Sprint Decision Making Process

Creative problem solving is a cornerstone skill that separates good product designers from the best product designers (everyone in the company is to some degree a product designer). Everything else is production work.

The problem with anything that requires creative thinking however, is that it’s easy to get lost—lose focus and fall into the trap of having useless, open-ended, unstructured discussions. Many products end up being released late and full of compromises to the original vision simply because the team is so fatigued from bashing heads together on endless, unprioritised problems.

Solution

Replace all open, unstructured discussion with clear process.

Structure and Discipline create the Freedom needed to be creative.

Exercise: Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ)

Supplies

• Rectangular post-its, I like yellow

• Square post-its (2 different colours, I like Pink and Blue)

• Voting dots, 2 different colours

• Sharpies or something similar

• Time Timer or any timer that Clearly shows remaining time

• A nice playlist of focus music, this is one I created, feel free use it!

Time Needed: 24-70 Minutes

Process (times are max. time)

1. Choose a moderator

2. Start with problems (7 min)

3. Present problems (4 min/ person)

4. Select the problem to solve (6 min)

5. Reframe problems as standardised shallenges (6 min)

6. Produce solutions (7 min)

7. Vote on solutions (10 min)

8. Prioritise solutions (30 seconds)

9. Decide what to execute on (10 min)

10. Turn Solutions into Actionable Tasks (5 min)