Day 5 (6/23) Reflections:

Day 5 gave us a chance to really synthesize all the information we gathered from the past four days. We dumped all our findings onto our post-its and began synthesizing.  First we learned about the synthesis process. The ultimate goal of the synthesis process is to come up with a Point Of View (POV) statement so we can focus and frame our challenge.  This will also help the team make decisions and fuel future brainstorms.

There are a number of synthesis methods—these are just a few:

• Synthesis Methods
  • Empathy Map
    • Pick one of the people you interviewed
    • Find what they said, do, think and feel
  • 2 X 2
    • Build an intersection
    • Define the axis’s
    • Place your information along the axis’s
  • Journey Map
    • Pick an artifact/process
    • Make a timeline of its life
    • See what needs, insights are discovered
  • Grouping (to find patterns)
    •  Group users in as many was as you can
    • Keep a list of the groupings

• After synthesizing you want to try and define your POV through three methods:
  • 3 kinds of POV statements
    • Madlib—put together a sentence with your use
    • Want ad—similar to a personal’s ad
    • Metaphor

• Ultimately you want your POV to have a User, Need and Insight:
• User + Need + Insight
  • User—Empathic Language—“they are…” (not imposing our POV)
  • Need—Deep emotional need, a real need, a need, not a solution (want the need to be a “verb”)
    • Use need
    • Usability need
    • Meaning need
  • Insight—Something  we uncover
    • Can come from anywhere
    • Contradictions between what they say and what they do and what they say about what they do
      • Want to try and resolve some of these days