Playbook
How Might We
'How Might We' is an exercise to help the team take notes quickly. The twist is that every note is a question, starting with 'How Might We'.
Why should we do this exercise?
Phrasing notes as questions will help to avoid the team coming up with solutions to problems, instead creating oppurtunities and challenges that we can generate ideas for later. Also the notes are easier to understand becuase they share the same format.
Instructions
'How Might We' (HMW) notes are best taken while listening to a person speaking.
- Create a new note. Write or type the letters "HMW" first.
- Wait.
- When you hear something interesting, thought-provoking, or challenging convert it into a question.
- Repeat.
Once you're done listening gather all of your notes together ready to be sorted.
Examples
If you're listening to somebody speak and they mention that: "It's hard for people to gather the documents they need to register on the app". You may see HMW notes like:
- HMW reduce the documents needed to register?
- HMW structure the requirements to register better?
- HMW allow folks to finish registering after they already started?
Sorting and prioritising
Estimated time: 30 minutes
With all HMW notes collected, sort them into meaningful categories as a team:
- Ask the team to gather all of their How Might We notes in a single place.
- Set a timer for 10 minutes.
- Ask the team to begin grouping all the notes into categories.
- After 10 minutes add more time if the groups aren't looking well defined enough.
- Once the groups are clearer start asking if any straggler questions could be added to larger groups.
- Ask the group to give the groups titles.
- Give 3 votes to each person, encourage them to take the time to read the HMWs, then vote for the ones that they feel are the most useful or important.
- Gived the decider an additional 3 votes to add to the board.
Tips
Copy your most highly voted notes onto your Critical Path later. To make it easier to choose areas to focus on for the rest of the sprint.