Design Sprint: the Art of Empathizing

In today’s world of IT development, user-oriented products are very important. Unfortunately, some eCommerce and design agencies spend a huge amount of time developing products (websites or apps) with low usability.

In this article, we are going to tell you about design sprints and give you a clear idea of how to develop an MVP (minimum viable prototype) within five days.

Design Sprints and The New Level of Teamwork

So, what is a Design Sprint and why do most digital product developers need one?

The Design Sprint is a five days process, initially developed by Google Ventures, that includes not only the process of working in groups but also the prototyping and testing of digital products.

The main feature of this development method is its “scientific approach.” Design prints require the team to use trial and error to:

• come up with an idea
• implement it on a real product
• test it “in vitro”
• find drawbacks
• refine it
• and test it again

The Design Sprint is a practical guide that teaches readers about:

• tips and tricks
• tools
• exercises
• replacing theory
• case studies
• and related jargon

As we said above, the teams that apply these methods go through five steps of design thinking - specifically:

• Empathize
• Define
• Ideate
• Prototype
• Test

The initial two steps are joined together under understanding the task. Ideate is divided into

• Diverge
• Converge

Below, we will tell you more about every phase and what the team should do to come up with a great MVP after only five days.

Phase 1: Understand

The team should understand its customers, together with the issues they face. This data gives the team the most important information they can apply to construct a customer roadmap. This map includes details about customer behavior before, during and after using the product. The team should also visualize the initial customer goals and define obstacles that may arise in the process of achieving it. At the end of this stage, the team should also understand stakeholders and their hates, loves, fears and hopes. The main idea is to find the common ground between internal-customers and user-customers.

Phase 2: Diverge

The team should create solutions that will help customers reach their initial goal. For this, the teams divide into groups of two and come up with 100 suggestions, filling a 10X10 matrix with flip chart sheets. Mindmap will be helpful at this stage. Each group should create a solutions path that leads to resolving the initial user’s goal.

Phase 3: Converge

This stage includes selecting the most effective ideas. This phase is remarkable because both stakeholders and budget holders will present and participate in the discussion. The team should group similar ideas together and develop the best idea for every group of issues. Then, the team votes on every idea with sticky stars. The third phase also applies to filling the Cost-Benefit matrix with solutions that have high-low cost of implementation and high-low value to customers.

Phase 4: Prototype

The team develops the best solutions and put them in the customers’ hands. It is vital to use the simplest tools to create the minimal viable prototype. Try to avoid bells and whistles or anything too over-the-top. This phase is about learning, not impressing. The best tip is to use the following prototyping apps:

• Flinto
• Pixate
• Marvel App
• InVision

Phase 5: Test

This phase requires at least five people to test the product. These users should conduct individual testing and come up with their own feelings and insights about the product prototype.

Integrating this process, the team develops more customer-oriented products that also bring profits and solutions to most issues. The whole process from the initial to final stage requires anywhere from five days to one week. Its main benefit includes early learnings and an ability to make the product more effective.