Sprint
An end-to-end solution that help cross-functional teams to collaborate without aligning schedules, ever.
Overview
Sprint is a software solution that allows cross-functional teams to collaborate more effectively without having to set meeting plans or compromise on accuracy.
Sprint is aiming to link teams from all time zones, locations, and origins through its artificial intelligence technology for a faster iteration sprint.
Role & Duration
Product Designer
User Research Information Architecture
User Interaction
Visual Design
Brand Development
Prototype & testing
Time Constraint
9 weeks
May 02-July 05 2022
Discover
Secondary Research
To discover the problem space, I utilized secondary research to learn the scope of unproductive employees, how that’s costing the market, and its consequences people suffer from disengagement.
Employee
Engagement
80% of employees are disengaged with their work.
Market Analysis
-$450 Billion annual cost of lost productivity.
Health Consequences
79% of employees suffer from mild, moderate, or severe burnout.
Competitive Research
Direct Competitors store their videos in an archived library without organization or workstream
Understanding direct and indirect competitors' strategies to determine their strengths and weaknesses is essential to finding Sprint's unique value proposition and business viability.
Hence, I devised a competitive landscape and competitor analysis to pinpoint opportunities and threats.
Competitive
Landscape
Competitor
Analysis
I conducted moderated, decontextualized.
Key
Learning
Define
Primary Research
With an established problem space, the first part of the primary research was conduct user interviews to understand how cross-functional team collaborators create and execute their daily tasks, in an Agile environment.
User Interview Insights
Schedules are overfilled with meetings
I conducted moderated, decontextualized, 1:1 interviews with employees from different roles within product teams to generate qualitative attitudinal data to form user insights.
Next, sorting collected data points using the Affinity Mapping process to identify reoccurring themes & insights and help identify patients' goals, pain points, motivations, and behaviors.
Insight #1
Insight #2
Insight #3
Adam Linquist, technical product manager
User Persona
Meredith Cooper (34)
Technical Product Manager
Location: Austin, Texas
Behaviors
Meredith is remotely working as a Technical PM in the Tech Industry, and leads multiple streams of product teams that ships digital features in project increments.
Goals
Reduce the number of meetings to carve out time by giving and receiving feedback more effectively.
Pain Points
Meetings are often overbooked and she spends eight to ten hours regularly in meetings every day and has about an hour for herself to actually do the work.
Motivations
To spend more time doing her work and less time in meetings so she can have less anxiety over project increment deadlines.
HMW
Question
Develop
The Ideation Process
Through synthesizing research into a user persona, I can further narrow down the value proposition, opportunities for intervention, and risk mitigation to help inform crucial design decisions in the following Ideation Phase.
Task Selection
Effectively give & receive feedback to/from team collaborator
When thinking of potential solutions that address the refined HMW question for Meredith, I went back to the chosen user interview insight of overbooked meetings and formulated 30 preliminary user stories.
I then grouped the 30 user stories based on functionalities, chose my core epic, and further refined ten core user stories to create my minimum viable product (MVP).
Chosen Insight
Overbooked Meetings
Persona's Goal
Spend less time in meetings to carve out time for her own work
Chosen Insight
- Receiving feedbacks in a fast, and organized way
- Giving feedback overlap ontop to mimic a real meeting
Core Epic
Effectively receive and give feedback on collaborator’s progress
I conducted moderated, decontextualized.
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Task Flow
Receive collaborator revision update and give video feedback and annotate changes
A task flow starting from Tasks page in the top left corner to Design Review Task page updated in the bottom right corner.
Deliver
Implementation
Although Sprint’s entire case study is based on an iterative approach, it is especially true during the implementation phase, where versions of Sprint is tested through usability testing and iterated upon.
Exploratory Sketches
Began with hand sketches
After establishing a task flow, I sketched rough UI sketches for potential solutions. Based on user interviews, collaborators spend the majority of time on desktop, so I designed an immersive experience to adhere to their preferred workstream.
To put first iterations of Sprint to the test, I developed a user test script with 5 assigned tasks and prospective scenarios for test users to perform.
hand sketches
Kanban Boards
Task Widgets
Collaborator
Video Feedback
Recording a
Video Feedback
digital sketches
Solution Sketches
Proceeded to digital sketches in later versions
From the value proposition synthesized from competitive research, Sprint positioned itself as an end-to-end solution that adheres to a task workstream so collaborators can start and end a project increment seamlessly.
To put first iterations of Sprint to the test, I developed a user test script with 5 assigned tasks and prospective scenarios for test users to perform.
Sketches to wireframes
Build, test, iterate, repeat
There were two rounds of usability tests with five different users to obtain practical, real-time feedback.
Translating hand sketches, to digital sketches, to mid fidelity.
Before
After
I conducted moderated, decontextualized.
Usability Test #1
Replacing Video Editor
Users were confused about the video editing functionality based on usability session output. Only 2 out of 5 have understood the feature's overlapping functionality, and both testers have reported using a video or voice editor with similar functions before, such as Garage Band or After Effects.
Instead of giving users more freedom to edit their own feedback videos, I opted for a simpler design.
Usability Test #2
Instant Messenger to Notifications
The homepage had an instant messaging system expanded with the Kanban board design. However, users reported that the entry point for Sprint was overwhelming.
To mitigate clutter, I replaced the instant messaging feature with Notifications so users can be prompted by AI technology for a more effective way to receive feedback.
Before
After
I conducted moderated, decontextualized.
Quote from usability tester
Mid-fidelity to High-fidelity
Final Desktop Prototype
Here is the final high fidelity wireflow after two rounds of usability testing, and multiple iterations.
Deliver
Brand & UI Development
After finalizing on Sprint’s prototype, it was time to establish the look and feel of the brand, from product naming, wordmark design, typography, color palette, to tone of voice. I first proceeded with Sprint’s moodboard to anchor the visual identity to the brand.
Moodboard
Sprint
From there, I created a mood board and Spotify playlist to describe the sensation and visualization I want users to experience while using the product.
Name & Brand Development
Iteration Revisions
I came up with Sprint as the name because it has a double connotation of being speedy like our proposed value proposition but also symbolic of the timebox within the Agile process.
More A than B list approach
Picking a color palette based on Accessibility standards for design inclusivity.
Color
Sprint
To establish a color palette for Sprint, I extracted colors from the moodboard using Coolers, and color picker tool. I then outlined the colors that passed WCAG guidelines with at least Level AA using the Stark Figma plug-in.
After formulating a preliminary color palette from extracted colors, I checked their color contrast using Stark again to see if they matched accessibility standards. I decided to not utilize orange, yellow or light blue, as it did not pass AA level standards.
Wordmark, Logo, & App Icon Development
Reinforces the concept of a “race” with the application of the metaphorical finish line to symbolize the goal.
The selected app icon is the chosen version, the abstract shape reminded me of a voice soundscape, which relates to Sprint’s voice recognition feature.
Marketing Website
Build, test, iterate.
Keeping IDEO’s design thinking approach in mind, Sprint is my attempt at addressing innovation with enhancing desirability, viability and feasibility . With the established UI library, I designed a responsive marketing website with Desktop and Mobile view, showcasing Sprint’s unique features, drawing attention to collaborators being the main focus.
Desktop
Desktop
Mobile
I conducted moderated, decontextualized.
Design Impact + Future Thinking
In the future, Sprint will be a cloud storage data base for how employees collaborate through voice recognition
When thinking about impact, I utilized The Smash Hit from Tarot Cards of Tech to further conceptualize how Sprint might scale in the future. The cloud storage data base for videos, live transcripts and voice recognition system for 100 million users is massive. However, it could further advance data scientists and AI solution companies like Scale AI to source data for algorithms to be applied to advance machine automation or the way in which people work.
Quotes from User Testers
“I wish we had Sprint for Industry day to onboard collaborators from different teams to one workflow without having to schedule meeting times.”
Key Learnings
The iteration process is never linear, mine looked like a ball inside a pinball machine, forever in motion.
- It’s about People, always will be.
- Failure is where the growth happens, just trust the process!
- Don’t be afraid to break a few rules, innovations are meant to disrupt.
- Find a solution that will scale.
- Competitive Market Research is a must, existing products will determine how users perceive your solution.
Sprint, transforming limits, boundless.
Before you go, let’s be friends!
Ash is a product designer driven by creating solutions that express her values that are deep down to her core and capturing truths from her experience. She is open for work or collaboration, and you can contact her by clicking the below links.