Converge: Choose the right path

During Converge our goal is to take all of the possibilities that we have exposed over the past two days and hone in on a single version of the prototype that we will build tomorrow.

Throughout Converge, the team should be thinking about the bigger assumptions that are the most important to test. This should lead to a discussion about what type of prototype will do the best job of validating or invalidating it. Activities such as Assumption / Test Table and Final Storyboard should help the team engage this conversation.

Activities for Converge

Identify Conflicts

Throughout Diverge there should have been many conflicting ideas. A conflict is a place where there are two or more different approaches to solving the same problem. Conflicting approaches are helpful because they illuminate possible choices for your product.

Assumption / Test Table

Review all of the Assumptions that have been collected over the course of the sprint. Decide a plan to test them and decide how to determine from the test if it is valid or not.

Back Burner Board

As a group review all the Back burner ideas. Document the ones that are still applicable and throw away any that aren't.

Final Storyboard

In this case the Storyboard should be a team effort and should focus on what the team will be prototyping. This should be done on a whiteboard so everyone can see it. Start by drawing a comic book frame for each single action in the critical path. Don't worry too much about layout or design details. Those can be figured out later. One person should be drawing but they shouldn't be the one figuring everything out. This should be a discussion between the whole sprint team.

3-12-3

3-12-3 is a good way to generate ideas in a big group and then start to converge them down. It is great to do after the Google Ventures Diverge Cycle when there seems to be more ideas and no really strong direction forward.

Example Schedule for Converge

Case Study

Because Great Engagements is an entirely new product, considering a customer’s first encounter and reaction to the product is very important in terms of understanding positioning and how to successfully communicate with potential customers. From all of the discovery we have done over the past two days, we feel strongly about differentiating ourselves in the market by capturing the customer with an emotional and inspirational AirBnb like venue discovery experience.

To test if we can successfully do this, we decided on a very image heavy layout that suggests beautiful wedding themes and experiences to get the potential customer thinking aspirationally about their wedding experience. We also decided to preset the potential customer with a madlib style venue search form that we hope will encourage the customer to get excited about starting the discovery process.