Thant's awesome. Thank you. Spot on!

uuuu good one!! I worked with the IRS in Mexico and build their whole new communications ecosystem in 2012. The answer is yes, and no. Here's how my experience went. Yes, the agency should/must use design sprints. No, you should not use it with the government agency's staff. (unless they fully commit to the sprint principles and guidelines). Government agencies are a big wooly mammoth. They generally act and work on a tight budget and tight time frames. It is very, very, common for them to take control of the conversation and of the agenda due to so much workload, internal controls, and meetings. Their key driver is budget efficiency. Working with the IRS the goal was to "make things easier for tax payers" because it was what the customer satisfaction controls showed. But the real objective for the IRS was to collect more taxes and one of the ways was making it easier for the user with less steps. You and the agency must address this "hidden challenge" and use the design sprint to create behaviors that lead to your client's objectives. (What are the objectives?: leads, traffic, impressions, time spend on website) Agency must use the design sprint methodology to produce and validate mockups to be presented to the client. Government offices really like when you come up with something to show them quickly so they can "give you input" and feel that they have contributed. My recommendations is to have a series of engagements with them to: - You need to have all communication materials, messages, pics, and relevant data from the current site as well as official communications policies and procedures. This is non-negotiable. If you already have it, good. If the government client does not provide the project will suffer. - the team from the agency must include a copywriter(s), visual/graphic designer, UX, account manager/project leader, and data specialist/analyst at the least. - Align and frame the problem (you as a facilitator, the agency, and the government stakeholders). Once you have defined the design challenge with everybody onboard, maybe even crafting a long-term goal with everybody... - Start the design sprint process with the agency. You can invite 1 or 2 members from the client's side (but not mandatory. They will most likely welcome the idea of not having to be present at every stage) - Your process should be iterative. Produce and validate 2 to 3 mockups for validating with end users. - With feedback from the testing phase, now produce 2 prototypes to present to the government office but do so with a facilitated agenda to receive feedback. Maybe the retrogram works here. Or a general retrospective agenda: what worked, what didn't, what could be done better, and finally client's feedback. Have them choose one of the prototypes which you will use to create a refined version that incorporates the feedback you received. - go back and iterate with the agency's team to produce an MVP for an unpublished site. - Facilitate a meeting with your client, their bosses to present, sell the product and have feedback. Plan this beforehand with the client, the agency and your self so you go in as a team. - You need to do this in order to avoid, as much as you can, the dreaded words "cool, I love it but top management needs to approve this"

@Chris Muench any time. Let me know if it helps. Just a side note: at that moment i has head of planning of an advertising agency and the only one with experience on facilitation and sprints. I had to put a lot of effort working with my agency colleagues to drive them away of trying to pull any heroic stunts on the project. The more they add, the more complex platforms become, the higher the cost that reduces agency's gross margin and profits. (Government very rarely pays por "on top of" expenses. So be very mindful of extravagant add-ons or working outside of scope. Unless it is explicitly requested by client in which case the agency must notify that it is not included in the original budget but will be happy to quote and issue for approval by the client). This projects give huge amounts of exposure to agencies so they too are entangled in the "ego" game.

Such a good webinar. I'm curious about what happens to initiatives after you leave a client's office.

Hot topic!! Even though I'm very keen on using tech for pretty much everything this is one where I still hold back on the value of personal interactions. And still any AI or AI-powered DS will be as good as its input, and the accurate (or best) definition of a problem. This includes the strategic alignment with strategy and how well the company's structure executes innovation once the AI engine is off duty to deliver value to people. For now I'll position my self on the AI-powered team. I think people-AI collaboration is of so much value.

hey @Alexander Kostadinov check this out https://www.futureailab.com/

On question #1 I would say the founder gets directly involved in the recruitment of customers. It's always nice to hear from the boss. On this, if they already have customers, target them first to get insight on the problem-solution fit. Understand what's working, what's not and even what other option they might be looking into or why would they keep doing business with you. On a second tier try getting some users form their competitors looking into their communities or social media profiles.

On question #2 my advice is to get involved. Specially to remove bias from the screening and interview process. If they don't feel comfortable, sell them the idea of co-lab on the insight finding process. In that way you focus on keeping the process on track, developing a powerful interview guide and moderating the process; for your founders their task is to write, note, listen. Drop any q's on this if you need further info.