Methodology - AgileBusinessAnalysis/01_TEAM GitHub Wiki

Introduction

To have an idea about a structured approach, despite of being agile, the team did some desk research. Several approaches in the area of lean startup and agile projects have been analysed. The team decided to take the Google Design Sprint approach and adapt it to fit the project setup, the project scope and the team member's strengths. The strengths of the design sprint are that the focus lays on understanding the customer problem, rapid prototyping and continuous improvement through short feedback cycles.

Google Design Sprint

Design Sprint is a shortcut to learn without building and launching. It was created by Google Ventures about 5 years ago, and the Design Sprint framework is based on the understanding of Design Thinking. Design Sprint is a five-day process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas with final users and customers; basically, a way to solve design problems quickly.

• Understand: Understand to be understood. The first part of the Sprint requires inviting the right people to share business goals, technology capability, and user need. The goal of this stage is to expand the understanding of the product/project.
• Diverge/Sketch: Anything is possible. Participants in the Design Sprint should explore all possible solutions to their user problems.
• Decide: Time to review all ideas and vote for the best options as a team.
• Prototype: Prototyping and testing without investing a lot of time, money, or resources.
• Validate: Allows the team to learn different ways to design in a new form, but also hears each other’s points of view on their own designs.

Source: Medium.com

Customised Design Sprint

Due to the fact that the team cannot work a whole week on the project, an adjusted version of the design sprint is chosen for Sprint 1. The focus points are laid out as follows:

• Planning: Before starting the design sprint, the goal as well as the tasks leading to the goal are defined in a planning meeting, similar to a Scrum Planning
• Understand: Set the long-term goal and define the challenge (ensure that the customer's problem is understood)
• Diverge/Sketch: Map the challenge (from a customer's perspective) on a story map, analyse existing solutions and sketch different solution approaches
• Decide: Prioritise all solution sketches and pick one (team effort)
• Prototype: Prototype solution on the basis of picked solution sketch
• Validate: Show the prototype possible customers and get feedback
• Review: Similar to the validate phase, the achieved results are shown to get feedback. This time, the target audience are the stakeholders, similar to a Scrum Review
• Retro: To improve the process, the team discusses the ended sprint and defines actions for the next sprint, like in a Scrum Retroperspective

In the following sprints, Sprint 2 and Sprint 3, the feedback of the validate phase of the preceding sprint is applied. Depending on what the feedback will be, all or some specific phases of the design sprint will be repeated to refine the work in the direction of the received feedback.