2018 Workshop
Topic(s):
Description
Background: You’re about to kick-start a new project, endless possibility lies ahead. As the designated designer you’re asked to pull a plan together for the discovery phase. A design sprint seems like a good idea, but you don’t have a full week, the decision maker can only be there for an hour on Wednesday, and several people can only attend by dialing-in. You need to come up with something, what do you do now?
During this workshop Kevin and Jeff, two seasoned product designers from nearForm, will help you figure out how to structure your project’s discovery phase, taking into account the constraints and curveballs of reality. We will start by dissecting a design sprint, and finding the core objective of any discovery phase. Through case studies and group discussion we will look at discovery efforts gone wrong and explore what happened to make them go wrong. We will learn about the different types of ideation techniques and discovery exercises out there, and do hands-on assignments to nail key techniques that will help you facilitate them effectively. We will explore the different discovery phase archetypes, how to plan for them, and work in groups to assemble different plans for each of them. Finally, we’ll learn what to do when you have your prized outcome at the end of a discovery phase, and how to plan your follow-up to keep the momentum going.
Participants will come away with an understanding of how to structure a discovery phase with the exercises and techniques needed to achieve your teams’ objectives.
Audience: Anyone who has ever found themselves given the responsibility of facilitating a discovery phase/design sprint and overwhelmed with the options and resources out there. Or for those designers yet to have delved into design discovery looking to see the benefits and pitfalls of various approaches.
About the speaker(s)
Jeff Simons is a senior product designer at nearForm. He has designed the user experience of industrial machinery, smart homes, and web apps – often for an international user base. Now he helps global companies and teams build and shape their next big thing together with colleagues based all over the world.Kevin Devine is a senior product designer at nearForm. He has worked with some of Ireland’s leading international companies, including Ryanair, where he led the design on their mobile apps. He now works with remote colleagues throughout Europe delivering world class products for global clients.