We kicked off the project with two design sprints. During the first sprint, we both validated and invalidated some of the features when testing the prototype. After reviewing all of our notes at the end of the sprint, we decided it would be best to conduct another design sprint to build upon what we learned from the first sprint.
After the second sprint, we felt more confident in our solution for the problem. We started building a product focusing on duplicating the social events that were already happening around the company and enhancing them. We gathered together the main categories of conversations that employees were having and sought to amplify them. These became our post types and allowed us to better deliver content that was interesting to each individual user.
The core product team was small, consisting of one designer and developer from thoughtbot as well as one Product Manager on the client team. This allowed us to move fast and test the application more iteratively. It also allowed for less overhead communication and led to more fruitful conversations in-person as well as on Trello and Slack.
These conversations where enhanced by using job stories. Jobs stories allowed us to concentrate on the users' needs instead of a specific feature set. Because we used jobs stories, our team was more empathetic to our users.
As a [persona/role] I want to [action] so that [outcome/benefit].
We added some personality to the application by adding animated gifs in the least likely of places. This made the platform more fun and engaging and not just another forum.
