A 4-day design sprint to solve a long ailing problem

Read more here (in Finnish)

• Why: Kalmar had been wrestling with a hairy problem for a good time already and they were not able to decide on where to begin solving the problem
• How: Design methods help to approach difficult and large problems not only through analysis, but also through synthesis of different points of views and ideas
• What: We decided to tackle the problem with a 4-day design sprint (the linked customer story claims five which is a minor mistake)

My role

I was responsible for organizing and facilitating the design sprint as an Insta Digital employee. Some of my key activities:

• Helping in the sales phase to decide if a design sprint would be an appropriate approach
• Walking the customer through the process, managing expectations
• Organizing the sprint facilities and supplies
• Facilitating the sprint
• Conducting user tests
• Documenting the sprint results and recommendations with the sprint team

Process

By the time of the sprint, I had already accumulated experience on facilitating design sprints. The process followed closely the Design sprint 2.0 version, as defined by the design agency AJ&Smart.

The process flowed smoothly even if the first time sprinters were a bit doubtful of whether we will succeed or not.

Impact

The sprint managed not only to convince the customer, but provide long-term value through the validated concept. We did not win the follow-up on this project despite the customer being super happy with us. They utilized our concept long into their development process.

The most valuable parts according to the customer were the validated prototype, user feedback, current state analysis and the final report documenting the sprint findings, roadmap and technology recommendations.

The customer deemed the sprint an approach worthy of future applications as well.