The practical part of any profession is very important for you to be able to consolidate the concepts and understand the Gaps Between theory and everyday life. In this sense, we are going to create a series with 5 contents about each of the phases of Sprint design.

With these materials, you will have the opportunity to work on top of a Case Real and Use the concepts in practice and Design Sprint tools.

Read on to better understand and be able to apply the concepts of the first day of Sprint: the Mapping!

But first, let's remember: What is Design Sprint?

The Design Sprint

Design Sprint is a methodology created by Jake Knapp and has a strong connection with the principles of Agile Philosophy.

That way, Design Sprint basically proposes to prototype, test and validate a solution in a short period of 5 days.

Therefore, the Time is a crucial issue in Design Sprint. Each day of the process has an objective, such as:

• Day 1: Map;
• 2nd day: Sketch;
• Day 3: Decide;
• 4th day: Prototyping;
• 5th day: Test.

And during these 5 days, Design Sprint proposes 6 big steps:

1. Understanding;
2. Definition;
3. Diverge;
4. Decide;
5. Prototype;
6. Validation.

Therefore, this series of contents is completely linked to the 5 days of the Design Sprint process, starting with: Map.

Reading Tip: Design Sprint - How to Accelerate Product Development?

The first day of Design Sprint: mapping

The first day of the Design Sprint is aimed at Understand and, as the name itself says, Map What is the user's need that must be solved.

Pay attention that, at this stage, the most important thing is get all the necessary information to be clear about the actions of the next Design Sprint steps and days.

Therefore, in the Mapping phase, the concern should not be about finding the solution or thinking about the prototypes or about how to remedy the user's pain.

The main point at this point is uncover which problem must be solved.

Step 1: understanding the context and objective

The first step of the first day of Design Sprint It is to understand the context of the needs of Stakeholder, as well as what your objective is.

That way, it's important to sit down with your client and understand what yours are. wants, expectations, objectives, and needs.

To do so, you can take a questionnaire with questions such as:

• What are your objectives? Or what is your main objective at this time?
• And why do you want to achieve that goal?
• What is the best success criterion for your business?
• Who are the people/personas for whom you want to solve problems?
• Why is this issue a problem?

Realize that The objective is to understand what the context is In which Stakeholder is inserted and what are your criteria to indicate what success is and what are your objectives.

In addition, it is important to leave all aligned expectations. It is necessary to understand what the customer expects to be delivered at the end of the Design Sprint. A prototype, an idea, a process?

At the end of this part, it's important to have the definition of what is the objective that Design Sprint must achieve.

But keep in mind, again, that The objective is something measurable and with a date to happen. A concrete example may be the reduction of monthly costs or an increase in service capacity.

“I want to grow my business” is not an objective!

Using the CSD Matrix

With the definition of the objective and with the briefing in hand, it's time to use a tool that will aid in the research: CSD matrix.

As its name suggests, use the matrix to map which are the Certainties, Assumptions, and Doubts that you and your team have about the context of Stakeholder.

Remember that what will guide this mapping is the purpose of the Design Sprint, which was previously aligned with Stakeholder.

Thus, to create the matrix, draw 3 columns: Certainties; Assumptions and Doubts. Then use Post-its and fill in each of the 3 columns. Do this exercise with every member of your team.

Este Brainstoming will serve as a basis for carrying out the research, in order to answer the questions that have been mapped.

Creation or understanding of Persona

Even in the first step, it is necessary to identify the person to whom the solution of the problem is dedicated. If your own Stakeholder If you don't have that definition, you can create it yourself.

The definition of the persona is important for you to understand exactly Who is your end user and how they think and act.

To quickly create your persona, you can use several tools, such as empathy map.

On the map, you place what the user, see, speak, hear, do, As well as what are yours pain and your satisfaction.

With this, you can map the emotional and sensory characteristics of your end user.

But remember that you don't have much time. The Design Sprint is a short process. So don't waste time creating unnecessary elements for your persona.

Reading Tip: Persona - Why Is It Essential for Any UX Design Project?

Step 2: carry out the searches

With the CSD mapping in hand, use this information to create research scripts and questionnaires.

However, be careful not to create questions and scripts Biased so as not to influence your results.

Research can be done in a variety of ways:

• Fazendo Benchmarking: maybe competitors or partner companies have the same problems;
• interviewing wearers;
• Searching on the internet, from reliable sources (Desk Research);
• Getting to know better the marketplace of the customer.

Note that there are several ways to obtain information and data to enrich your Design Sprint. However, remember that Time is limited and it must be controlled.

That way, limit a deadline for carrying out the searches, otherwise it's easy to lose track of time.

Step 3: organize the data and define the problem

At this time, Have you defined the objective of your project and have carried out the necessary research to answer your doubts and strengthen your certainties about your client's needs and situation.

The next step of the day for the Design Sprint Mapping is organize those data and ideas in a visual way, so that you can identify exactly which problem your project is to solve.

Using visual tools is very important at this time because they provide a magnified view.

That way, use a wall with Post-its, or draw on a white board. Also, if necessary, there are some programs that help you to have this visual map of your ideas. as tip, search for the programs Mural and Miro.

Once problem ideas are visually exposed, classify them into themes and place a priority grade. This will help in choosing the problem.

Then it is time to establish the vote so that the problem to be solved is chosen.

So, at the end of that first day of Design Sprint, you must be able to write down what problem is to be solved, who it affects and what is its cause.

What were the main mapping errors of the day?

O Mapping day is the most important day in the Design Sprin processt. Because The information collected in it will direct the other days of your process.

That way, there are some precautions you need to take so that the day of the mapping is not disrupted. With that in mind, below are The most common mistakes What Designers commit on the first day of Design Sprint:

• Create an issue without having carried out any research;
• Extend activities and Don't control the weather;
• Enviesar the research;
• Wanting to solve several problems. It is necessary to have focus;
• Wanting to solve an “impossible” problem or a very easy problem, but that Doesn't add value to the business.

So be aware and don't make any of the mistakes above, at the risk of jeopardizing your entire Design Sprint process.

End of the first day of Design Sprint

With this article, we hope to have helped in a more practical way to understand, prepare and carry out the first day of the Design Sprint.

There are still 4 more days left! So don't waste time and check out what happens on the 2nd day of DS:

• Design Sprint in Practice: Day 2 — Sketch