phase 3

Solution Shaping

Now that we’ve prioritized the ideas, we will group the ideas together to make different idea combos to morph into different solution shapes. 

Outputs + Deliverables:

  • Affinity Mapping

  • SME Review + Feedback

  • Storyboarding

Affinity Mapping

Affinity mapping is like bringing order to the chaos for all those ideas you all just generated. Imagine you've got a bunch of sticky notes, each with a different idea or insight. Instead of letting them float around aimlessly, you gather them up and start grouping them based on similarities.

It's like you're saying, "Hey, these notes here are all about user feedback, and these are about design improvements." You create these natural clusters or 'affinities' of ideas. This process helps you see patterns, themes, and connections that might not have been obvious.

And the best part? It's a fantastic way to get your team on the same page, foster collaboration, and turn a brainstorm into actionable insights.

Feedback Review with SMEs

Before spending significant time on how we think about the problem space, you should bring in Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to the conversation. Typically, this is for roughly an hour to 90 minutes. In some cases, it can be appropriate to have SMEs join the rest of the Spike as additional support to participants as they are fleshing out the product strategy.

Storyboarding

Storyboarding is like sketching out the plot of a blockbuster movie but for your product's experience! 🎬 Imagine you have a sequence of key scenes or steps in a user experience. You bring it to life visually instead of writing it out in boring text.

Picture this: You've got a series of frames or boxes; in each one, you draw or illustrate a moment in the user's journey. It's like creating a comic strip that tells the story of how someone interacts with your product or service.

Storyboarding is not only a creative and fun process but also super effective for getting everyone on your team on the same page. Plus, it's a fantastic way to catch potential issues or opportunities in your design flow before they become real problems.