Design Sprint

Courtesy: Jake Knapp

• A Design Sprint is a time-constrained, 5 phase process using design thinking to reduce the risk of bringing a product, service or a feature into the market. 
• Savioke's 5 Day Process is summarized below: [Savioke considered dozens of ideas for their robot, and then used structured decision making to select the strongest solution to prototype and test the idea with customers]. Objective was to come up with a prototype that delivered one specific functionality (delivery a single toothbrush to a guest).
• 1st the team cleared a full week off their calendars with OOO replies.
• Manufactured a deadline
• Made arrangements with hotel for a live test on the Friday.
• Now there were only 4 days to design and test.
• Day 1: Savioke reviewed everything they knew about the problem. [they reasserted the importance of Guest satisfaction after every service, which the hotel religiously tracks]
• Savioke created a map to identify biggest risks. (A Customer Journey Map kind of -- Guest meets robot, robot gives customer toothbrush, guest acknowledges the receipt, etc.). There may also be other points where Guest-robot interaction could take place. Team had to prioritize where to spend the effort based on the risk it carried.
• Some challenges: Where to start (eventually team chose The Moment of Delivery, Should we make robots appear smarter - some people may try to interact with the robot and if they didn't respond people might be disappointed, etc.
• Day 2: Team switched to problem solving. Instead of brainstorming each member came up with own solutions -- CEO, Head of Bus Dev, Chief Robotics Engg, everyone participated and came up with own solution. 
• Day 3 (goal was which ideas to test and document potential soln in detail so that only the execution is left out): Sketches, notes on conf hall walls, old ideas discarded, 23 competing solutions. Voting and structured decision to narrow down ideas. 
• Day 4: Execution. programmed and tuned up robot's movements (laptop and playstation controller, sound effects, face mock up.
• Day 5: Live Test. Lined up interviews with guests, duct-tape webcams etc.