DESIGN SPRINT 2.0 MONDAY - ASK THE EXPERTS

[@AJSmart]

Get a MASSIVE 70% DISCOUNT on our BEST Facilitation Course - Workshopper Master. Check out our Black Friday Deal here 👉 go.ajsmart.com/bf24-wm __________ What are your favourite questions to ask in the "Ask the Experts" exercise in order to get the ball rolling? Let us know here!

[@kiltdagame9121]

How many dislikes did this vid get? I'll bet its way more than the likes but we'll never know bc "your feelings"

[@DCTapeworm]

One of our favorite questions is “What’s our blind spot? From your perspective, what should we be paying more attention to?”. This really digs into our perceptions of problem scope and depth, and potentially gives us a lot more perspective than we normally would have. Also, more words on the screen! It felt like an AJ&Smart approach to instructional videos where Brittany’s common questions were going to be shown as a layover on the video as she spoke them. Please consider those next time. It’s a nice touch. Hope y’all are doing well!

[@AJSmart]

Robert!! We're loving the feedback :) That's a great question to ask, but probably hard to get a solid answer to? A blindspot is "blind" for a reason surely? I would love to know how you make sure that you get a valuable answer to this question! We've found that during the user tests, we then discover (quite quickly) our blind spots!

[@DCTapeworm]

Okay, hold my beer for a sec... let me try and explain this better... In our experience with Design Sprints here, the blindspot question is really good for the first 1-2 expert interviews. We usually have the most important people we could possibly interview at those sessions. They are either CEO's, Deciders, Finance, Strategy or something equivalent to being at the top of the food chain. (btw, we record our expert interviews outside of the Sprint, and replay them back to save time if the Design Sprint is limited). So with that backdrop, here's an example of the blindspot question in action... Say you're at the tail end of that first live expert interview with a VP of Strategy, and you have a lot of HMW's stacked up. Then you ask... “What’s our blind spot? From your perspective, what should we be paying more attention to?”. The result has been... 1. "No, I think we're good!". - No harm, no foul. 2. "I heard you talk about X and Y. Are you thinking about Z? Have you reached out to Mr. John yet about Z? He knows a lot about it and could help you." - Great! We now have either a fill-in for a cancel, or a lunch date with someone we haven't talked to yet that we REALLY need to talk to in order to inform our Design Sprint. 3. "Well, this laundry idea you have sounds great. We have standing contracts with vendor T, U, and V to handle a lot of what you're talking about. I wonder how it impacts what you're doing." - This is a Design Sprint combo breaker. It has submarined your Design Sprint, and everything stops. You've discovered that what you're endeavoring on has either a) already been done b) is duplicating effort or c) is problematic due to existing business constraints. Everyone gets a week of their life back, and you regroup and re-evaluate. Okay, I hope that provided the rationale you were wondering about. If I was unclear about anything above, please let me know and I'll get another adult beverage. Thanks in advance!

[@AJSmart]

haha! Thanks for the explanation!! This makes a lot of sense. Really like the question!

[@ranya6248]

@@DCTapeworm Wow this question is amazing, thank you for the explanation it made a lot of sense to me

[@wowprogression]

Based on experience, writing HMW tends the participants to pause and think on how to convert what they heard to HMW, and miss additional information from the expert as they think. I like the process on your Lightning Decision Jam where you let the participants write the challenges without them thinking how to convert to HMW and then after the voting that's when you convert the chosen ones to HMW.

[@marieglandus4965]

Yes, it is a good point. Hack : be careful the participants write a precise enough sentence on each sticky, not keywords, and explaining why it is a problem or a challenge! Then, after the discussion, they can easily transform the pains into HMW. And then you put all the HMW together, they group them and vote. 👌

[@mohamedabdelaal8582]

I literally watched this right before my workshop and it set me up for success to run it with the team. THANK YOU!!!! LIFE SAVER!

[@CzarnyBorx]

Doing sprint on-line. Do you think it would be better to invite all expert for exact meeting, or rather to talk face to face before 1st sprint - Monday - session?

[@clauseland9005]

Nailed it again, Super cool you keep trying out new stuff to see what works, and tell us free-loathers ;) One question I ask if I can tell there is a lot of divergens in the group is " If in two years the company is gone, what was the main cause/ why?" I know it's not super optimistic, but sometimes people are aware of the big gaps in their own plan.

[@HaraldHumml]

Thank for the series about design sprint 2.0. I am curious: do you mean 20-30min for the whole exercise including the categorisation and prioritisation or just for collecting the HMWs? If no, how long does the whole exercise take from your experience?

[@PhilipWatson1]

Love it when she says 'back pocket'

[@dorothyryan6357]

Great video. I usually ask people to present back their questions in turn as they stick them on the wall, before grouping them into categories. This gives everyone a chance to explain the context and reason for their question. It saves time because voting tends to happen quickly after that.

[@SalmaBakr]

Excellent way of reading through all notes - encouraging people to present their ideas and not be intimidated! Let's hope everyone in the room isn't shy!! :D

[@panayiotispavlides2148]

I always find the values as a big driving force, so I'm trying to ask the experts more about their core values and how those are/should be reflected on the product. :)

[@AJSmart]

Super interesting, we're going to try this out!

[@patrickrushton]

Great stuff, but 16 minutes of the same 4 bar music loop was unbearable!

[@rrmleroux]

Haha I was just thinking that!

[@rrmleroux]

Great content, but gosh darn that music is driving me crazy.

[@jacopospina1075]

"Ideas don't matter. Execution matters!"

[@glory9077]

I wish I read this after the video because now I can’t NOT hear it 😂

[@brightonblogger]

Love the quick recap at the end - super helpful!

[@alberafzalkhan5]

Can you please mentioned that who will come for the interview for the session, are they the same people who will be a part of the sprint team ?

[@larsholdgaard4284]

I have seen some 5-6 vids from you guys at AJ&Smart - Really awesome and funny :-) TY guys! I learn a lot and have good laughs :)

[@thomascree9964]

Hey, Thanks for the great video. Can I just ask does the moderator ever get involved with the questions + voting etc?

[@karenross7391]

I agree the music is killing my focus

[@AJSmart]

haha sorry Karen, we've toned it down in videos since!

[@alperentopay1164]

Love your content! Thanks for sharing it. Just a clarification question: When you talk about the 4 questions what does "product" refer to in that context? I'm asking this because if you're building a "Website" for a product that the company sells, I could ask the same questions about the website I'm building for the client or the company's product itself. Both seem to provide important insight. Based on your experience, what do you recommend the focus should be on: "the product you're building for the client (aka the website)" or "the product that the company is selling"?

[@MatthewShipp]

Wait wait wait.. I'm having a timing disconnect. Disconnect #1: Does your back pocket questions, the HMW, dots, and organizing the cards all fit into 20min? Disconnect#2 What do you tell the decider to talk about, in the correct context before the expert interview? Disconnect#3: Does the decider also make HMW cards?

[@humso]

Who do you ask to come to the meeting (why)?, how many people (why that number)? How do you prepare the invite (what do you mention)?

[@shinykins888]

Great session but I am a bit confused about the 4 questions to get the conversation started. 1. What's their product? 2. What's the problem it's trying to solve? 3. Who is using the product? 4. What would the products look like in 2 years time? Are these just ice breakers that leads to the HMWs? There is no mention of why we suddenly go into HMWs. How do you introduce the HMWs?

[@guava89]

Hi AJ&Smart! love what you guys are doing here. i find it to be a remarkably helpful iteration to the original sprint! Tho i do get confused from the playlist(s) you guys provided cuz i find them to not be in perfect order for a beginner to understand. As a beginner i would appreciate if the playlist(s) run as following; DESIGN SPRINT 2.0 Playlist 1- Before You Start Your Sprint (title)- load in aaall the necessary videos in this playlist (in perfect order). Playlist 2- Monday- load aaaall the necessary videos in this playlist ( in perfect order). Playlist 3- Tuesday-load aaaall the ninecessary videos this playlist ( in perfect order). Playlist 4- Wednesday- you get what i mean and so forth. Just my feedback as someone who uses your videos and appreciates your work! besides that, you guys are amazing and keep it up! Thanksss!

[@AJSmart]

Ridhuan Rosli hey Ridhuan, thanks for your comment. We’re doing a complete makeover of our design sprint playlists this month so it should become more understandable. Sorry for the mess ❤️

[@kevnn6443]

I couldn't agree more!!!!! I love the videos you guys are doing but I have no clue what order I should be watching them in! More constant thumbnails/colors and clear titles would help a lot. Having a template of some sort when you're making videos so that they're all somewhat uniform and clear to the viewers would greatly help!

[@carlpuzonvalencia]

This is so cool. I've done design sprints before (2014) for a startup I cofounded. I'm about to do one for a client of ours at On-Off Group and found this while preparing for it. Thank you so much. This is really valuable content

[@AJSmart]

Cheers Carlo!!

[@limivanb]

As a moderator, do I need to participate in writing How Might We questions during the 20-minute Ask The Expert session?

[@stephenlewis1638]

I may have missed this, but, how do you stop people being biased towards their own HMW when dot scoring?

[@jeey6058]

Hello, thank you for your videos! I always take this as reference when I start a project:) My question is, how and when you would take the user interviews before the user testing in your sprint. Do you prefer to get users' ideas through a prototype testing or do you meet users before the sprint starts? Thank you for reading this question~

[@JoseCosta-ut3or]

I have a question about how many dots are used in each activity of the sprint. Of what I understood is this: >>>> HMWs: 2 dots per member, 3-5 dots for decider >>>> Sprint questions: Same for HMWs? >>>> Heat map Concept: infinite dots (1 dot for like, 2 for really like, 3 for OMG love it) >>>> Straw Poll Concepts: 1 dot per member, 2 dots for decider >>>> User test flow: 1 dot per member, 2 dots for decider Is that it?

[@AJSmart]

Hey Jose! To be honest, there aren't really any hard and fast rules for the dots. If your team is small then you'll want to give them more dots for the HMWs! For the heat map, there are no restrictions, you should actually tell your team to go wild and use as many as they want. You just want to create an actual obvious heat map for this exercise.

[@JoseCosta-ut3or]

And for the sprint questions? Is usually the same amout as for HMWs?

[@AJSmart]

This vid should answer kzbin.info/www/bejne/rX6UYX-Aeb2Nbbc

[@jz1908]

After having created the Voting tree, with around how many HMWs should we continue for the MAP (from Video 3?) Thanks a lot in advance! :-)

[@AJSmart]

Christo Z hey! We usually take the top 4-5 HMWs for the map

[@fede7449]

P.S.: And with those 4-5 HMW's do you create 4 or 5 maps or just only one?

[@AnggaRisky]

How to create a team? what thing that decide them?

[@Tupira79]

Confused as to who is talking and writing here. When is the product description and expert interview happening and when is the HMW taking place?

[@princebabu6500]

Will you use the design sprint method for an existing product that has a problem or a fresh new product?

[@AJSmart]

Yes!

[@mshannon]

How would you approach the HMW questions when you have more than one product team present in a sprint? e.g. you're looking at more of an E2E service that might have 2-3 product teams within? Also - if you don't have experts from the product team in the room, would you still ask them the same questions or different ones? e.g. you might have a customer expert who works in the field helping customers.

[@mineesphere5568]

For me social questions about the product are very important, to gain information about the corporates values and if everybody is on board with those; f. e. How does a society look like in which my product is involved? What's the impact on the users (everyday) behavior?

[@stuheez1]

How long do you give for the affinity mapping / categorising part of the activity?

[@StevieMauriceke]

How do the "Can we.." questions that you gather during the "Long term goal and sprint questions phase" DIFFER from the "How might we.." questions in the "Ask the experts phase"? Or how do you combine them?

[@AJSmart]

I am just putting this to the sprint team. They can give a better answer than me =) I will get back to you

[@AJSmart]

I asked the team & the first thing they said is that 'we must make a video about this. We get asked all the time.' The HMWs are problems statements that help us understand the challenge better The Can We/Sprint questions are the potential points for where it can all go wrong. The things that could derail us from achieving the long-term goal. Although it goes way deeper! We REALLY need to make a video!

[@StevieMauriceke]

Thanx for your quick response! I am looking forward to that video :)

[@sabrinabaldo8526]

Amazing. Claryfing!

[@hebamahmoud1593]

As a beginner am a bit confused what's the difference between asking the expert and stakeholder interview questions!

[@dimitrischronopoulos7756]

What is the product in 10:15 where you put up all post-it? Above the white board.

[@AJSmart]

Hey Dimitris! The surface where everyone's putting their post-its? It's just a portable whiteboard! is that your question? :)

[@dimitrischronopoulos7756]

There is like a another thin surface. You also displayed it in another video, when someone wanted to start putting post-its in a glass wall. Damn if i find it i will also comment there :)

[@AJSmart]

OHHHH yes, maybe you're talking about the Magic Paper? It comes on a roll and it statically adheres to any surface! If you're looking to buy it on Amazon, look up "self-adhesive paper" or Static paper maybe could also work... :)

[@dimitrischronopoulos7756]

AHHHHHH F@CK YES!!! Thank you, you awesome people!!!

[@AqwaQwakks]

Mayyyyyyn ! She is awwwwwsome..... 😎😃

[@conorhamill9362]

If the total time for this exercise is 30 mins and you want to bring in a couple of people from outside. Does this mean you cram the interview into 10 minutes each per person and then one one additional member of the sprint team can be interviewed. Can you elaborate on the timings please?

[@jovanlaurencio7604]

Are SMEs, which are not part of the main sprint team, required in the room after this exercise? Do they help to create the goal, questions, and map as well or can they be dismissed before moving to the next exercises? Also, great work! Your choice of music is enjoyable and removes the nervousness surrounding the thought of facilitating my first sprint.

[@jovanlaurencio7604]

Maybe this will help some others. Would love input here but here's my preliminary list of Qs: Can you tell us about the problem we are trying to solve? Who is this product for? What is the vision for this product? Our North Star? What’s our unique advantage opportunity? How do products for this member work from a technology perspective? What are our technological constraints? What have we done in previous efforts to solve this problem? Can you tell me more about the member? - What is our current sales approach towards this member? - What types of issues are encountered with customer support or in-branch? - Is there additional research on this member? - From @Mike Sanders What would make them fall absolutely in love with the product? What are the biggest risks? From @Robert Skrobe What’s our blind spot? From your perspective, what should we be paying more attention to (Competitors, technology, potential or existing partnerships)?

[@Adityarm]

Summary at 14.00

[@telosantos]

What are the most common pain points their users experience using their service.

[@ricocamus]

What if you have lots of experts to interview? 20 minutes each? In the book it talks about getting experts in various areas that might not be represented on the team but have valuable input

[@wowprogression]

I know you've done hundreds of Sprints. Mind to list down the most common categories that you use? I was thinking of using Miro or Realtime board where categories are already set so they can organize it right away. Also it avoids duplicates compared to tradition post it writing.

[@fatimakamali2190]

Thank you for very informative video but the background music gives me anxiety and I had to stop it a few times (had to give you my feedback guys)

[@AJSmart]

Hey Fatima, thanks for the feedback, we always appreciate it, we've toned the music way back in our videos since!

[@mikesanders117]

Possible Expert Question: What would make a user fall absolutely in love with our product?

[@andrewabogado]

Thanks for the video. Noob question. If you’re voting for the individual HMW, what’s the purpose of HMW categorisation?

[@andrewabogado]

Oh, I rewatched the video and found out that categories are for grouping purposes and allow people to read the HMWs only but has nothing to do with voting. I missed that point on first watch. Thanks.

[@jamesstables6636]

@aj&smart (why doesn't this @ mention work lol) - Great video and thank you for going through this step with detail. I have a question about the Expert Interviews: I wonder if I could do this before the Sprint in separate interviews or do I need all the experts to be in one room? Isn’t that more like the notorious Focus Group? I mean I understand the HMWs benefits from people having ideas and concerns while listening to experts talk, however, if I as a Sprint Facilitator gave an overview of what the experts said over a few hours of interviews captured in their own time, would that be similar and just as effective? Thank you

[@JamesLiuTW]

This is an awesome video. Thanks for sharing this. I am a little bit confused here. In the previous study, Ask the Experts is designed to invite some experts who are not in the sprint team, and have them review the goal, sprint question, and the map. The purpose is to spot where the sprint team might go wrong. However, in AJ&S' design sprint 2.0, it seems that the Ask the Expert is just to get consensus among sprint team. Am I correct?

[@innolabz.istanbul]

I have the same concern. If we ask the decider about his long term goal during expert interviews, wouldn't this affect the next session about long term goal? As in your famous "laundry" example, I might have considered a hotel concierge etc. (though it's more B2B than B2C, but still) Many thanks for all your efforts, fun and insightful.

[@AJSmart]

Hey James, the Ask The Experts stage is to align the whole team, more often on the client side, on what the main pain points are, and develop a consensus with everyone going forward for the week ahead! Hope this helps?

[@AJSmart]

Hey Meterom, hope the above helps. The Decider i mainly focussed on the voting stages and which concept(s) to go ahead with. Try to keep it as democratic and balanced in the Ask The Experts stage as possible!

[@nihonnights]

Aahhhhh! Awesome content, but the music, the music!!! it’s killing me!!!

[@AJSmart]

Hahahah thanks, we're getting better with the music these days... sorry about that. New videos coming every week

[@chesterstevenson]

Agree. The music makes it a little difficult to focus on what they are saying (cognitive overload).

[@eduardomedina3101]

Does the decision maker write HMWs as well?

[@AJSmart]

EXCELLENT question. The answer is yes.

[@eduardomedina3101]

@@AJSmart cool. Thanks for that. And wouldn't their HMWs have more weight over the ones from the rest of the team? Don't they usually vote for their own HMWs?

[@AJSmart]

@@eduardomedina3101 To be honest, in the end its a giant mess and they don't even remember which ones they wrote. Also, everything is duplicated or written 10 times so it really doesn't matter. The goal here is not to have a perfect system, but to help people move forward without too much discussion.

[@eduardomedina3101]

@@AJSmart thank you. Great videos btw.

[@AJSmart]

Thanks!

[@souandremoura]

i love and love this video and that girl... i'm trying to make my first facilitator sprint but Online. Some tips?

[@AJSmart]

Hey André! Take a look at our blog for some resources about running remote workshops: www.workshopper.com/post/a-beginners-guide-to-running-amazing-online-workshops

[@AJSmart]

This webinar might also be useful: kzbin.info/www/bejne/faOkpamIltytaNk

[@nsyll]

It's a great skill to have humor 🙂

[@AJSmart]

We couldn't agree more 🙌

[@andramargoi]

Hello! Great content and videos! I find them very helpful and entertaining at the same time! Regarding your question, I realised that Value Proposition Canvas could help a lot in creating these HMW questions. At least for me, starting from customer jobs, pains and gains, seems much easier. What do you think?

[@olowoporoku1000]

I agree with you

[@Simplentertainments]

I'm confused... How are these 4 questions to experts different than the questions we asked the team during Long Term Goals & Sprint Questions? Also, how are these interviews in front of the whole team in the room different from a debate... do the facilitators just tell others to shut up while someone else is being interviewed?

[@toandybury]

Novice question: Wouldn't the HMW prompts be focused on the issue that you're trying to solve with the sprint? Or am I missing the point and it's all about getting people to talk about anything that may be of importance?

[@AJSmart]

yes! absolutely. Sometimes (often in fact) the experts will divert though... they will start to talk about other issues. So it's important not to dismiss those thoughts, but to steer the conversation slightly- then let the voting on the HMWs bring up the "most important" challenges.

[@toandybury]

Thanks!

[@toandybury]

I wish you guys weren't in Berlin! You look like a blast to work for and what a great process!

[@PeteKJ]

Hey, thanks for the vids. Just a quick logistical question. Do you ask the 4 questions, starting with the decider, and then the same 4 questions again to each person in turn?

[@AJSmart]

Hey Pete! It's actually not usually that structured! We don't restrict the amount of questions and it's actually usually a pretty unstructured discussion! We usually start with the main "expert" and then allow anyone else to ask anything they'd like to know or to share more information they think is important to the challenge! Hope that's helpful!

[@PeteKJ]

Ok cool, thanks for your swift (Sprintesque) response 🙂👍

[@md1235678]

HWMs are questions we ask to solve the problem , right?

[@nabilanan1842]

Mainly for requirements. Ideation I would say.

[@ahmedtabish8597]

How are the HMW are different than Can we questions.

[@AJSmart]

Hey Zully! HMWs are positively framed questions that probe for opportunities to find solutions to specific challenges. You would use these to get people thinking about a particular part of a problem space, and how it could be solved. They are more speculative and intended to get people thinking. Can We's are framed more pessimistically and are intended to validate whether your solutions succeeded in solving the challenge, or not. They are important to hold your solutions, and yourself, accountable, as coming up with a solution is only one part of actually solving the problem. You have to be able to give a definite, black and white "yes/no" answer to the Can We question.

[@rafmyles]

Is there no user research in DS?

[@AJSmart]

Yes, there is! But it comes later in the sprint.

[@danielvanfresno444]

Whos gonna be the experts to be interviewed in this exercise? Is it the team members?

[@alexdeguzman4273]

where can i get one of those posters?

[@AJSmart]

Come to our office :)

[@alexdeguzman4273]

i'm on a different continent and my manager is cheap :(

[@elainesilva616]

Quick Question: 30min is the limit to all expert enterviews or that is a limit per enterview? If that is to all how many experts are indicated in this case?

[@AJSmart]

Hey Elaine, we usually give 30 mins for the entire exercise even if there are multiple people speaking.

[@elainesilva616]

Would you have a revised Checklist with the new timings per activity?

[@AJSmart]

Elaine Silva Hey, we’re working on it and will post a vid on it soon

[@goodnessadewale8968]

Good question @Elaine Silva. I think the actual question is: What is the ideal team size for the expert interview phase?

[@hagarbenyishay2264]

Great video! Thanks :)

[@RorschachRev]

Can I get these in transcript form? I resent needing to spend several hours to get a few paragraphs of dense information. I am a minority, because I prefer to read the manual (aided by Ctrl+F) than watch youtube video in general. You guys have a great style, but my attention wavers because I'm bored, not entertained. (The most boring book series I read: import export insurance tax law. A close second? Javascript Complete.)

[@jarosawrzepecki]

Some Polish folk drink tea in the morning too ;)

[@carolinemarien8081]

How can you get outside experts involved? I gathered a team of 5 people for my first sprint but I'm missing for example someone from marketing for the whole 4 days and would like to involve them at some point in the process. When is the time to involve them? Also, the CEO will not participate for the whole print. When should he be involved?

[@francescocifardi]

4 cars in the intro, 4 Wolksvagen. I love Germany.

[@vinaykumar-ul4hs]

Can you please reduce the volume of background music next time. It is a little bit loud

[@AJSmart]

Hi Vinay thanks for pointing that out, we will watch out for the volume in our next videos!

[@sonyabadass]

very confusing.... the map first or HMW first??????

[@kellyBAMF]

she said HMW first then map after you create the HMW tree that is prioritized by dot voting.

[@imolaunger]

I also read: "HMW reach the lousiness demographic?" and thought - Harsh!

[@Zaaaaak.bgd1]

How Might OUI's

[@dabianshyt]

why is the camera shaking constantly throughout the video? feeling nauseated

[@saintsandvirgins]

Great content but yes, the music was so annoying, and this could have been covered in a third of the time...too many examples and silly moments that dragged it out. Would have been great to offer it as bullet points...hard to follow the concept otherwise. But thank you for sharing this.

[@imolaunger]

For a second there I thought you said "lingerie service"

[@MariePhillipsPlease]

This is great content! But the music is hard to deal with. Too boop boop boop'y

[@JulienJolly]

Nice content but horrible music!

[@dianaaugustin4082]

Get to the point faster. This is wasting people's time. Plus: the music is super annoying.

[@AJSmart]

Thanks for the feedback Diana!

[@lifehacks4the230]

Appreciate This video, but it was ridiculously and unnecessarily long, this could have been explained in 5 minutes.

[@AJSmart]

We just love to talk about design sprints 😉

[@salamista]

Nobody cares about the timer lady, move on.

[@gergohomola8884]

Literally can’t watch it for more than 5 minutes! That music is killing me. I can’t listen to what she is trying to say! So so annoying!!!