Design Sprints 

for Awesome Teams
Running Design Sprints for

Rapid Digital Product Development
Image by citizenoftheworld on flickr / CC 2.0
Museums and the Web 2017
Los Angeles, CA | April 19, 2017
Dana Mitroff Silvers and Ahree Lee
Designing Insights
designing insights
@ahreelee@dmitroff
Dana Ahree
#DesignSprint #DesignThinking #MW17
Introductions
What are we talking about today?
DESIGN
THINKING
AGILEDESIGN
SPRINTS
A codified, repeatable process for problem-
solving, creativity, and innovation.
What is design thinking?
What is agile?
A software development framework that
focuses on incremental units of work,
iterative releases, and adaptive planning.
Image by Dave Gray on flickr / CC BY-ND 2.0
What are design sprints?
A multi-step team process for answering
critical questions through researching,
prototyping, and testing ideas with
customers.
Our process
7
Sample sprint schedule
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
UNDER-
STAND
DEFINE
DIVERGE
BUILD TEST
CONVERGE
Image by the Stanford d.school
Let’s dive in!
Image from flickr by Carlos Javier / CC BY 2.0
your mission today:
Redesign the Cleveland
visitor experience.
Understand: methods
immerse
observe
engage
Immerse
Image courtesy
Maryanna Rogers
What? How? Why?
Observe
What people say, what people

do, and what they say they do

are entirely different things.

-Margaret Mead
What? How? Why?
Engage
Understand: Your turn
Interview best practices
Encourage stories
Use open-ended questions
Always ask “Why?”
Allow space for silence
Take notes!
Roles
Volunteer interviewee 

(should not be someone who lives in Cleveland)
Primary interviewer
Note-taker / Observer(s)
Decide on your roles
Interviewee moves to
another team
Conversation guide 3 rounds
Have you been here before?
(If yes) Tell me about the best part of that experience.
(If no, move on to next question)
What are you looking forward to experiencing in Cleveland?
Why?
Tell me a story about a visit to another city that stands out in
your memory.
What was the best part of that experience? Why?
What was the worst part of that experience? Why?
4 minutes x 3 interviews
Define
Synthesize our information
Begin to reframe the problems

and opportunities
Identify user needs + insights
Image by Alan Cleaver on Unsplash
If I had 20 days to solve a problem,
I would take 19 to define it.
-Albert Einstein
Human emotional and physical
necessities.
Verbs, not nouns
Opportunities, not solutions
Needs are…
Something you can see from the
outside that your user cannot see.
An “aha,” a contradiction, a surprise
Insights are…
What does this girl need?
Needs + insights mapping
Insights:
What + why behind the needs
Needs:
Verbs, not nouns
Examples
Insights:
What + why behind the needs
To reach
To get
attention
To gainknowledge
She wants to feelsmarter than herbrother—he’s beengetting all theattention these days!
To feel like
an adult
Needs:
Verbs, not nouns
Select 1 of your 3 interviewees
Which interview
stands out the most?
Which was the richest
or most surprising?
Your turn!
Needs:
Verbs, not nouns
10 min as a team
Insights:
What + why behind the needs
At least 2 
At least 5
Image by the Stanford d.school
Why do we use “How might we”?
Allow us to defer judgment during
brainstorming
Focus brainstorming in actionable
directions
Best practices
Use actionable verbs
help, make, foster, encourage, promote, support,
identify, celebrate
Don’t “bake in” the solution
Can you think of at least 50 ways to solve it?
Actionable verbs
achieve
align
amplify
assemble
build
change
connect
construct
create
customize
develop
disrupt
educate
empower
encourage
energize
engage
explore
generate
help
ignite
imagine
increase
inspire
instill
invent
leverage
maximize
motivate
organize
produce
rally
reduce
reflect
reframe
replicate
repurpose
serve
solve
support
transform
unleash
Based on the work of Mary Cantwell at www.DEEPdesignthinking.com.
Examples
How might we help her feel like an
adult?
HMW support her independence?
HMW build on her thirst for
knowledge?
HMW ignite a life-long love for
reading?
HMW channel her annoyance with
her brother into something
positive?
Write at least 5 HMW statements
4 min on your own
Use actionable verbs
Don’t bake in the solution
Write ONE HMWper Post-it
Make them legible!
Post your HMWs on wall for team to see
1 min on your own
The best way to have a
good idea is to have
lots ofideas.
-Linus Pauling
Warm-up:
Remember our trip to …?
44
Brainstorm rules
Build on ideas / “yes, and”
Go for quantity
Go for wild ideas
Defer judgment
Be visual + capture all ideas
Idea generation with Crazy 8s
5 min on your own
Who had the most?
Prizes!!!
Pick one idea and storyboard it out
6 min on your own
Post + share
Post all storyboards on the wall
Elect a timekeeper in your team
Each individual gets 1 minute to share

his/her solution with team mates
1 min per person
Image by the Stanford d.school
Sticker voting
Identify 1 idea that the team would want
to move forward for prototyping
52
How it works
Stickers are like money—spend it where
and how you want!
Voting is a silent, solo activity
Criteria
Most likely to delight our user
RED
Easiest to implement/build
BLUE
[You can use different criteria in your own sprint!]
Most game-changing/breakthrough
YELLOW
Silent voting on your own
3 min on your own
Most likely to delight our user
RED
Easiest to implement/build
BLUE
Most game-changing/breakthrough
YELLOW
Come to consensus
4 min as a team
Most likely to delight our user
RED
Easiest to implement/build
BLUE
Most game-changing/breakthrough
YELLOW
Image by the Stanford d.school
Product or service?
Welcome
to
Cleveland
Prototype examples
Mobile app
Image courtesy Ellen Deutscher
Mobile tour
In-gallery interactive
#mw2014proto
Program
Services
Web interface
Hand over your
prototype
Don’t ”sell” your idea
Ask “Why?”
Testing best practices
How many users?
Source: Nielsen, Jakob, and Landauer, Thomas K.: "A mathematical model of the finding of usability problems, "Proceedings of ACM
INTERCHI'93 Conference (Amsterdam,The Netherlands, 24-29 April 1993), pp. 206-213.
70
Name your prototype.
Something short and memorable. Example: Uber for tourists
Your names.
PROTOTYPE PLANNING WORKSHEET
Describe it in one sentence. Example: On-demand, personalized, private tours of Cleveland with local residents
Test your assumptions.
Attach your winning storyboard here.
Tape it down.
Assumption Test with… Validated if…
Example: Tourists will want to spend a few
hours with a stranger in his/her car
Fake sign-up form Number of sign-ups
Example: Locals know enough to provide
good tours
Follow-up interviews with passengers who
take the mock tour
Users respond positively to the tour
Design Sprints for Awesome Teams, Dana Mitroff Silvers and Ahree Lee, Museums and the Web 2017
www.designinginsights.com
Prototype planning worksheet
71
Name your prototype.
Something short and memorable. Example: Uber for tourists
Your names.
PROTOTYPE PLANNING WORKSHEET
Describe it in one sentence. Example: On-demand, personalized, private tours of Cleveland with local residents
Attach your winning storyboard here.
Tape it down.
Prototype planning worksheet
Test your assumptions.
Assumption Test with… Validated if…
Example: Tourists will want to spend a few
hours with a stranger in his/her car
Fake sign-up form Number of sign-ups
Example: Locals know enough to provide
good tours
Follow-up interviews with passengers who
take the mock tour
Users respond positively to the tour
Design Sprints for Awesome Teams, Dana Mitroff Silvers and Ahree Lee, Museums and the Web 2017
www.designinginsights.com
Test your assumptions
73
Name your prototype.
Something short and memorable. Example: Uber for tourists
Your names.
PROTOTYPE PLANNING WORKSHEET
Describe it in one sentence. Example: On-demand, personalized, private tours of Cleveland with local residents
Test your assumptions.
Attach your winning storyboard here.
Tape it down.
Assumption Test with… Validated if…
Example: Tourists will want to spend a few
hours with a stranger in his/her car
Fake sign-up form Number of sign-ups
Example: Locals know enough to provide
good tours
Follow-up interviews with passengers who
take the mock tour
Users respond positively to the tour
Design Sprints for Awesome Teams, Dana Mitroff Silvers and Ahree Lee, Museums and the Web 2017
www.designinginsights.com
10 min as a team
Prototype planning worksheet
Name your prototype.
Something short and memorable. Example: Uber for tourists
Your names.
PROTOTYPE PLANNING WORKSHEET
Describe it in one sentence. Example: On-demand, personalized, private tours of Cleveland with local residents
Test your assumptions.
Attach your winning storyboard here.
Tape it down.
Assumption Test with… Validated if…
Example: Tourists will want to spend a few
hours with a stranger in his/her car
Fake sign-up form Number of sign-ups
Example: Locals know enough to provide
good tours
Follow-up interviews with passengers who
take the mock tour
Users respond positively to the tour
Design Sprints for Awesome Teams, Dana Mitroff Silvers and Ahree Lee, Museums and the Web 2017
www.designinginsights.com
2 minutes per team
74
Share-outs
Wrapping up
Case study: The British Museum
“How might we improve wayfinding
in the British Museum?”
Start small
Design thinking resources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szr0ezLyQHY
Tips for running your own sprints
Find a flexible space
Plenty of wall space
Food, music, and mess OK!
Invite a cross-functional group
Ideal group size is between 6-16
Appoint two sprint masters
Make your sprint work visible
Set your schedule
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Understand Define
Diverge
Build Test
Converge
Day 1 Day 2
Understand Converge
Define Build
Diverge
Test
Or whatever
schedule
works for you!
Assemble your supplies
Establish device rules
Image by Devon Christopher Adams on Flickr /https://www.flickr.com/photos/nooccar/10393631416/
Image by Devon Christopher Adams on Flickr /https://www.flickr.com/photos/nooccar/10393631416/
Make it fun!
Resources
Resources
www.thesprintbook.com
www.thesprintbook.com/sprintbot
Resources
Thoughtbot Playbook
http://playbook.thoughtbot.com
Google Design Sprint Methods Playbook
https://developers.google.com/design-sprint/product/
Prototyping tools
Paper
Keynote

Keynotopia
Marvel
InVision
InDesign
and many others!
UNPAK
Retrospective
I Like I Learned I Wonder
dana@DesigningInsights.com
@dmitroff
mail@ahreelee.com
@ahreelee
DesignThinkingforMuseums.net
DesigningInsights.com
Thank you!

Design Sprints for Awesome Teams: Workshop at Museums & the Web 2017