VENTURE DESIGN SPRINTS

KICKING OFF A PERSONAS &

PROBLEM SCENARIOS SPRINT
Alex Cowan
2015 COWAN+

THE VENTURE DESIGN PROCESS

S HO

IF
AT

WH

CUSTOMER
DISCOVERY &
EXPERIMENTS

PRODUCT &
PROMOTION

VALUE
PROPOSITIONS &
ASSUMPTIONS

WH

PERSONAS

WHO?

AT

SC

PIVOT?

AL

E?

USER STORIES
& PROTOTYPES

PROBLEM
SCENARIOS &
ALTERNATIVES

2015 COWAN+

THE DESIGN SPRINT

INPUT

Time Boxed

OUTPUT

2015 COWAN+

THE DESIGN SPRINT

WHAT DO
WE DO NEXT
WEEK?

HERES
WHAT

PERSONAS
& PROBLEMS?

NO
NEED

NEED

MOTIVATIONS?

NO
NEED

NEED

PROBLEM
SCENARIO
SPRINT

USABILITY?

NO
NEED

NEED

MOTIVATION
SPRINT

ARCHITECTURE?

NO
NEED

BUILD STUFF!

NEED

USABILITY
SPRINT

ARCHITECTURE
SPRINT

2015 COWAN+

THE PROBLEM SCENARIO SPRINT

Problem
Scenario
Sprint

VALIDATED PERSONAS, So you dont deliver an

irrelevant solution.
PROBLEMS

WORKING USER
STORIES

So you practice driving

to user stories and
test yourself on your
understanding and
readiness.
2015 COWAN+

CONCEPTS
Personas
- Drafting a Persona, including Think See Feel Do
- Finding photos
- Familiarity with Day in the Life

Problem Scenarios
- Finding the right level; then going up (why?), down (how?)

Discovery Interviews
- Drafting an Interview Guide
- Conducting an interview

2015 COWAN+

THE FAULTS IN OUR NATURE, THE FAULTS IN OUR SOFTWARE

The Twin Anti-Poles of Failed User Engagement

Doing precisely, literally

what the customer asks

P
NA

Assuming you know whats

best and ignoring the user
2015 COWAN+

THE RED BUTTON PROBLEM

As a shopper,
I want to click a red button,
so I can complete my purchase.

I AM A
RED
BUTTON!

2015 COWAN+

THE PRACTICE OF DESIGN THINKING

alternatives

Finding the Right

PROBLEM

Finding the Right

SOLUTION

Personas
Problems
Alternatives
Field
Discovery

divergence

convergence

divergence

time

convergence

source: adapted from The Design of Everyday Things

2015 COWAN+

PERSONAS- THINK SEE FEEL DO

2015 COWAN+

PERSONAS & PROBLEM SCENARIOS

PROBLEM SCENARIO

ALTERNATIVE(S)

YOUR VALUE PROPOSITIONS

!
2015 COWAN+

LAYERING PROBLEM SCENARIOS

Hiring technical talent is difficult.
(Too Broad, Abstract)

Screening technical talent is difficult.

(Probably About Right)

Its hard for the HR manager to send good notes on

candidates to the functional manager.
(Too Detailed, A Feature vs. a Product/Venture)
2015 COWAN+

DECOMPOSING PROBLEM SCENARIOS

Why
important?

X
How?

Its important to make good technical hires.

Screening technical talent is difficult.

We need to know what programming languages they know.

development environments
devops techniques
2015 COWAN+

HOW DO YOU USE A PERSONA? CREATE ONE?

PERSONA
QUESTION

PERSONA
ANSWER

Y
N

NEW
PERSONA?

DRAFT
INTERVIEW
GUIDE

INTERVIEW

02

03

05

DRAFT DAY
IN THE LIFE
QUESTIONS

DRAFT
PERSONA

01

INVEST
DAY IN THE
LIFE?

REVISE
07

ACQUIRE
PHOTOS
04

TEST

06

WORKING?
09

10

EDIT & SCRUB

PER RESEARCH
PROTOCOL
08

2015 COWAN+

WORKING YOUR PERSONA HYPOTHESIS

CUSTOMER CREATION HYPOTHESIS

PERSONA HYPOTHESIS
VALUE HYPOTHESIS

PROBLEM HYPOTHESIS

USABILITY HYPOTHESIS
2015 COWAN+

BEWARE THE YELLOW WALKMAN PROBLEM

2015 COWAN+

GETTING READY FOR YOUR SESSIONS

2015 COWAN+

DAY 1 ACTIVITIES: PROBLEM SCENARIO SPRINT

Intro. Concepts + Warmup

Draft Personas
Draft Problem Scenarios
Draft Interview Guide
Mock Interviews
Final Logistics for Interviews

2015 COWAN+

DAY 2-4 ACTIVITIES: PROBLEM SCENARIO SPRINT

User Interviews
Shadow Sessions (if applicable)

2015 COWAN+

DAY 4-5 ACTIVITIES: PROBLEM SCENARIO SPRINT

Review Learnings & Transcripts, etc.

Revise Personas & Problem Scenarios
Converge Personas & Problem Scenarios
(sprint lead)

Rank Problem Scenarios

Draft Propositions
Draft User Stories, Storyboards, Wireframes
Decide Next Steps
2015 COWAN+

OUR BRIEF
Who & What?
We want to learn how [persona or segment] [problem area(s)].

Why?
Wed like to [whats your current idea on what youd like to do
in the area?].

How?
Our deliverables will be: [what?] which well use to [do what
next?].
2015 COWAN+