This week saw the start of our first sprint - Discover. This stage is all about finding out as much as possible about the problem area and trying to make sure we don't miss anything. A crucial part of this stage is talking with users and stakeholders to see things from their point of view and give us an understanding of the whole process. Over the five days, we spoke to 5 different people and gathered a lot of information. The next step will be going through this and extracting all the important insights.

What we did

Set out research goals. Our overall research goals helped us define the bigger picture of what we wanted to find out this week through our interviews.

Planned discussion guides for users interviews. Using our research goals we wrote discussion guides for each interview that would dig deeper into the areas we wanted to know about. We made sure our questions were open so the interviewees could really open up about the subjects.

Carried out interviews with users and stakeholders. Over the week we held interviews with stakeholders and users.

What we learnt

Carrying out interviews and asking questions that get deep into the real issues. We learnt about the importance of asking questions in interviews that don’t lead to yes/no answers. Through doing this we could get our interviewees to open up more and tell us information that we wouldn't have even known to ask about.

Not everyone’s priorities align. Whether it was between users and stakeholders, or just between stakeholders, it has become clear that not everyone holds the same views. This is great in terms of gathering a range of feedback, but we are also aware that it could lead to some contention when choosing a direction.

The transparency of Made by Many. Over the week we have stood in company meetings and taken part in separate meetings of the different disciplines at MxM. One thing that has stood out to us is how transparent the company is. It’s fascinating to see that everyone at every level in the company is kept informed and given the opportunity to take part in these conversations.