Seize a potential market opportunity with actual data and a tangible product vision.The Sprint also enabled the team to observe how fans would react to the suite of features offered to help them to create 'their Take', measure their ease of consumption and understand if downloading the app would be something they would actively do.
Michael & Liz defined the challenge and we kicked off the Sprint with the Expert Interview so we could get to the bottom of exactly what HMWs would outline this epic challenge. Of the many that we collected, we voted on the top ones so we could add them to our map and use them a little later on.
To ensure we were aligned on our shared north star, we defined our optimistic Long-Term Goal: What would the Takes platform look like in 2 Years’ Time? We then had to dial up the pessimism a little and think, what are the biggest potential blockers in achieving our goal? To make sure we were headed in the right direction, we defined three Sprint Questions or hypotheses that we wanted to prove or get a clear 'yes' from our user tests.
We roughly framed our challenge with a short exercise (User Journey) to determine what the most important steps might be for our Map! Because the Takes challenge is about attracting creators from different platforms and create "FOMO" feeling, we focused on the steps there to immerse our potential user's experience, this also helped to align everyone and to not focus on so much detail. We highlighted the area that will be the focus of this week's prototype with a green marker.
The next step was the ideation phase. We each created an individual concept based on our interpretation of the guiding principles. which would offer a potential solution to our challenge. The chosen sketches would help the Sprint team answer the 3 Sprint Questions. Which ideas do we want to test with users?
Now was the time to finally look at the concepts we created, and start making some tough decisions: Which ideas do we want to test with users? We started off by individually looking at each concept and creating some "heat" around ideas with a lot of red dots. After everybody had a chance to look at each of the concepts, each participant then had to narrow it down to just one concept or feature of a concept: The best way to think of this was to position an idea with the highest potential to give us the most positive answers on our Sprint Questions? The team then pitched their chosen concept back to to Michael, our Decider… who in the end picked the two chosen concepts that would become the base for our storyboard.
After making the hardest choices of the week, we went on to create a detailed Storyboard of what would happen in the prototype we will show to user testers. The Storyboard helps the Takes team to really understand what we have to build, and our team to know exactly what to expect of the prototype.
The next stop was prototype - after 8 hours, we managed to develop the first version of the prototype. However, creating a week-long dummy may not accurately reflect the final product experience, as some features may not make complete sense yet. Nonetheless, it serves as a useful tool to prompt our users to tell us what they want.
At this stage, we realized that the digital prototype wasn’t enough. We needed to create the actual experience to showcase how it could revolutionize the way sports fans engage with their favourite teams and events. This was important to attract potential investors.
Aaand finally - it’s the Interview Day. We have tested with five NFL fans based in US. The more critique at this stage, the better. Remember the aim of this stage is to test the validity of the product, not its usability. You know how people say 'break it to make it' well thats exactly what we're doing in our Sprints! These were the scores from first round of user testing, when asked.
"It will be great for fan bases and users to discuss those important sport moments. A platform that caters to those key moments in the game while also keeping the community engaged 24/7 is unprecedented and something that Twitter cannot currently achieve."
NFL Fan
After our Sprint, Takes' Founders were equipped with both bulletproof business validation and a prototype from the first user test! This was a great addition to the already thought through pitch that helped them secure the first round of funding for the MVP execution phase. The Sprint enabled the Takes team to have something tangible that they can use to communicate what experience they want to create. This resulted in a successful pre-seed raise of $1.6 million.
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