Day one grounded us in goals, risks, and the reality of expert users
We started by defining the goals, success metrics, and risks of the project. We then interviewed Sappi's expert users to understand their current process and what they actually needed from a tool. Based on that, we mapped out what the big picture experience could look like.
Two days of sketching and voting gave us a prototype direction to commit to
Tuesday started with lightning demos of relevant solutions from the world. We then ran through a series of sketching exercises, building up to final solution sketches by end of day. On Wednesday we discussed and voted on which direction to take, landing on a merge of two sketches. That became the storyboard we used to plan the prototype.
Testing showed users were aligned on needing the tool, but not yet on what it should do
On Friday we tested the prototype with users. The feedback made clear that even though we were heading in the right direction, users had quite different ideas about what they actually wanted once they could see something concrete. Sappi decided they still needed the tool, but that they first needed to align internally on what the core requirements should be.
The sprint gave Sappi a clear roadmap and the user insights to move forward with confidence
Throughout the week Sappi got a more concrete understanding of their internal needs. The sprint did not produce a final solution, but it gave them the direction, the open questions, and the user insights needed to make informed decisions about what to build next.