💥 6 Reliable Brainstorming Techniques - Modified Design Sprint💥

Technique #1: Modified Design Sprint

👉 The Modified Design Sprint: a Proven Method for Brainstorming Made Simpler

For BAs in product development, facilitating team brainstorming is a crucial ability. How can we come up with unique, workable concepts that satisfy the needs of our customers?

The Design Sprint (created by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, and Braden Kowitz) is a wonderful gift to the BA community.

A team will go from a large problem to a tried-and-true solution during a four- or five-day brainstorming session called a Design Sprint.

• If you don't have five days, what then?
• What if you need to make a significant decision right away?

The Modified Design Sprint is a new iteration of Knapp and Co.'s game-changing methodology.

The Modified Design Sprint: What Is It? 🤔

A scaled-down version of the original Design Sprint is used in the Modified Design Sprint (MDS) to facilitate team brainstorming and decision-making. In order to tap into the collective knowledge of the team and develop a shared understanding it uses timeboxing, collaborative brainstorming, heat map voting and Decider overrule. The MDS delivers the team prioritized, Decider-approved, team-backed ideas for continued development and it may be completed in as little as an hour, unlike the original Design Sprint which finishes with a proven prototype.

❓When Would A Modified Design Sprint Be Useful?

The following situations necessitate employing an MDS:

1. There are many unknowns in an endeavour
2. You require responses to inquiries or solutions to issues from a variety of people
3. You must choose a lane from among the team's many competing proposals
4. There is a lot of work that needs to be done, but you must immediately give the most crucial tasks priority.

How Should a Modified Design Sprint Be Conducted? 🤔

The MDS produces more measurable results with only a little bit more work than a usual meeting.

Choose a facilitator before assembling a team. This person ought to be skilled in guiding dialogue, getting to the heart of the matter and posing probing questions. It's probably you, the BA or the PM.

The facilitator makes sure the team achieves its objective.

You need a Decider because an MDS is not a democracy; rather, it’s a benevolent dictatorship. This person has the power to veto or confirm decisions. The CEO, Product Owner, or Team Lead could be responsible. Because of the team's knowledge, the MDS gives the Decider the confidence to make fully informed decisions on crucial problems.

Complete the team with anyone who can contribute a critical viewpoint to your work such as other BAs, marketing experts, developers, researchers and designers.

Set The Objectives And Questions  ❗❓

A defined purpose is the foundation of a successful MDS.

Are you attempting to order system performance?

Determine your product's MVP?

Select a course of action for a proposal?

Before the meeting, the Facilitator and Decider should draft this objective.

A list of Sprint questions that represent decisions to be made, customer needs to be met, challenges to be solved or any other area where you want input from a varied team is required once the goal has been established.

Set the schedule 📝

A timed agenda should be created by the facilitator once the questions have been chosen.

There are 5 minutes left over in this recommended agenda for a 60-minute meeting to add wherever the team needs more time.

1. Create the scene (10 min)
2. Proposed Ideas (15 min)
3. Review Concepts (10 min)
4. Vote (10 min) 
5. Make a decision (05 min)

Prepare the area 🎯

Before the MDS, the facilitator must set up the room. There are many online resources available for this including Miro, Mural and FunRetro. Create each of your questions as a column in an online tool and place sticky notes in the rows beneath. Sticky notes, pens, expo markers or voting dots and a whiteboard are required if you're in person. On the board, write the agenda, objective and questions.

Create The Scene 📅

Review the agenda and the sprint goal and then describe the Facilitator and Decider roles before starting the MDS. After that, go over the list of questions and see if anything is missing. Now is the opportunity to pinpoint any blind spots your team was hoping to address.

Proposed Ideas 💡

Everyone silently collects their sticky notes and responds to the questions written on the board. To keep the team on task the facilitator should remind team members to check the time.

Review Concepts ✔️

This step is problematic because the objective of assessing ideas is to make sure the team understands them, not to judge their value. Each sticky note should be read aloud; anyone who needs clarification should step forward. Continue with the following sticky note once clarity has been attained. If the discourse starts to veer off course then the Facilitator should (politely) step in to save time. The following phase will enable everyone's opinions to be heard equally.

Vote 🗣️

The magic takes place here. The group now needs to select which ideas should be prioritized.

There are two methods for casting a ballot:

Warmth Map: There is no limit to the overall number of votes a person may cast, however they may only vote three times per idea. The greatest ideas will have the most dots, transforming the board into a "heat map."

Set a voting limit, such as 3 votes each column or 15 votes for the entire board. Tough choice. Each sticky note may only be voted on once per person.

Make a decision  🏆

The Decider scans each column and selects the ideas that MUST be included using the team's votes as a guide. Most Deciders select the items that received the most votes, but they are also free to select additional items they deem important. Selected concepts are then developed further as the "winners." Unselected concepts can be typed out, set aside and reviewed later. Now that you have clear direction on important concepts for success the MDS can make brainstorming easier so that the team can move forward in challenging ideation areas more quickly.
 
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