Enterprise Design Sprints
07

Appendix

THE COOL DOWN


by Richard Banfield

Templates

While you could certainly create your own assets to plan and run your design sprints, these templates will make your work much easier. Modify them to fit your needs.

Discovery Needs Assessment (DNA)

If you are unsure of whether a design sprint is right for you one of my recommendations is to meet with the stakeholders or potential design sprint team or group to discuss the purpose of the design sprint and establish where the knowledge gaps might be. The answers to these questions will provide you with specific areas to address and highlight any concerns.

Here are some questions you can use to guide that discussion:

  • Why are you interested in a design sprint?
  • What is the problem or area you are hoping to address and why?
  • What do you know about the problem and users impacted?
  • Have you completed or created any of the following:
    • Primary user research – interviews, surveys, focus groups, etc.
    • Personas
    • User journey mapping
    • Market analysis
  • Is this for a new or existing product?
  • Do you have a solution in mind?
  • How confident are you that you’ve identified the right solution?
  • What is the impact if your solution fails?
  • What are your desired outcomes and how will these move the needle for you?
  • How does this initiative align with your current business/product strategy?
  • How familiar are you and your team with the design sprint process?
  • If anyone participated in a design sprint, what role did they play?
  • Who will be joining the sprint from your team?
  • Will they be able to dedicate a week to the sprint, or will we need to spread out the time?
  • Will everyone be participating for the full sprint?
  • Is it clear who the facilitator of the design sprint will be?
  • Where would you like to host the design sprint?
  • Can you describe this meeting space?
  • Does the meeting space have whiteboards? Projector? Individual and group breakout spaces?
  • Finally, what question should we have asked but didn’t?

About the Authors

Richard Banfield
CEO, Fresh Tilled Soil

Richard recently published Enterprise Design Sprints, a collaboration with InVision. Before that he published Product Leadership: How Top Product Managers Launch Awesome Products and Build Successful Teams, which he co-authored with Nate Walkingshaw and Martin Eriksson. He also authored Design Leadership and Design Sprint: A Practical Guidebook for Building Great Digital Products, which he c-oauthored with CTodd Lombardo and Trace Wax.

Richard is the CEO and co-founder of Fresh Tilled Soil, and under his leadership, Fresh Tilled Soil has delivered UX and product design to 700+ clients across the world. Clients include American Express, FedEx, Keurig, Intel, Harvard University, GE, Walgreens, BBVA, Shopify, Titleist, Citrix, and Genetech. His colorful life experience includes being an officer in the army and a dive master on the remote Islamic Republic of the Comoros.

Currently listening to: Loving J.S. Ondara’s Tales of America. This young, Kenyan born musician has a healthy dose of Dylan with the soul of Rodriguez.
Currently inspired by: Paul Klee inspires me every day. Transformed himself a dozen times through diligent introspection and a willingness to abandon old habits for new learning.
Cultural thing I’m lovin’: Loving all the Yuval Noah Harari books, and inspired by the work of Japanese architect Tetsuya Nakazono.