Summary
Design Sprints have undeniable utility but have a bit of baggage in 2024. AI has its reputation at stake, as the first wave didn't quite go as expected. As Designers, we have tools, methods, culture, and urgency to consider. Attendees to this talk will walk away with helpful context on AI's past, present, and future, relevant examples of use, and pragmatic tips for practitioners.
Key Insights
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Traditional one-week design sprints sometimes fail to address complex, systemic challenges and can leave teams unsure what to do post-sprint.
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Guided Discovery reframes innovation as a flexible recipe rather than a rigid equation, allowing iterative adaptation based on context.
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Aggregating diverse organizational data into virtual personas helps overcome recruitment challenges and supplements limited human user testing.
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Using AI tools levels the playing field between designers and non-designers by enabling all participants to create ideas at similar fidelity.
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Virtual personas enable rapid directional feedback, accelerating prototype evaluation cycles compared to human user testing alone.
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AI-powered mood boards and automatic sketch upscaling increase creative fidelity without increasing effort or resource intensity.
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Integrating AI into the design process helps generate inspiration, sometimes sparking novel ideas through AI 'errors' or unexpected outputs.
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Stakeholder alignment requires explicit effort and a dedicated packaging module, as compelling work alone does not guarantee buy-in.
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The framework emphasizes transparency, clarity of purpose, and involving domain experts to accelerate decision-making and reduce friction.
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The AI tools landscape changes rapidly; continuous experimentation and avoiding dogma are critical to sustaining innovation practices.
Notable Quotes
"Being provided the agency to experiment is an invitation to innovate."
"A one week design sprint is a rollercoaster of emotion and pressure for everybody."
"We may have caused some long-term harm—design sprints became a scapegoat for anything that could go wrong."
"Not everyone is a confident visual communicator. Not everyone wants to be a designer."
"We level the playing field by enabling our partners to manifest their ideas at the same level of fidelity using AI tools."
"Virtual personas are not going to replace talking to human users, but they provide great directional feedback in their absence."
"If data comes from different areas of the organization, they want to learn more and meaningfully participate."
"You can increase fidelity in your designs without increasing the amount of effort or time invested."
"The landscape is changing all the time and you’ll drive yourself crazy trying to chase it."
"Avoid dogma, keep iterating, try new technologies. The last tool you tried is not going to be as good as the next."
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