Feature creation in an existing product: scoping critical functionality through a design sprint

Context:

Slalom was asked to lead a full design sprint in Toronto for an existing client, a luxury hotel. Executives had an internal product that was being revamped, and they needed to reach alignment on which pieces of functionality to include in one particular feature to capture guests' needs. Although key stakeholders had ideas about what to include, hotel staff and management represented key user groups, and their feedback was critical.

Challenge:

There were many "cooks in the kitchen" on the project – important executives who needed to weigh in on ideas – but real end users were critical to drive ideation, so they were included as core participants. We had an existing prototype to fit our new feature into, and backend data management decisions were being made in real time by other teams. The key challenge was to align on most important functionality that was technically feasible, given tentative information architecture plans.

Approach:

A lot of work had already gone into planning, so we didn't want to reinvent the wheel. The experience map was therefore kept at a high level, showing the main steps a guest or hotel employee would take before, during, and after the stay. Pain points were added, then grouped, then turned into solution ideas for the area of the map we decided to focus on (the in-stay experience). Those solution ideas were then articulated as user stories, and formed the basis for all sketching activities, some of which was done in small teams. Ultimately, we were able to combine finalized sketches into task flows, based on their user stories, which informed the design of the prototype as well as the structure of our testing session on the final day. At the end of every day, additional stakeholders were invited to join us for a review of ideas produced, and in some cases, vote on ideas.

Outcome:

After three members of the Slalom team worked together to prototype the solution in a day, we tested ideas with five target end users in 1:1 interviews. Trends in feedback became immediately obvious, making it clear which pieces of functionality to modify or retain. Curiously, some elements that were contentious and long debated amongst stakeholders proved to be not an issue for actual users. In other cases, new ideas were raised that we'd previously not considered. Overall, we were able to come away with highly specific recommendations for subsequent prototype improvement, with many core concepts validated. Because all design ideas originated from stakeholder and user participants, the client really "owned" the final solution, so there was a fundamental sense of excitement, rather than compromise or resignation.