This document outlines the steps of a Product Design Sprint (PDS) methodology for developing new product ideas. The PDS involves gathering a cross-functional team, understanding user needs, rapidly generating concepts, deciding on a solution to prototype, testing prototypes with users, and iterating the design based on feedback. Key aspects of the PDS include constraining the problem scope, diverging and converging on ideas, creating low-fidelity prototypes, and running multiple short cycles of prototyping and user testing to quickly refine the design. The goal of the PDS is to compress the design process through rapid iteration and validation with end users.
3. Tablet PCs failed to gain
popularity in the consumer space
because of unresolved problems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_tablet_computers#cite_note-BallStillDoesnt2010-30
8. …Preparation
• Get the right people
– Designer
– CEO
– Product manager
– User expert
– Engineer
– Marketer
– Anybody else who’s interested
9. ...Preparation
• Find a facilitator
• Gather the ingredients
• Schedule the user study before you have anything to test
10. Product Design Sprint
1 2 43 5
Sketch the most important user story
User storyboard of many solutions as possible
Whiteboard the user story
Build something quick and dirty that can be
shown to users
Show the prototype to
real humans (user)
Iteration
Understand ValidateDecideDiverge Prototype
11. Product Design Sprint
1 2 43 5 Iteration
Understand ValidateDecideDiverge Prototype
Sketch the most important user story
12. Product Design Sprint
1 2 43 5 Iteration
Understand ValidateDecideDiverge Prototype
2A
2B
2C
2D
2E
2F
2G
Choose part of the problem
Now decide which part to focus on first. It
usually makes sense to have everybody in
the sprint focus on the same part of the
problem at once.
If you take that approach, you’ll do one
cycle for each part of the problem, with
everybody collaborating on each part as
you go.
A
B
13. Product Design Sprint
1 2 43 5 Iteration
Understand ValidateDecideDiverge Prototype
2A
2B
2C
2D
2E
2F
2G
Take notes
At this point in the sprint, the whiteboards
and walls are probably covered in
diagrams, notes, and sticky notes.
This is your chance to reload that stuff into
your brain. Everyone takes a piece of
paper and jots down anything they think is
useful.
14. Product Design Sprint
1 2 43 5 Iteration
Understand ValidateDecideDiverge Prototype
2A
2B
2C
2D
2E
2F
2G
Mind map
Now you’re going to add all the other
ideas that are in your head, mix them with
the notes you just took, and loosely
organize them on paper.
The mind map is going to be your “cheat
sheet” you can use when you’re sketching
UI ideas.
15. Product Design Sprint
1 2 43 5 Iteration
Understand ValidateDecideDiverge Prototype
2A
2B
2C
2D
2E
2F
2G
Crazy eights
Everybody folds a blank sheet of paper in
half four times, then unfolds it, so they get
eight panels. Then you have 5 minutes
total to draw eight sketches, one in each
panel.
16. Product Design Sprint
1 2 43 5 Iteration
Understand ValidateDecideDiverge Prototype
2A
2B
2C
2D
2E
2F
2G
Storyboard
That will be shared anonymously and
critiqued by the group. The goal is to take
the ideas we’ve generated so far and
sketch an actual UI showing how a user
would move through this part of the story
where they click, what info they enter,
what they think, etc.
Start with a blank sheet of paper, and put
3 sticky notes on it. Each sticky note is one
frame in the storyboard. It’s kind of like a
comic book that you’re going to fill in.
17. Product Design Sprint
1 2 43 5 Iteration
Understand ValidateDecideDiverge Prototype
2A
2B
2C
2D
2E
2F
2G
Silent critique
Give everybody a bunch of dot stickers.
Then, without speaking, everybody looks
at the different storyboards and puts a
sticker on every idea or part of an idea
they like.
There are no limits to how many stickers
you can use, and I don’t even prevent
people who want to brazenly vote for their
own ideas. By the end, you’ve got a kind of
heat map, and some ideas are already
standing out.
18. Product Design Sprint
1 2 43 5 Iteration
Understand ValidateDecideDiverge Prototype
2A
2B
2C
2D
2E
2F
2G
Three-minute critiques
everybody gathers around the storyboards
one at a time. First, people talk about
what they liked, then we ask the person
who drew it if we missed anything
important.
Usually the best, most popular ideas are
the ones people can understand without
an explanation, so the author of the
storyboard often doesn’t have anything
else to add.
19. Product Design Sprint
1 2 43 5 Iteration
Understand ValidateDecideDiverge Prototype
3A
3B
3C
3D
Search for conflicts
A conflict is a place where there are two or
more different approaches to solving the
same problem. Each conflict is like a little
gold mine.
20. Product Design Sprint
1 2 43 5 Iteration
Understand ValidateDecideDiverge Prototype
3A
3B
3C
3D
Best shot or battle royale
You can prototype several different
approaches and test them against each
other (the “battle royale”) or you can go
with a single prototype (the “best shot”).
21. Product Design Sprint
1 2 43 5 Iteration
Understand ValidateDecideDiverge Prototype
3A
3B
3C
3D
Test your assumptions
Listing out your underlying assumptions is
a good way to revisit the big picture.
22. Product Design Sprint
1 2 43 5 Iteration
Understand ValidateDecideDiverge Prototype
3A
3B
3C
3D
Whiteboard the user story
Now we’re going to make a storyboard that
shows exactly how the user will step through your
prototype, click by click. This storyboard will
become the spec for building the prototype. This
is an activity that the group does together — it’s
actually the last group step before you break for
prototyping.
Get one person to draw, but don’t make them
figure everything out on their own.
23. Product Design Sprint
1 2 43 5 Iteration
Understand ValidateDecideDiverge Prototype
Create a real-looking version of storyboard
Quite simply, a prototype is anything a person can look at and respond to. A prototype doesn’t usually
have to be very complex in order to learn what you need to know.
24. Product Design Sprint
1 2 43 5 Iteration
Understand ValidateDecideDiverge Prototype
Show the prototype to real humans and learn what works and what doesn't work
25. Product Design Sprint
1 2 43 5 Iteration
Understand ValidateDecideDiverge Prototype
Moving this fast, we know we'll make mistakes, sometimes a lot of mistakes. But that's
a good thing.
Use design as a means of compressing time, not getting too precise with each design
decision, trusting that in iterative design sprints the accuracy of the decisions will
improve.
And each time they do it, products get measurably better.
26. PDS’ Important Points...
• Bring all ideas
• Design work is best done by an individual
• Understanding, NOT brainstorming
27. ...PDS’ Important Points
• Because new ideas are so shiny and fresh, the
facilitator needs to remind everyone to think
old first.
• The magic of constrain
• All about user perspective (user need, user
story & user validation)
• Iteration
28. References
• PDS created by Jake Knapp, a Google Ventures designer and
product development expert.
• It’s based on the design thinking structure championed
by IDEO and Stanford’s d.school.
• Jusi Mikkonen, The Design Sprint, Aalto University School of
Arts, Design and Architecture