We started with a mini kick-off where we explored the role of empathy in User-Centered interviews. It was a new experience for some to be told not to talk (much) but to listen (more) intensely to what their neighbor was saying and showing.
It was great to witness how team members could apply good perceptual skills, change of perspective and later really get at the emotional grit behind the stories. That means the POV “synthese” worked surprisingly well. No big problem with hypothesis. Maybe that is because there were at least a couple of participants who had been exposed to Design Thinking beforehand. It’s great when they can be role models.
And they were exceedingly open and curious about re-freshing what they know and what more they could learn.
This was the prep. work for the upcoming 5 day Sprint. Wow, that is really something to be planned carefully. So happy to I have a great space in the Funkhaus, plus they have the means to recruit a large variety of interviewees and testers. And that’s super helpful. Instead of using experts on day 1, like Jake Knapp recommends, I prefer to engage with real users and then use this data as the basis for our DT process.
I’m looking forward to facilitating this great group of people! Now I just need to do the preparation…
BTW today it is Halloween. Halloween in the Funkhaus – Being American-born of course I brought candy :-)