Major Retail Chain

Process & objectives

The “by the book” Design Sprint is a 5-day workshop that begins with three days of workshops followed by a day of designs and ending with a day of user testing. The engagement between Crema and Client differed only slightly, as the designs would take place the weeks after the Sprint, and testing would follow after that.

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As two Crema Coaches, Justin Mertes & Tyler Hilker, prepared the agenda for the workshops, they were keeping in mind the ultimate goal: arrive at high-fidelity designs that can be tested against their current experience in order that the Client would have the confidence to move forward—or not— with their new idea.

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Preparation

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Pre-Engagement

Our teams met regularly leading up to the kickoff date to make sure all parties were aligned on expectations, schedules, and deliverables.

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Days 1-3

Each day from 10 am - 4 pm, the team would be fully present for the collaborative workshops. Knowing that Design Sprints are a large time commitment, it was important that the Client’s team had 8-10 am to take care of other pressing items. Not only this, but both the 8-10 am and 4-5 pm times hosted essential stakeholder conversations that gave crucial context into the work that had been, and was yet to be, completed.

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Post-workshops

After designs were finalized, the Client immediately hosted a large-scale stakeholder review to receive suggestions & buy-in from the team before moving forward. The designs were finalized and presented to users for feedback. With user feedback in place, the Client presented their work & findings to key stakeholders to hear any further suggestions and finalize next steps.

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“The most valuable part of the Sprint was the ability to have time to do some deep thinking and commit the time to it. I never get this much time to focus on one problem.” – Sr. UI/UX Designer

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Key learnings

Perhaps the biggest takeaway for the Crema team was just how essential the meetings with stakeholders outside of the Sprint team were. We invited folks from a broader set of departments: Marketing & Communications Department, Senior Management (Development), Management Team, and the Director of Digital Product Strategy & E-Commerce. Each of these conversations provided unique and essential perspectives, including, but not limited to:

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• expectations of the visuals of the experience
• cost of producing high-quality imagery
• realistic workloads of the development team
• long-term goals for the experience for 2021 and beyond
• alignment with other initiatives in progress
• dependencies that impacted our path to the end goal

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By keeping the full team in the loop, requesting their feedback, and (occasionally) forcing ourselves into their schedules, the team ultimately made decisions that were strategic, practical, and technically feasible. Even the best of teams wouldn’t have predicted the challenges and opportunities that were brought up in each of those four conversations.

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The energy was great. Crema quickly immersed themselves into our business and they were very clear on what we had to do. - Team Lead

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Conclusion

The team's energy after an impromptu meeting with a Director on Day 4 was palpable. The outcomes of the Design Sprint gave the Director confidence and direction to make even bolder decisions for next year. This gave the team a new sense of autonomy and purpose.

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Even more exciting was the whirlwind process of designing, testing, presenting results, making tweaks, and receiving approval from leadership to move forward. A Product Manager reached out after the final meeting, saying:

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"I think what sold leadership is that they saw that we took their feedback and integrated it. We are providing incremental value to both the customer and our creative teams, and we were able to show how this work is a stepping stone for the work we want to do next year. Being able to speak to our customer feedback and how it shaped our designs went over really well too."

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Once again, the Design Sprint proved to be a valuable solution for teams looking to rapidly ideate, align cross-disciplined teams, expedite and inform their product roadmap, and immediately learn what their users want.

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