29 Oct Phase 4: Decide
Phase 4: Decide
In the Decide phase, the Design Sprint team finalizes the direction or concept to be prototyped. Each participant will share their Solution Sketch, and the team will find consensus on a single idea through decision-making exercises. The final direction will aim to address the Design Sprint focus.
Present Solution Sketches
It’s common to kick off the Decide phase of a Design Sprint by having each team member present their Solution Sketch to the group and discuss the various features of the concept. This provides an opportunity for the team to gain a better understanding of the intended solution and suss out the differences from similar ideas. In order to make this efficient, give each person a maximum of five minutes to present.
Directions
- Hang everyone’s sketches up on a wall in the same way art is presented in a gallery or museum
- Each person has three to five minutes to present their solution
- The team can ask questions or discuss details in the sketch
The Assumptions and Sprint Questions
The Assumptions and Sprint Questions method frequently follows the presentation of Solution Sketches in a Design Sprint. This exercise involves creating a list of assumptions on which the Solution Sketches are based and reframing assumptions as questions. This helps to prioritize the questions to be answered, or in other words the problems to be solved, in your Design Sprint to ensure that your solution meets users’ needs.
For Example:
- Assumption: This voice-activated interface assumes users are comfortable speaking to their phone.
- Question: Do users feel comfortable speaking to their phone?
Directions
- After each person presents their Solution Sketch, list out the assumptions that are underlying the concepts as a group
- Re-state the assumptions as questions
- Prioritize the top three questions that the team would like to answer with the Design Sprint
Dot Vote
Dot Vote is a Design Sprint method to achieve group consensus around a single idea to address the Design Sprint focus. Before voting begins, review the criteria for selecting an idea to prototype. It’s helpful to remind the team of the business problem, goal, and deliverables, as well as success metrics and sprint questions. If a clear consensus can’t be achieved, use the other methods provided in this section.
Directions
- Hang everyone’s sketches up on a wall in the same way art is presented in a gallery or museum
- Each person has three minutes to present their solution
- The team can ask questions or discuss details in the sketch
- Review the business problem, goals, and success metrics so everyone knows what the voting criteria is and remind the team this is a deciding vote.
- Give each team member three votes
Alternative: Silent Review and Vote
Directions
- Hang everyone’s sketches up on a wall in the same way art is presented in a gallery or museum
- The team spends five minutes viewing and reading the sketches
- The Sprint Master leads a discussion of each sketch, allocating three minutes per sketch
- Review the business problem, the goals, and success metrics; confirm the voting criteria; and remind the team this is a deciding vote
- Give each team member three votes
Decision Matrix
A Decision Matrix is a Design Sprint method that helps a team evaluate ideas based on a set of specific criteria most useful to the goals of the Sprint. This is a useful method to deploy when the team is unable to reach a clear consensus with a Dot Vote. The matrix is a simple table or diagram and most commonly compares user impact versus implementation effort. Ideally, you want ideas that are either high impact/low effort or high impact/high effort.
Directions
- Select the most useful criteria for evaluating your ideas
- For example, if you are looking at impact for effort, Label the Y axis (left) as “Impact” with “High Impact” at the top of the axis and “Low Impact” at the bottom
- Label the X axis (bottom) as “Effort” with “Low Effort” on the left and “High Effort” on the right
- As a group, plot all your ideas along these two axes, discussing which ideas fall into the high impact/low effort and high impact/high effort ranges
- Once your matrix is mapped, remove any low impact ideas (whether low or high effort) and vote again. You can always capture the ideas in a document for a later date
Heatmap Voting
Directions
- Use smaller dots (smaller than those used in the Dot Vote)
- Team members can use as many dots as they need to vote for specific sketch features.
- Remind the team that they’re not voting for an entire Solution Sketch, but for features within the sketches
- As ever, prior to voting, review the business problem, the goals, and success metrics so everyone knows what the voting criteria are. Be sure to remind them that this is a deciding vote”
Note and Vote
Note and Vote is a helpful Design Sprint method for a team that usually gives the greatest decision making power to the loudest person in the room. Similar to the Silent Review and Vote method, this alternative exercise gives each team member a more equal voice. With this approach, each team member writes down their sketch vote on a sticky note and then shares it by posting it to the wall. If there is still not a clear winner after the Note and Vote, you can go around the room and allow each person to call our their vote between the winning solutions. If there is still not a clear winner, the facilitator can help discuss where the disagreements are and help build consensus.
Directions
- Each team member writes down their vote on a sticky note
- Put all the votes on a whiteboard/wall
El diseño de Rumble o All-In-One
The Rumble or All-In-One Design Sprint method is useful when there is more than one winning Solution Sketch. Decide as a group if you want to combine the winners into a single prototype (All-In-One) or develop two different ideas and test them against each other (Rumble). It’s often possible to combine a number of ideas into one prototype.
Remember, if you choose a Rumble, you will need to consider how to present the two opposing ideas to your users. Will you need to create an alternate brand/product to make the prototype believable? Allow extra time for writing your Validation Interview script.