This deck discusses our experience using Google Design Sprints in order to run product ideation experiments.

1. @jeffmikres 1
BUILDING PRODUCTS USING
DESIGN SPRINTS

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20+Years inTech
!

#
12+Years Agile Experience
Love Developing New Products
Jeff Mikres

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Web Application Development
$
%
&
Mobile App Development
Cloud API Development
consumer solutions team
' DevOps Engineering

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agile gets us only so far
(
Traditionally, Agile helps
us deliver working
software with its proven
principles & practices

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And it worked…

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But what makes a product
successful?

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Is it using all of these?

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Waterfall | Years
XP/Scrum | Weeks
Kanban | Days
Continuous | Hours
Is it Faster Delivery?

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Impressive Test Suites?
100%

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Is it Saving Money?

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We’ve missed this
Validated
product ideas

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We weren’t…
Identifying a job-to-
be-done that our
product will satisfy
Validating our
product idea with
real customers
Finding product /
market fit i.e is product
demand there?

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So we push our product out and…
we get low adoption, sales, etc.

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A BETTER WAY

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DESIGN SPRINTS
from google

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Our experience running
Sprint in November

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Elevator pitch of a Sprint
A very focused, highly collaborative 5-day
session with your team ideating through your
“big” product goal, building a prototype, and
culminating in real testing with real, potential
customers on Friday

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Decide if you should take a product or feature
idea to the next steps of actually building it
Why run a Sprint?
)
When you need to get a project moving again
Validate an important decision

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Let’s Dive In

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5 Full Days
Team Around 7
People
Lots of
Collaboration
Room for team with
lots of whiteboards
General Sprint Rules

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Sprint Roles
DECIDER FACILITATOR
ENGINEERS
BIZ DEV
&
Experts
DESIGNERS
PRODUCT
MANAGERS

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Day 1 - Big Goal & Map*

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Think Big!
Pick our Big Goal
) “Why are we doing this thing?”
“Where do we want to be in 6 months, 1 year?”

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Provide low-cost movers that are available
whenever you need something moved no matter
how big or small.
Reimagine how a thermostat can interact with a
home.
Offer a hotel-like experience to travelers for half
the cost.
LONG TERM GOALS

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Our Big Goal

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Our Observation
)
Have your decider spend some time
researching your big idea!))

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Sprint Questions
)
“What assumptions are lurking around our goal?”
“If a year from now we fail - what could’ve
caused it?”
“To meet our long-term goal - what needs to be
true?”

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How will customers discover our product?
Can we find people willing to help move a customer
at a moments notice?
Will our customers feel safe letting people they’ve
never met move their things?
SPRINT QUESTIONS

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Building Your Map
a story through the steps of our big idea
Next Step

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Map
Customer
Search
web for
movers
Find Us
on Web
Workers
See ad to
get paid
to move
Check
Pricing
Check
Availability
Check
Safety
Hire us to
move
their
stuff
Decide if
pay is
adequate
Apply to
be a
mover
Customer
Service
Vet
potential
movers
Approve
workers
for jobs
Wait for
vetting
Pick up
moving
jobs

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Our Map

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Validating The Map
with your Experts
Next Step

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Ask the Experts
)
Review your whiteboard (big goal, sprint
questions & our map) with the experts
Listen intently to their input
Take a lot of notes

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Our Observation
)
Spend the time to get multiple experts if
possible. It’s worth it.))

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Time to Pick A Target
Next Step

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Map
Customer
Search
web for
movers
Find Us
on Web
Workers
See ad to
get paid
to move
Check
Pricing
Check
Availability
Check
Safety
Hire us to
move
their
stuff
Decide if
pay is
adequate
Apply to
be a
mover
Customer
Service
Vet
potential
movers
Approve
workers
for jobs
Wait for
vetting
Pick up
moving
jobs
I’m not sure how we
will be ble to quickly do
background checksI’m not sure how we
will be ble to quickly do
background checks
I’m not sure how we
will be ble to quickly do
background checksI’m not sure how we
will be ble to quickly do
background checks
Pick Your Target

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Day 2 - Ideate and Sketch+

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Finding Inspiration

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Sketching
Next Step

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Sketching Rules
)
Sketch by yourself! This is not group
brainstorming.
You should be sketching off of the target the
Decider selected from the team’s map.
Review everything the team’s got on the
whiteboards before you start sketching.

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Examples

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Day 3 - Sketch Review /
Storyboarding
,

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Sketch Reviews
)
Team members put dot stickers on the parts of the
sketches that you like.
All team members review them silently
Facilitator gets them up on wall.

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Sketch Reviews

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Sketch Reviews - Decider

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Storyboarding
Next Step

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Building Your Storyboard

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Our Observation
) Be patient. We did a lot of erasing!
))

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Day 4 - Build the Prototype-

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Prototypes - Solving for the Surface
) Get the surface right first!
Surface of your product is where your customers
interact with you
Get it wrong - technology doesn’t matter

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Prototype Tools

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Roles to build Prototype
MAKERS STITCHERS
DECIDER INTERVIEWER
WRITER
ASSET
COLLECTOR

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Team Prototyping

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Do a Trial Run

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Day 5 - CustomerTesting.

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Why Customer Testing
) If it doesn’t work - you’ve lost one week
We want real, validated learning. Opinions are
meaningless.
We test with 5 customers

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5 Interview Steps
)
Context Questions
“Friendly welcome…”
Introduce the prototype
Tasks and Nudges
Debrief

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Start the Interviews

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After Each Interview

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After all Interviews
) Look for patterns, remove duplicates
Review all of the feedback your team captured.
Watch back video if needed.
Did we answer our sprint questions? Validate our
big goal? Were the interview tasks achieved?

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Time for a Decision
Our customers got
it and we’re confident
in moving forward!
MOVE TO BUILD
We had pretty
good feedback but
tweaks need to be
made
REWORK & TEST
The feedback was
poor and significant
change or pivot is
needed.
STOP or PIVOT

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Our Sprint Result
)
We thought the idea could be a go. The decider was
going to research the market opportunity for the tool in
terms of revenue and identify MVP costs.

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DESIGN SPRINTS
WHAT WE LEARNED

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Prep your idea before starting
the sprint.
.
Learnings

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Have an even distribution of
skills in the sprint
.
Learnings

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Pick prototyping tools your
team has experience with
.
Learnings

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Remote customer testing
worked!
.
Learnings

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We fixed noisy issues found by
customers mid-day Friday
.
Learnings

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If you green light it - you still
have to fund it
.
Learnings

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So Why Sprints?
We want to validate
our big idea in DAYS
We don’t want to
commit to cost &
time of building the
real product yet
We want a higher
probability of success
with our products.

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Bonus: Research #JTBD
Validated
product ideas
Jobs-to-
be-Done

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QUESTIONS?

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THANK YOU
jeff@refaktory.com

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References
1.Agile Manifesto - http://www.agilemanifesto.org
2.Chaos Manifesto - 2012 - https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/blog/agile-
succeeds-three-times-more-often-than-waterfall
3.You only need to test 5 users - Jakob Nielsen - https://www.nngroup.com/articles/
why-you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/
4.Customer Interviewing Tips - https://library.gv.com/get-better-data-from-user-
studies-16-interviewing-tips-328d305c3e37#.yze6515qq
5.The Sprint Book Tools - http://www.thesprintbook.com/tools/
6.Sprint Checklist - http://static1.squarespace.com/static/
56778f460ab377c981686546/t/56c2b6c337013bc7bcab14c7/1456958631313/
Sprint+checklists.pdf
7.The five act interview - https://youtu.be/U9ZG19XTbd4