SIR Platform 2.0

A coalition of Dutch governmental institutions sought a novel online platform to bolster and endorse their startup innovation program. I was tasked with orchestrating a workshop to delineate diverse needs and explore potential directions for this platform's development.

Initially, the plan was to adopt a user-validated brainstorming approach, like a (Google) Design Sprint, aimed at generating and validating various platform concepts. However, conversations preceding the workshop revealed uncertainty regarding whether to develop the platform from scratch or opt for an existing market solution.

Given the potentially laborious nature of market consultations, we opted to leverage Journey Maps and User Stories—an approach I had experience with—rather than crafting extensive requirement lists. This method would make the market consultation more user-centric, tangible, and engaging. The idea surfaced: What if we used a Design Sprint to craft a set of User Stories? This strategy would allow us to explore potential alternatives during a market consultation while gaining deeper insights into user needs, aligning expectations, and fostering creative and innovative ideas.

Consequently, we organized a two-day workshop, combining elements of agile scrum and design sprint methodologies. The workshop's culmination yielded a clearly prioritized list of user stories meticulously aligned with a journey map. In this article, Leveraging Agile Scrum in Design Sprints, I delve into the workshop's setup in greater detail.