Thinking about Design Thinking. EP 2. Sprint-Ed
What we have learned so far. Q&A with Cori Jones by Aaron Walser
Ten Questions for Cori Jones — Principle Discovery Designer @ Asurion
AW: Cori, how did you learn to facilitate or run design sprints?
CJ: Walking folks through user testing scenarios, and facilitating creative sessions and workshops in the past led to a decent comfort level running creative meetings with a room full of important people.
AW: Can you describe your first design sprint and the thoughts you had about it at the end?
CJ: The first sprint I ran was back in 2014. I had pieced together a version of the sprint after watching a video by the team at GV and reading a few articles about the topic.
AW: What are the three most important things to do when preparing for a design sprint?
CJ: First: Find the decider, work with them to identify the participants and lock down the general scope. Second: have the decider do all the assignments and scheduling. And Third: Review, follow and trust the process, it really does work.
AW: Who are the most important people to have in the room on day one?
CJ: The Decider (usually the product owner). The most senior person in each relevant group in your organization: Sales, Marketing, Development, Legal, etc.
AW: What are the most common mistakes first timers make when facilitating a design sprint.
CJ: Not making sure the right people are invited. A close second is allowing the team to start solutioning too soon.
AW: What are the most common problems you encounter with participants when facilitating a design sprint and how can they be overcome?
CJ: Not being fully engaged. When participants are over committed and unable to disconnect for a few hours. This creates distracting coming and going during the sessions. Yes, we just need to convince attendees to completely clear their schedule and turn their devices off.
AW: Describe your perfect design sprint facility?
CJ: A medium sized conference room with natural light and at least one full wall of whiteboards
AW: Tell us about the trials and triumphs of getting users for the all important user tests.
CJ: At Asurion we are pretty lucky that our users are anyone who owns a smartphone, in general it is easy to recruit users. However we have had a few session where we need a user from a small biz who pays their employee’s cell phone bills, or something very specific like that. Then recruiting can be a real challenge.
AW: If I wanted to become an effective design sprint expert what you recommend I do and what sort of training would you recommend?
CJ: Two things, first you really need to understand and believe in the process. Do this by reading up and attending as many sprints and other creative exercises as you can. Second, Take every chance you can to speak in front of people, lead meetings, facilitate user tests or anything else that requires you to follow a plan while controlling a room full of important and often very easily distracted people.
AW: If you could run a design sprint with anyone in the world — past or present — who would it be, and what issue would you like to tackle?
CJ: Wow. Ok. How about the issue would be something of real importance like our countries dual party political system. And the participants would be John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Washington, Mother Teresa, Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, Jr., Oprah Winfrey. Ok 12 is getting to be a large group but it is hard to lock down that list.The decider would be an independently wealthy person who wants to spend lots of time and money making the outcome of the sprint see the light of day.
