USCVterb
School of Engineering Department of Computer Science
USCSchool of Cinematic Arts
Rapid Ideation: Bringing big ideas to life fast! Bernadette Irizarry & Amanda Hoevest @bernirizarry, @aigalosangeles
What We’ll Share Today 1. Simple technique called Lightning Decision Making. 2. No we did not invent it–but we are super glad someone did. 3. Use this structured process to let your creativity run free! 4. Method is based on processes developed by Jake Knapp,
John Zeratsky, and Braden Kowitz his friends at Google Ventures. Jake Knapp @jakek
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@bernirizarry, @aigalosangeles
Google Sprint
Available on Amazon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2vSQPh6MCE
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@bernirizarry, @aigalosangeles
Google Ventures Has Great Resources Great PDF with Checklists 
 and guidelines for product research
Great guides for doing Sprints Day by Day
 http://www.gv.com/sprint/
https://library.gv.com/user-research-quick-and-dirty-1fcfa54c91c4
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Try this for future projects!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2vSQPh6MCE
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Is the only way to do this‌No!
http://www.servicedesigntools.org/
Great resources and techniques for making meetings and product creation better: https://www.amazon.com/Design-Thinking-Process-
 Methods-3rd/dp/194080549X
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@bernirizarry, @aigalosangeles
But you don’t have 5 days… https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeB_OpLspKJGiKv1CYkWFFw
© 2016, Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, and Braden Kowitz
Jonathan Courtney @Jicecream 7
@bernirizarry, @aigalosangeles
AJ&Smart
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeB_OpLspKJGiKv1CYkWFFw
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@bernirizarry, @aigalosangeles
Lightning Decision Jam 
 45 Minutes
What You’ll Need 1. Post-its (Two Colors) 2. Voting Dots 3. Sharpies 4. Time (Your mobile phone will work) 5. Music (Your choice, I like Cafe Con Leche on Spotify)
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@bernirizarry, @aigalosangeles
Team: Things to Remember 1. No-one knows everything. 2. Being open is a HUGE part of being on a team. 3. Language matters (you’ll see that with How Might We). 4. Start at the End (imagine the outcome you want).
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@bernirizarry, @aigalosangeles
1 Facilitator: Things to Remember 1. Ask permission (with great responsibility‌) 2. ABC - Always be Capturing 3. There are no stupid questions - ask the obvious 4. Take care of people! 5. Decide and Move On
1 From Sprint:Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days
Š 2016, Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, and Braden Kowitz
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@bernirizarry, @aigalosangeles
Ready to
 Give It A Try?
Organize into your groups Before we start, select: A moderator to share what happened in your pod • Make sure you have a sharpie and post-its • You have some dots •
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@bernirizarry, @aigalosangeles
25–45 min
Mechanics 1. Start with Your Problem or Challenge 2. Present Problem Back to your Team 3. Vote on the Most Pressing Challenge 4. Reframe that Prioritized Challenges 5. Solution Against One Challenge (quantity) 6. Vote on the Best Solution (6 dots) 7. Order Your Solutions 8. Identify Effort (Higher Lower) 9. Action Items
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Exercise Mechanics 1
2
3
Start by writing the problems or challenges, 1 per post-it
Present each post it back to your team
(7 Minutes) Avoid talking with teammates, time for that later
(No more than 4 Min. per person) Explain it briefly, team listens, avoid tangents
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Vote on the most pressing problems to solve (6 Minutes) Each person gets 2 dots.
After voting arrange post-its in priority order (30 seconds)
@bernirizarry, @aigalosangeles
Exercise Mechanics (continued) 4
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6
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Vote on the solutions
After voting moderator arranges post-its in priority order
HMW
Reframe problem as a How Might We Statement. (6 Minutes) Moderator writes these statements as quickly as possible, still prioritized.
Solution against 
 top 2-3 priorities (No more than 7 Minutes) Write these down 
 by yourself
(10 Minutes) 6 dots per person (okay to put multiple on same post-it.)
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(30 seconds)
@bernirizarry, @aigalosangeles
Exercise Mechanics (continued) 8 SWEET SPOT
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High Impact SWEET SPOT
Easy to Implement
Difficult to Implement Low Impact
Place the prioritized solutions on the impact map
Create list of tasks to execute.
(6 Minutes) Remember the Sweet Spot, high impact & low effort.
(5 Minutes) Use team expertise to determine effort that can be completed in the timebox. 18
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Impact Map HIGH IMPACT
EASY TO IMPLEMENT
DIFFICULT TO 
 IMPLEMENT
LOW IMPACT
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Remember to Take Care of People
Review and Interpret What did we observe? • Anything surprising? interesting? Clusters? • What was the toughest to agree on? • How could/should this inform product strategy? •
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@bernirizarry, @aigalosangeles
Get a Refresher on the 
 Lighting Decision Jam from Jonathan Courtney
https://medium.muz.li/a-super-simple-exercise-for-solving-almost-any-product-design-challenge-f9e6c0019d7d
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Q&A 23
@bernirizarry, @aigalosangeles
Thanks!