that they come prepared to participate–they may even come with ideas about the prototype. An important aspect of an agenda, especially for virtual meetings, is a realistic time table. What will be discussed, and for how long?

Be sure to leave some extra time at the beginning of the meeting to let people set up the appropriate tools they need to participate and for any “technical difficulties” that may arise. Also, allot time at the end of the meeting for people to ask questions about anything they are unsure about. This will make certain everyone leaves the meeting on the same page. Once your agenda is prepared, send it to all attendees in advance to ensure everyone is prepped and ready. This saves explaining time at the beginning of the meeting and your virtual team can dive in. 

3. Break the ice

An icebreaker or energizer warm-up is a great way to get the creative juices flowing at the start of the meeting. They can increase productivity from the jump. The bite-sized activities get people moving and thinking and keeps the energy high. Because your virtual team is not in the same physical space, you are unable to feel the energy of the room.

Consider the mood you want to encourage and pick your icebreaker accordingly. It should be quick, relatively simple, and straightforward. Here are a few examples:

• Guess the Shoes/Desk–have everyone (anonymously) upload a picture of their shoes or their home desk space in a MURAL template. Take turns guessing which pair of shoes/desk belongs to who.
• Creative Color–Choose a specific color and ask all staff meeting attendees to pick an object near them of that color and show it on screen. Knight the person with the coolest object the winner. The winner then chooses the next color and you repeat the process.
• Check out: Sessionlab Energizers and Icebreaker Games & Online Energizers and our Workshop Methods & Activities for more

Be intentional when you plan your next virtual meeting. Come prepared. Have a prototype. Lead your remote team to success. Let’s change the way the world experiences meetings. 

Looking for a Virtual Meeting Facilitator? We Can Help. 

Voltage Control facilitates remote design thinking workshops, innovation sessions, and Design Sprints. Please reach out at info@voltagecontrol.com for a consultation.

The post No Prototype, No Meeting appeared first on Voltage Control.

At Voltage Control, we’ve done something that might be scandalous at other companies. We’ve made all meetings optional. If a team member doesn’t think they need to attend a meeting, they’re free to decline it. It’s a small gesture, but a reflection of our belief that many meetings just don’t need to happen. It leads to an increase in quick and direct conversations and, ultimately, to fewer meetings and more space and time for the things we want (and need) to do.

That’s because we’re on a personal mission to rid the world of shitty meetings. That’s something we can all rally around, correct? We all love to hate meetings, yet they keep popping up on our calendars and we keep accepting them. In January 2019, the meeting scheduling company Doodle released its The State of Meetings Report and estimated that “pointless meetings will cost companies $541 billion in 2019.” Wow.

I’m convinced this is why I see so many people energized and excited when they participate in a Design Sprints or innovation workshop: although you are technically “tied up” for five days, you are getting authentic work done. You’re making decisions. You’re progressing. You end the week with a touchable, tangible prototype. Things happened!

This is in stark contrast to people’s typical days. We’re calendar-bombed with tons of meetings that we don’t need to be in or have no context for. We show up without much attention to whether or not we can add value. Everyone ends up booked with back-to-back meetings, buffered only by a quick restroom break (whoops, now you’re late to your next meeting) and the time it takes to dial into your next phone call. When are you supposed to do the things you got assigned in your last meeting?

We’ve got things backward: we meet and then do “the work” after the meeting.

In a recent talk, I told the participants, “Do the real work in the meeting.” I felt everyone sit up in their chairs. It struck a chord. We’ve got things backward: we meet and then do “the work” after the meeting. We’re so busy talking about the work we need to do when we could be rolling up our sleeves and getting to work in the session itself.

Circular Conversations. Little Action.

What do meetings look like in your organization? Let’s talk about a couple of typical scenarios. Here’s the worst-case: Participants don’t know why you’re meeting. No one shows up with an agenda. Everyone starts talking haphazardly and conversations go in circles. No decisions get made. Everyone leaves the meeting with no idea about what happens next. Maybe they’re hoping someone else will take action.

“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings.’”― Dave Barry

Now the best-case scenario, or maybe call it your standard, run-of-the-mill meeting: someone’s pulled together a meeting agenda and sent it out beforehand. You have a focused discussion. You conclude with a handful of action items and people have tasks they need to do after. But, even in this situation, I’ve seen the process go awry. Meetings aren’t always adequately documented. There’s misunderstanding after about the direction or next steps. People start working on items discussed in the meeting, but something gets lost in translation.

Let’s stop saving the work for when everyone disperses back to their desks.

Beyond an annoying 30 minutes in your day, what’s so bad about these scenarios? Work eventually gets done. It’s easier this way. We might be accustomed to it, but it’s not efficient, it’s not effective, and it’s certainly not an inspiring way to work. Let’s stop saving the work for when everyone disperses back to their desks. If you want to bring the spirit of innovation into your daily work, push yourself and others to start doing the work in the meeting. I think one of the best ways to do that is to bring a prototype to every meeting.

“The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings.”– Thomas Sowell, American writer and economist

No Prototype. No Meeting.

This concept of “no prototype, no meeting” isn’t new. At the design consultancy IDEO, they’ve long talked about something called “Boyle’s Law.” Named for Dennis Boyle — an IDEO engineer with over 50 patents — the law states that you should “Never attend a meeting without a prototype.” Allan Chochinov, Chair of the School of Visual Arts MFA Products of Design, also wrote about his hatred of meetings and even created a Chrome and Slack extension that automatically changes the word “meeting” to “review” when you try to book a meeting.

While the conversation about the importance of prototyping has been around for a while, I don’t think it’s taken deep root yet. There’s still a lot of room for the concept to spread in organizations and workplaces.

Scared of Prototyping?

Before we dig in further, I must talk about what I mean when I talk about prototypes. The term prototype can be daunting. Historically, prototypes were mock-ups of something physical — let’s say a new chair or piece of electronic hardware. Today, when we think about prototypes, we usually think of digital prototypes. With the explosion of prototyping tools, it’s incredibly easy to build true-to-life, clickable prototypes that give the look-and-feel of a digital interaction.

“If a picture is worth a thousand words, a prototype is worth a thousand meetings” — Tom & David Kelley

However, it can be much more “low fidelity” than that. Prototypes take many shapes and formats. While you can certainly push yourself to learn a prototyping platform like Sketch or Figma, you don’t have to. Use the skills you currently have to make your prototype. Leverage the tools that are most comfortable for you. If you’re a product manager, strategist, or writer, you might write a brief, draft a storyboard, or create a sample pitch deck about the project you’re working on. If you’re a developer, maybe you code something quickly to get a sense of how an interaction will work. If you’re a designer, you could bring a wireframe or mood board.

The takeaway is: prototypes don’t have to be complicated. They can be quite simple. Test whether your new, two-pound product is too heavy by asking customers to carry around a two-pound weight for a couple of hours. Want to know if 3 x 5 inches is the best size for your new smartphone? Cut out a 3 x 5 piece of wood and carry it around in your pocket to see how it feels. The important thing is to focus on the question you are trying to answer or what abstract concept you need to make more tangible.

Why We Resist and Why We Shouldn’t

Saying we should bring prototypes to meetings sounds excellent, but I know that it can be scary for some. We resist putting things down on paper. We’re reluctant to get our ideas out there. We’re afraid to be judged. We’re afraid someone will think we’re a fraud. It’s hard to take the first step and make your thoughts visible for critique. It requires you to feel safe sharing something that isn’t fully formed. If your workplace doesn’t encourage that type of vulnerability, this is a fantastic way for you to start demonstrating the type of behavior and attitudes you want others to mirror.

And, when you force yourself to push through that fear, I think you’ll find your worries don’t come true. When you show up with a prototype, most people are delighted rather than critical. Because now, there’s something to rally around, to build off of, to shape, to make even better. Mostly, people are just appreciative that you brought something to the table and put a stake in the ground.

Challenge Yourself

When you start focusing on doing work in the meeting, not after the meeting, a couple of things happen.

• First, your meetings aren’t so dull. They turn into working sessions, not slogs. There are concrete things to talk about. Everyone’s excited and engaged.
• Second, more gets done. The prototype pushes things along just enough to get the ball rolling. It drives momentum and action.
• Third, there’s more clarity about where you’re going and why. There’s something to reference.
• Lastly, I find this way of working is more inclusive. If everyone is encouraged to bring a prototype, everyone can have a voice. Plus, others can use your prototype to build and co-create, which means that the ideas with the most merit emerge.

So, if you want to start doing more work in the meeting and less meeting and then working, consider a “no prototype, no meeting” rule. Take baby steps and tell your team that you’re trying it for single meeting or for a week. Or, start the habit yourself and you’ll likely see it spread like wildfire through your team.

The post Do the Work in the Meeting, Not After appeared first on Voltage Control.

In Richard Banfield’s book Enterprise Design Sprints, he talks about how Design Sprints have become “a trusted format for problem-solving at many large companies.” As the sprint’s popularity has increased, I’ve noticed that some organizations and consultancies are eager to tweak the Design Sprint process. Sometimes, that means running abbreviated or compressed sprints — trying to do the same thing in three or four days instead of the classic five.

The way that Jake Knapp originally outlined the Design Sprint process in Sprint is prescriptive and in the best way possible. It takes place over five days — a full work week. Each day has a particular set of activities; the methods walk you through gathering insights, problem framing, prototyping, and user testing.

So, why are people turning to shortened Design Sprints? Are three or four-day sprints a wise choice? Let’s explore the perceived benefits and downfalls of a quicker Design Sprint. Plus, I even got Jake’s take on three, four, and five-day sprints.

Spoiler alert: I’m a proponent of giving your Design Sprint the full five days.

The Allure of the 3 & 4 Day Design Sprint

Because everyone is hyper-busy these days, it’s unsurprising that companies want to run a Design Sprint in three or four days instead of five. It’s almost impossible to align calendars for a one-day workshop. Now you want five full days?! I get it. As a Design Sprint facilitator, people often come to me asking for a shorter format. It’s tempting— a shorter sprint may seem like a more realistic investment of time (and money). But, when you’re talking about Design Sprints, I don’t think it’s as simple as working faster and jamming more into every day.

When you’re talking about Design Sprints, I don’t think it’s as simple as working faster and jamming more into every day.

In a three or four-day Design Sprint, something has to drop off the agenda. Typically, this means that people skip prototyping or user testing. In my opinion, if you aren’t prototyping and testing, it’s NOT a Design Sprint. One of the most powerful aspects of the sprint is testing your ideas and assumptions through a prototype and hearing directly from your users. When you skip either of those steps, you cut out the moments that provide authentic direction, give voice to your users, and ensure that you’re not just navel-gazing.

“I always try to run five-day sprints because the ideas are deeper. Four days or less feel rushed and have less opportunities to uncover the boldest and most innovative ideas.” —Steph Cruchon, Design Sprint LTD.

When clients approach me about running a shorter sprint, I typically suspect a couple of issues could be at play. First, it indicates that they might not have a big enough problem in mind for their Design Sprint. If a challenge is large enough, the budget for a five-day Sprint should be there. It’s that important. Secondly, it tells me that they might not have total buy-in that this is an effective process or way of working. They’re hesitant to go all-in because they think it might not “work.”

Finally, the desire for a short sprint sometimes indicates that the organization isn’t planning on including a diverse team in the process. I’ve seen three and four-day formats based on the idea that the design team will build the prototype while the internal team is working on the rest. To drive ownership and buy-in, you have to involve everyone and keep them engaged. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a team simply pushing someone else’s work.

Is It Really Only Three or Four Days?

Another thing to be aware of with consultants or companies that promise and sell three or four-day sprints: it actually ends up being up to eight days of work. That’s because they shift some of the activities to take place before the sprint (i.e. a problem framing workshop ahead of the sprint) or they take care of some of the heavy-lifting—like prototyping—behind-the-scenes. Additionally, they might ask you to run a second, shorter sprint the week after the first sprint.

There’s not anything inherently wrong with these modes of tweaking the sprint. But, at Voltage Control, I like to focus on skill-building and transformation through the sprint process. If we take on some of the activities or “burdens,” instead of insisting that our clients do them, I think something fundamental is lost. By fully participating in the sprint from soup to nuts, our clients understand the process deeply and get the most out of the week. Next time, they might not even need our help.

The Many Benefits of a 5-Day Design Sprint

I understand why the full 5-day Design Sprint is a harder sell. There are complex schedules to coordinate and clear. A team is missing their day job for an entire workweek. There’s significant upfront work to gather your data and research. You might rent an offsite space to hold the sprint. You might need a professional facilitator. It’s challenging. However, I believe it’s worth it to push through the logistics and fear of the time investment.

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The Design Sprint was first perfected at Google, over time and with different teams and scenarios. In short, it works. Every ingredient is there for a reason.

First, the five-day Design Sprint is a well-designed, tried-and-true process. It was initially perfected at Google, over time, and with different teams and scenarios. In short, it works. Every ingredient is there for a reason.

As you might expect, when I asked Jake Knapp about his feelings on the five-day sprint, he’s still a proponent: “Five days is the most robust. I believe I can deal with anything that comes up in a five-day design sprint. Even without pre-work, I know we’ll learn something valuable by Friday.”

Second, the five-day sprint provides adequate time for two of the most critical aspects of the week. There is a full day for prototyping and a full day for user testing. (And, trust me, this will still feel rushed.) These activities are likely the ones your team needs most. Rapid prototyping is an important skill, but one that not many companies utilize often. Similarly, many companies talk to users, but not enough as they should.

“I see the Sprint like an iceberg. A lot of the magic happens below sea-level, e.g. the organizing that goes into setting up a Sprint for success both prior and post. It isn’t a silver bullet that means you are ready to launch. It is an exercise designed for learning and mitigating risk from product/service development.” —Dan Levy, More Space for Light

Lastly, it’s about flexibility. The five-day schedule leaves enough room for the unexpected to emerge, or for things to shift and tweak. The first two days are somewhat loose, but they are vital for opening up conversations and spurring the thinking that needs to happen within the group. When you cut off one or two days from your sprint, there’s a lot less time to change course or dig into something surprising.

Shorter Sprints Can Work…IF

While I’m pushing hard for companies to take the leap and invest in a five-day Design Sprint, it doesn’t mean there aren’t exceptions. In my new book, Beyond the Prototype, I share a story about The Home Depot. They’ve developed a practice of three-day sprints. “We’ve adapted the traditional five-day Sprint to work more efficiently inside Home Depot’s culture,” Eugene du Plessis, Senior UX designer said. “Getting everybody in a room for five days is close to impossible.”

However, I believe that they can run shortened sprints successfully because they’ve customized slowly, and only after mastering the sprint practices as designed. Brooke Creef, UX Manager at The Home Depot, shared: “What has gotten us so much success is that we customize slowly. We were very firm in staying as tried and true…and not as flexible with agendas until we matured.”

“What has gotten us so much success is that we customize slowly. We were very firm in staying as tried and true…and not as flexible with agendas until we matured.”—Brooke Creef, UX Manager, The Home Depot

Similarly, Google runs Design Sprints of different lengths and flavors. And, like The Home Depot, I would argue that Google has “earned” the right to play with the model. They’re working from a strong foundation and are a highly-mature organization in terms of design and innovation.

Jake shared his thoughts on three-day Sprints, and Google’s in particular: “Three days is super intense, and I wouldn’t sign up for it myself. If you look at Google’s three-day Design Sprint, keep in mind they have lots of designers and researchers, many existing products to pull design patterns from, and they have material design. They’ve spent many years specializing in the Design Sprint for Google. But if you’re not at Google, be careful and consider all the resources and trade-offs required to make a three-day Design Sprint work.”

He also shares my feeling that four-day sprints might be doable, especially if the team has more experience: “I find four days works best if the facilitator is really experienced, or if the team has Design Sprint experience. Pre-work becomes really important.”

“I find four days works best if the facilitator is really experienced or if the team has Design Sprint experience.” —Jake Knapp

Conclusion: The 5-day Design Sprint is your best bet in most cases.

Design Sprints can be a path to transformative organizational change. But, there is no shortcut to outcomes. If you’re new to Design Sprints, I strongly recommend starting with a five-day sprint. It ensures that you hit all the critical activities. It also gives you the momentum and focus to continue what you’ve started after the sprint. (BTW, that’s what my book is all about — avoiding the post-sprint slump and how to transition from ideas to outcomes.)

Design Sprints can be a path to transformative organizational change. But, there is no shortcut to outcomes.

Don’t short change yourself or your team. Invest in a five-day Design Sprint. Ideally, at the end of your five days, a light bulb will go off, and you’ll realize that you can work in this style any day of the year.

The post 1-Day, 2-Day, and 3-Day Design Sprints. Do they work? appeared first on Voltage Control.

This is part of my workshop recipe series where I’ll be sharing methods from the Design Sprint. This recipe first appeared in Google’s Design Sprint Kit.

When you are running a Design Sprint, prototyping is the major focus of the second half of your week. It’s fast and furious, which means that having a solid plan and approach to creating your prototype is necessary. Whether you are creating a prototype for a sprint or another reason, this guide is here to help.

Follow the methods below to stay organized as you build a digital prototype quickly and effectively. What is unique about this approach is that it allows various makers to contribute to a digital prototype in parallel, which helps you build deeper and more involved prototypes.

How to Create a Rapid Prototype…

Read on for my collaborative approach to building a digital prototype.

1. Create a storyboard

60–90 mins

Storyboarding is an essential aspect of prototyping. A good storyboard gives the team a shared understanding of exactly what to prototype. It spells out the essential moments in concrete detail to guide the team during prototyping. The design sprint facilitator is vital to helping the team consider how those moments fit into the flow of the experience that will be tested.

Method

1. Draw a grid on a whiteboard using an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper to create consistent cells.
2. Have each team member write down 7 action steps that people will encounter during the test.
3. Review and vote on the best flow that meets the goal and questions of the Design Sprint.
4. Move the top voted flow into the storyboard grid to serve as the foundation of the prototype.
5. Using sketches from team members, move the post-its that align with the voted action steps into the corresponding cells.
6. Use dry erase markers to add additional detail to the storyboard where team members identify gaps or missing elements.

2. Create a Kanban board

30 mins

Use a Kanban board during prototyping so you have a visual overview of all tasks and who is responsible. Typically, this is a physical Kanban made on the whiteboard. The Stitcher (the Design Sprint “scrum master”) uses this tool to make sure everything is moving along and who to ask for an asset.

Benefits

1. Keeps everyone up-to-speed on jobs that are in progress and what need to be done.
2. Team members can self-select tasks that still need to be done.
3. Participants can request support from team members that recently completed jobs.

Method Steps

1. Create three columns: To Do, Doing, Done.
2. Use Post-its to capture job task descriptions and place them in the To Do column.
3. Sort the jobs by priority, which the highest priority jobs at the top.
4. Assign each task to a team member, by writing their initials on the Post-it
5. When a team member starts a task they will move the card to “in progress”
6. Once the task is completed, the team member moves the Post-it to the done column.
7. Have the stitcher monitor progress of the Kanban board and encourage team members to support one another

3. Narrate the Storyboard

20 mins

In a design sprint, the Facilitator begins the prototyping day by narrating the storyboard, while the team listens and follows along. Use Expo markers and Post-its to capture jobs needed. (Remember: this is not a playback. Do not redesign the storyboard or introduce new ideas.)

Benefits

1. Recap progress quickly.
2. Capture points of interest from the team.
3. Build alignment on prototype expectations.
4. Generate additional jobs that need to be completed for the prototype.

Method Steps

1. Quickly recap progress to date by reading the storyboard from the perspective of an interview subject.
2. Simultaneously, the team takes individual notes to remind themselves of tasks that need to be completed.
3. After the recap, the facilitator or stitcher captures additional jobs to add to the Kanban board.

4. Enable Instant Collaboration with Mural

We’ve started using the digital whiteboard tool Mural to organize the team and asset creation while making a prototype. This provides a structured collaboration format for teams to store work in a shared repository. We also like that it allows the prototype makers to access copy and content to implement in the prototype.

Here’s a link to a Mural space we’ve made for organizing assets during prototyping.

Benefits

1. Eliminate the need to ask, “Did you update that?” or “Can you share that with me when you finish?”
2. Keep communication quick and asynchronous.
3. Transparent communication and asset storage are readily available after the sprint.

Method Steps

1. Translate the jobs to Mural or Google Docs as a Kanban board.
2. Create sections for each screen of the prototype.
3. Team members place assets into the appropriate section.
4. The stitcher gathers and organizes all assets to make sure the board is accurate and ready for the makers to pull from.
5. Prototype makers copy and paste assets into the prototype.
6. Comment and annotate to communicate on edits or any additional content needed.

5. Prototyping with Version Control

30 mins

This step-by-step tutorial covers a process for creating a prototype using Abstract, Sketch, Craft, and Invision. It’s a structured approach to keep the prototypes flexible, organized, and easy for the team to maintain.

Benefits

1. Prototyping with multiple makers and contributors.
2. Version control and history prevents lost or repeated work.
3. Rapid file sharing using new tools and streamlined workflow
4. Cloud-based collaboration connects to existing tools in an experienced designer’s workflow.

Method Steps

1. Download and Install Abstract, Sketch, Craft, and Invision.
2. Create a New project in Abstract.
3. Use Abstract to create a Sketch file which will automatically track all edits and revisions when the project is synced to the cloud.
4. Draw or insert screens for the prototype in Sketch and save the edits.
5. Draw hotspots in Sketch, and use the linking features in Craft to connect interactions and animations.
6. Preview & Commit the edits to Abstract.
7. Summarize the changes using brief but descriptive statements for other makers to reference.
8. Sync the Sketch file to Invision using the Craft plugin.
9. Create new branches in Abstract for each designer or maker working on the prototype.
10. Delegate work based on the storyboard and Kanban jobs that focus on separate screens of the prototype.
11. In the case of conflicting changes, use Abstract to resolve conflicts to preserve the most recent corrections.
12. Check that your Abstract file is up to date with the most recent Commits to the project.
13. Repeat Sketch edits, update the hotspots using Craft, sync to InVision, Preview and Commit to Abstract.

6. Prototype playback

15 mins

In this step, the interview moderator clicks through the prototype and reviews each screen. He or she talks about the related tasks and identifies revisions needed. The Stitcher captures the revisions and is responsible for delegating tasks to complete prototype updates.

Benefits

1. Keep the user’s path top of mind to eliminate unnecessary work.
2. Identify gaps or missing elements that are necessary to create a high fidelity experience.
3. Orient the team around successes throughout the day to keep the energy high.
4. Share the results with stakeholders to keep them informed about progress throughout the day.

Method Steps

1. Spend no longer than 1–3 minutes narrating the prototype from the perspective of the user.
2. Share the key tasks and questions that the interview subject will be asked.
3. Add any errors or changes as jobs on the Kanban board.
4. Talk about the wrap-up and debrief questions.

Resourceses

We’ve created interactive and free resources to help you build prototypes and accelerate your innovation process with your team. Check them out:

• Start Within Templates for MURAL – Based off of the book Start Within, we have constructed a framework of templates to help you assess your individual situation, how it relates to the unique nature of your company, and what tools and actions are appropriate for you to move forward.
• Beyond the Prototype templates for MURAL and Miro – break blockages that keep you from innovation by going beyond the prototype.

The post How to Create a Collaborative, Rapid Prototype appeared first on Voltage Control.

Design sprints are one of the innovation hot topics of the moment, right up there with design thinking. (Unsurprisingly, the two ideas go hand-in-hand.) So, what is a design sprint and why is it so popular right now? It sounds a bit intense, but the good news is that a design sprint requires no actual running.

Design sprints are a highly effective, even fun, method for approaching a problem or key project. As the word sprint indicates, they’re about getting results fast. Read on to find out what design sprints are and why organizations of all kinds are jumping on board.

What is a Design Sprint?

A design sprint is a focused, five-day process to quickly gather insights on your users, prototype ideas, and validate them. The method originated at Google Ventures and, as they describe it: “it’s a ‘greatest hits’ of business strategy, innovation, behavior science, design thinking, and more — packaged into a battle-tested process that any team can use.”

The process was also described in the book Sprint by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky. (We highly recommend reading this book if you want to run a sprint on your own.)

What’s great about the design sprint is that it is a tried-and-true formula. If you follow the agenda for each day, you will have a productive week.

What’s great about the design sprint is that it is a tried-and-true formula. If you follow the agenda for each day, you will have a productive week. Over five days, a small group focuses on a business challenge, uncovers actionable insights, and prototypes and tests a possible solution.

Who’s doing design sprints?
Companies of all shapes and sizes are using the design sprint method and having great success. Google Ventures has run over 150 sprints with companies like Slack, Flatiron Health, and Blue Bottle Coffee. There are also Design Sprint Agencies, like our own, that design and facilitate Design Sprints.

The top reasons design sprints are so popular right now:

1. Results in 5 Days

Everyone is busier than ever at work, and many of us juggle multiple projects in our jobs. In this work climate, it might seem crazy to think that your team can set aside five days for a design sprint. But, if you do, you’ll find that the “lost time” actually leads to leaps in productivity and innovation.

If you have projects that are lingering or taking months to get off the ground, the compressed time period of the sprint can inject tons of needed energy and momentum.

When teams go “heads-down” on a sprint, you achieve at least a month’s worth of work in five days.

We’ve found that when teams go “heads-down” on a sprint, you achieve at least a month’s worth of work in five days. You’ll be amazed at what you have by the Friday of your sprint. It may lead to a true breakthrough or innovation, or at the very least, sprints are excellent moments for team connection and alignment.

2. Hear from Your Customers

Many companies talk about being customer-centric, but at the same time, many companies don’t set aside the time to really talk to their customers. Especially face-to-face. This is another great thing about design sprints: getting customer feedback is baked into the process.

All of the activities in the design sprint lead up to sharing a prototype with potential customers or users and getting feedback. Typically, on the Friday of a Design Sprint week, you interview five users and get their input on your potential product or solution.

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Just as the sprint is very effective in five days, you also get rich and meaningful insights from interviews with “just” five users.

3. Design Sprints Teach New Ways of Working

Another benefit of design sprints is that they teach your team new ways of working on problems or approaching challenges. Today, many organizations are investing in design thinking training, which is undeniably important. But, the power of design sprints is that participants learn through doing. You don’t need to tell people how to design think, you can have them actually do it through a design sprint.

The power of design sprints is that participants learn through doing. You don’t need to tell people how to design think, you can have them actually do it through a design sprint.

After a five day sprint, your team will have hands-on experience with finding insights on your company, looking for outside inspiration, coming up with solutions, prototyping ideas, and interviewing customers. These are important skills for anyone to take back to their day job.

4. The Power of the Prototype

Just as user testing is essential to the design sprint, so is prototyping. Prototyping is another skill and asset that most companies are looking to leverage right now.

Through a design sprint, you will see first-hand how prototyping gets you to better solutions faster.

Through the design sprint process, teams prototype a solution. But, don’t let this deter or overwhelm you. Prototypes don’t need to be fancy or technical seo. It may be a clickable prototype made with something like Sketch, Invision or Framer, but your prototype can also be as simple as a landing page, a paper sketch or simple wireframe.

Through a design sprint, you will see first-hand how prototyping gets you to better solutions faster.

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5. Design Sprints are Flexible

Another reason we love design sprints is that they are flexible. We’ve been talking a lot about the classic five-day design sprint, but they don’t have to take a full work week.

Ideally, you have five days to set aside, but we understand that that is not always possible. You can expand or contract the design sprint to the time you have. For example, we ran a four-day sprint with the delivery service Favor and it was highly successful. Or, there are ways to spread a design sprint over several weeks or to use some of the techniques in a two-hour meeting.

In other words, don’t let time stand in your way. Most design sprint facilitators or consultants will work with you to design something that works with the time you have.

You Don’t Have to Design Sprint Alone

If you want to run a design sprint at your company but are overwhelmed at the idea of planning and facilitating it, you’re in the right place. Voltage Control designs and leads design sprints for companies large and small.

Having a professional facilitator run your sprint ensures that you can focus on the ideas and the work, not the logistics or “doing it right.” Reach out to us at hello@voltagecontrol.com if you want to talk about running a design sprint at your company.

The post What is a Design Sprint and Why is Everyone Talking About It? appeared first on Voltage Control.

Product design, also known as industrial design, got its start in the 1900s. As production ramped up with new inventions like cars and household appliances, brands realized the importance of design and its connection to customer loyalty.

Flash forward, industrial design is all around us, so it’s easy to forget that it is a relatively new practice. Today, companies have many options when they want help and expertise in product design. Hiring a product design agency is a great way to start building things customers truly love.

What should you know before choosing the best design agency for your needs? We’ve got the answers right here. Keep reading so you can make the best decision for your business.

What is a Product Designer?

Wikipedia defines product design as the method “to create a new product to be sold by a business to its customers.” Product design is all about finding customer pain points and figuring out ways to solve them. Product designers look for opportunities to make products that fill a need other products don’t.

After they’ve targeted the exact pain points their design will address, they figure out how to make the best product for the purpose. Then, they create the product, and test and refine it until it’s ready to hit the market.

Product designers are in charge of much more than just appearance or packaging. They direct the entire innovation process from start to finish. The best designers focus on the end user, not the product itself. It’s easy to design a product that sounds great, but never sells. But it’s far more useful to design a product with a specific audience in mind, so you know it serves an authentic need.

How to Choose a Product Design Agency

The top agencies use design thinking, which means focusing on the end user first. Good designers need to marry people’s needs with creative innovation to create products that users can’t live without.

Look for an agency that’s creative — you want outside-the-box thinkers. But make sure that creativity comes with business know-how, too. Understanding basic marketing and what makes a business succeed are important qualities in an agency as well.

Great designers also harness the power of modern technology. While the right solution isn’t always the most “techy,” designers should know about cutting-edge industry technology and how to put it to work.

How Product Design Companies Work

What does a typical day at a product design agency look like? It varies depending on what stage of the design process they’re in. Here are the typical phases of work that designers step through to create marketable products.

1. Research

The design phase starts with research. At this point, your product design agency will dive deep into understanding potential users of their product. They’ll look at the competitors to see what their products are lacking.

The better a design agency understands the audience, the better they can design for that audience. This phase may take the longest, because it’s the most important.

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2. Target

Through the research process, the agency decides which pain points to target. Pain points are particular problems experienced by the audience. For example, one pain point consumers used to have was lacking time to go grocery shopping. Some brands addressed that pain point by launching grocery delivery services. Before moving into design, your agency should be able to articulate the specific customer challenges this product will answer.

3. Design

The “design” part is actually just one step of a product designer’s job. After the pain points have been identified, it’s time to design a product that will solve them. This process is creative, and different people or agencies may use all kinds of different methods here. Typically, designers brainstorm, sketch, and wire-frame here to envision a new end-to-end experience for the product.

4. Prototype

When the design agency has landed on the right direction for the new product, they’ll start by building a prototype. Prototypes can be as simple as a sketch that illustrates a product feature; they can also be as real as a clickable prototype that users can actually interact with. There are many great software platforms available today for prototyping, like InVision and Framer. The prototype is essential, because it allows you to get feedback with real users before building the final product.

5. Test

The prototype gets tested with users who match the target audience for the product. In these tests, the design agency can learn about any flaws the product has or improvements that could be made. You can get actionable insights about your product from just a handful of solid user interviews.

6. Refinement

The product gets revamped to address issues that came up during testing. This can involve heavy re-design or just a few tweaks.

7. Launch & Analysis

Now, it’s time to release the product to the world. The aim is for a launch that is efficient and bug-free. After launch, the top product design companies move into analysis mode. Once the product is in the hands of the public, they can’t just sit back and relax. They want to analyze the success of the product. If it didn’t effectively meet users’ needs, this is a time to figure out what went wrong. If the product did work well, the agency can use that information to make the next iteration even better.

Ready to Hire a Product Design Agency?

If you want to create products that people can’t live without, you need a great product design agency on your side. Don’t have the product design know-how and tools in house? Innovation workshops with Voltage Control can help. Learn more about our innovation workshops and other services here.

The post Hiring a Product Design Agency: What You Need to Know appeared first on Voltage Control.

Previously, I wrote about how our team at Voltage Control has evolved the role of the Stitcher in our Design Sprints. The Stitcher 2.0 acts like the “scrum master” for the prototype created during the sprint. They make sure that tasks are moving along and that all assets are organized in a way that is easy for the makers to pull into the prototype.

We’ve created a custom Mural template that helps the Stitcher work alongside the team to organize and gather the Design Sprint assets during prototyping.

This approach unleashes the entire Design Sprint team and supports everyone contributing in an efficient and productive manner. It is especially helpful if you are bringing in extra help on prototyping day as it allows them to get up to speed and begin contributing quickly. In fact, we recommend using this approach whenever you are prototyping with numerous people and need results in a short amount of time.

To support the Stitcher, we’ve created a custom Mural template that helps them organize and gather the assets in one spot. (If you haven’t used Mural yet, it’s a collaborative virtual white board tool and we find it invaluable during sprints.)

Access our template here and read below to learn how we use our Mural.

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Setting up the Mural

1. Open the Mural template.
2. Click the “Create mural from template” button to make your own copy.
3. Unlock storyboard grid. Right click and select “Unlock All”
4. Expand the storyboard grid to include all cells if you have more than 6 rows or 8 columns in your story board.
5. Lock the storyboard grid. Select all elements then right click and select “Lock.”
6. Add your To-Dos. Create a new post-it in the To-Do column of the Kanban for each To-Do. Pro-Tip: To-Dos should reference cell numbers. i.e. A1: Hero copy.
7. Assign To-Dos to team members. Use specific color for each team member or type in team member name on each post-it. Allow the team members to volunteer for jobs they are most interested in.
8. Invite your team to the mural. Click the share button and enter in each Sprint team member. Make sure to give them edit privileges.

Using the Mural

1. Find the post-it in the To-Do column for your first task. It should be in your color or have your name on it.
2. Move that post-it to “In progress.”
3. Complete your task.
4. Add completed copy to a new post-it and attach it to the appropriate storyboard grid cell.
5. Upload assets (images/icons/video) to the appropriate storyboard grid cell. Pro Tip: Do not scale down assets because it may cause loss of fidelity when the Stitcher adds it to the prototype.
6. Move your task post-it to “Done.”
7. The Stitcher will collect and assemble official copy and mark it approved by setting the color of the post-it to green.
8. The Prototyper pulls in all approved copy and assets.
9. Upload screenshots of screens that are ready for feedback.
10. Team will place Mural comments directly onto the screenshots.
11. Once the screens are linked together and ready for playback, add the prototype link to Mural for easy access by the team.
12. Playback the prototype for the team.
13. Capture new tasks by adding new post-its in the To-Do column.
14. Add comments on the screenshots for revisions or using your prototyping tools comments.
15. Repeat steps as needed.

I hope you find our Mural template helpful during your next Design Sprint or rapid prototyping session. Get it here and let us know how you like it. Happy sprinting!

The post How to Use Mural to Support Your Design Sprint Stitcher appeared first on Voltage Control.