Conducting a Virtual Design Sprint
Anakin — “A Virtual Design Sprint! What is that?”
(Please refer to “Can we reinvent design sprint for a remote working world?”)
Shreya — “We can still conduct the design sprint. Just that, instead of a physical, shared workspace such as a conference room, we will need to work together and collaborate using a virtual, shared workspace. We have plenty of options to choose from such as Microsoft Teams, Facebook Workplace or Slack.”
Anakin — “I think that since we already use Microsoft Office 365, with Outlook, SharePoint and OneNote, we can perhaps go with Teams.”
Shreya — “I guess that makes sense.”
Anakin — “But, what about the fact that it might be somewhat cumbersome to do a digital version of drawing process maps on a white board, sketching ideas on sticky notes and paper and voting on them using dot stickers? Should we be using touchscreen devices such as iPads with styluses?”
Shreya — “Well, we could do that, but I think that we can reinvent the approach without discarding the creativity, memory and mindfulness that studies have shown get triggered by using physical devices such as pen and paper instead of typing ideas on a keyboard. I will call this as our Principle 1 — Analog means towards a digital end.We just need to take a snap of the work done on pen and paper and share it using using virtual workspace.”
Anakin — “That sounds good. However, I see another issue. You know that we conduct a typical design sprint over one full week from Monday to Friday, blocking the entire day, each day of that week. I think that it will be quite hard for the participants to focus for the whole day sitting in front of their screens. Since, unlike the traditional design sprint, where we ask them to keep aside their laptops and phones for the most part, here we will ask them to participate through these devices. You know, that opens them up to emails, messages and all other kinds of notifications on their laptops and phones distracting them.”
Shreya — “You are quite right Anakin. That is an issue. I think that we can do two things. First of all, we will request all participants to close all other apps including emails, except the ones that they need to participate.
Even then recognizing that doing so for the entire day on all days of a week may not be possible, we can extend our virtual design sprint to be 4 hours each day for 2 weeks or even lesser number of hours each day for a longer duration. We can be flexible about the duration, like we can be flexible about our tools. Let’s call this as our Principle 2 — Process adherence, flexible duration and tools.”
Anakin — “Yes, I too think that being flexible regarding duration and tools will be helpful in getting optimum participation. I do see another problem though Shreya.”
Shreya — “What is that Anakin?”
Anakin — “You know in a group of 7 or 8 people working together, even when we meet physically in the same place, we need to be mindful for effective communication. We need to listen to each other and allow everyone a turn to talk about their ideas. When we collaborate in a virtual workspace, their could the additional challenge of multiple people trying to speak at the same time, especially since people cannot see each other. Also, some reticent participants could remain silent for the most part.”
Shreya — “Those are valid concerns Anakin. We will need to remind people of a certain digital etiquette during the virtual design sprint. We will also need to tweak our approach so that following such etiquette is easy. For example, we can ask participants to simultaneously share their ideas such as the 3 Panel Storyboard using the note taking app, say OneNote within our virtual workspace, where it makes sense, while at other times asking them to share their views one-by-one, for example in choosing the Target after Mapping the Problem. (Please refer to “Can we reinvent design sprint for a remote working world?”)
Similarly, while voting on ideas, participants can vote one after another on the note taking app instead of trying to vote at the same time resulting in access conflicts. Let’s call this our Principle 3 — Digital etiquette for real collaboration.”
Anakin — “Sounds good. I think that covers most of the key challenges which we need to effectively conduct a Virtual Design Sprint. I am sure that we will be able to find solutions to any other issues that come up.”
Shreya — “Yes, after all we are innovating. Aren’t we? So, any other problems that arise will be opportunities for us to be creative and smart. Let’s get working now. We have a lot of prep work to do before we begin on Monday.”
Postscript: This is the sixth article in a series. The earlier ones were —
