Phase 4: Decide

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

Core Method
Collected by Google

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.

STATS
Time
5 mins per person
Activity
Group
Sprint Type
All

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?
STATS
Time
30 mins
Activity
Group
Sprint Type
All

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.

STATS
Time
3 mins per person
Activity
Group
Sprint Type
All

 

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

The Silent Review 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. This alternative exercise gives each team member a more equal voice. With this approach, each person hangs their sketch on the wall, and the team spends five minutes reading and viewing the sketches silently. Then, the facilitator holds a discussion of each sketch. For this method to be effective, it is important to give each team member enough time in the Sketch phase to create well-articulated sketches that can stand on their own without explanation.
STATS
Time
3 mins per person
Activity
Group
Sprint Type
All

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.

STATS
Time
30 mins
Activity
Group
Sprint Type
All

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

 As a precursor to a Dot Vote, Heatmap Voting is a Design Sprint method to zero in on features or ideas the team considers impactful. In this method, team members get an unlimited amount of smaller dots and can use as many dots as they want to vote on specific features in all the Solution Sketches, versus voting for an entire sketch. This should be done rather quickly — take no more than five minutes for it. The intention is to create a heatmap on the sketches that shows which features the team as a whole thinks are worth prototyping. This is generally followed by a discussion of the features and then a round of prioritization voting.
STATS
Time
10 mins
Activity
Individual
Sprint Type
All

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.

STATS
Time
10 mins
Activity
Individual
Sprint Type
All

 

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.