Tuesday, September 12, 2017

The GV Sprint Process

The shift to agile - typically cast as scrum, lean, kanban and others - started in fact at the end of the 90s when extreme programming lit up software engineering discussions with the provocative mix of passion and principles presented by its creator, Kent Beck. Extreme programming provoked diverse and intense responses in its audience. From radical fervour to cynical skeptism it ignited discussions about how software is and should be designed, how programmers were and should be treated, how to treat each other and others more indirectly involved in digital production.

The GV Sprint method [Knapp et al., 2016] represents how far agile has spread beyond software engineering. The agile sprint has become a staple of venture capital driven product incubators. Organisations are experimenting with sprint style workshops for accelerated product ideation and prototyping in a 5 day workshop format. Teams generate and select ideas to further create and develop, from concepts to prototype level using storyboards, mock‐ups, paper prototyping or using digital platforms of their choice.

It is apparent that design management, product engineering, software engineering and management more broadly are mutually informing and intricately interrelated. We have observed the business world appropriate software engineering's shift to practice emphasis and experiential management. We have seen software engineering borrow design paradigms from architecture [Alexander, 1964] and product design [Kelley and Kelley, 2013]. The mutual connections between design sprints, agile software sprints and venturing sprints [Knapp et al., 2016] is obvious. More so now that digital has become integral to so much of the designed physical material world.
(https://www.invisionapp.com/blog/design-sprints-agile-dev/)

Practical Skills

The Sprint process involves a progressive shift of attention, from learning about a challenge defined by people, to learning how people respond to a design prototype that tries to re-solve that challenge. The process is bracketed into 5 workshop sessions. The suggested structure and techniques are focused on how to manage time, space and people over the duration; techniques for decisions, organising, coordinating.

  • Session 1: Imagine the goal (sprint) - Make a map and choose a target
    • Roles and Responsibilities
    • Set the long-term goal
    • List sprint questions
    • Map the As-Is Customer Journey
    • Ask the Experts
    • HMW How Might We...
    • Organising Notes
    • Why Why Why?
    • ABC Always Be Capturing
    • Pick a Target Decide
  • Session 2: Explore many possibilities (sprint) - Sketch competing solutions
    • Lightning demos (three minute demos)
    • Work Alone Together Research
    • Divide, Swarm
    • The Four-Step Sketch
    • Crazy 8s
  • Session 3: Decide the design (sprint) - Decide on the best
    • Art Museum
    • Speed Critique
    • Heat Map Dots to Focus on Interesting
    • Straw Poll Dots for Voting
    • Supervote Dots
    • Rumble or All-in-One
    • Note-and-Vote
    • Storyboard
  • Session 4: Build, make, tinker, learn (sprint) - Build a realistic prototype
    • Fake It
    • Paper Prototype
    • Wizard of Oz
    • Trial Run
    • Interview Script
  • Session 5: Test, observe, evaluate our prototype (sprint)- test with target customers
    • Makeshift Research Lab
    • Magic 5
    • The Five-Act Interview
    • Watch Together Learn Together

Source: [Knapp et al., 2016]

Alexander, C. (1964). Notes on the Synthesis of Form. Harvard University Press, Cam- bridge, Massachusetts.
Kelley, D. and Kelley, T. (2013). Creative Confidence : Unleashing the Creative Potential within Us All. HarperCollins Publishers.
Knapp, J., Zeratsky, J., and Kowitz, B. (2016). Sprint : How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days. Simon and Schuster.

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