Prototype Ideas

A startup rang me up, saying that they’d like to develop an app for an idea they believe it would work. They’re done preliminary research on their target audience, understanding that they have multiple pain points and gaps which can be addressed. Still, jump right into developing an app may not be the best route, I suggest to get together and run a design sprint to see what we can focus on and test with a prototype.

We did not have the luxury of 4-5 full days, so I looked at Google Design Sprint and AJ&Smart Design Sprint, and also took bits and pieces from Nielsen Norman Group Design Thinking materials, putting together something smaller and shorter.

Started off with quick brief on the objective and expectation. We begin with understanding what’s been done and how much we know our target customers. Mapped out the journey of several critical tasks, and zoomed into one of the things that we want to test on. We diverged to come up with ideas then converge to consolidate and distil to something we could prototype and validate with real customers. We time-boxed and went through each item as planned, everyone has a better understanding of the user, and more aligned as a team.