FWD50 Extras: Practical applications of speculative design in service delivery

[00:00:00] Farwa Farshori: Welcome everyone. Thank you for joining us for a speculative design sprint workshop. We are team TOAD  totally on board to advance digital. My name is Farwa. I am the product manager for team TOAD. With me today, I have Thomas Hoy and Neil Mispelaar. Thomas is our lead designer and Neil is our lead developer. We currently work with code for Canada. Code for Canada is a nonprofit that places, product teams within the government. We help teams in the government with digital transformation. So we started our journey with employment and social development Canada about seven months ago. And when we did, we were given a challenge on how to improve the vision for one of our products. So that led us down the [00:01:00] road of speculative design and through that process, we created something called the speculative design sprint. So who is the speculative design sprint really for? Well, if you were a team embarking on a new project or seeking a fresh take at an existing program. Or a team that would benefit from a less reactive, more reflective problem solving approach or are interested in moving from a big idea to a user tested prototype in the course of two weeks, this workshop is for you. Next slide please. So ideally, the speculative design sprint is Two weeks long, but given the time constraints that we have, we only have an hour and a half with you. And it is an intensive process. What we’ve decided to do is do a little bit of a top as a kind style of workshop, where we give you a little bit of everything that we’ve done, and hopefully show you what you can use to do your own workshop and sprint. At the [00:02:00] end of this workshop, you will have access to a speculative design sprint playbook. Which has a lot more information and a lot more information about the intensive process. And now I’m going to pass it over to Neil to talk about what speculative design sprint looks like. 

Neil Mispelaar: Thanks Farwa. Yeah, so, when we, as far as I mentioned, when we landed at a ESDC, we needed to get some vision. We need to get some alignment around vision of a product. And so what we did is we took the speculative design sprint and we mashed it together. Sorry, we took the standard design sprint and we mashed it together with some speculative design sprint principles and  we came out with the following.  So we created an eight day two hour a day. So over a 16 hour process we took this challenge around building a vision.  And we put together multidisciplinary teams from the group [00:03:00] that we were working with. And we ended that two weeks with a user tested with a build prototype that we got in front of users to learn as much as we could about the product, slide please. And so our first day, when we got everybody together, we did a lot of ideation, a lot of putting down  ideas to paper, slide please. The second day we took those ideas and we drew them out. So we did a lot of exciting sketching and miro boarding. The third day we got in some experts to critique our designs and to really go through the pros and cons of each solution sketch, slide please. And then the fourth day, sorry. At the end of the third day we got in one executive to pick a solution that they felt was the most promising and that we would expand on. And so we parked all of the other great ideas. We picked focused on one, and then we created a storyboard for that [00:04:00] one, one idea that the executive chose. Slide, please. And then day five and six was prototyping. Now that we had that storyboard, we really went off to try to build this thing as best as we could, slide please. And then once we had our thing built we got in front of a handful of users, got them to test it out and then learnt from them how our product was received. Slide, please. So that’s what we did at ESDC. And I’m going to invite Thomas now to talk to you about the benefits of speculative design or why to speculate. 

Thomas Hoy: Thanks. So I’m going to spend a little bit of time on the theoretical side of things before we dig in and get our hands dirty with some activities. But I want to talk about why we chose to use speculative design at all. You know, why embrace this sort of odd emerging design discipline, rather than going with some of the more [00:05:00] tried, tested and true methods that are out there.For instance, say, you know, a common design process that you’ll see in UX design. So I’m a UX designer, myself. This is my, my discipline. And so I can tell you that in this very typical model of approaching design, there’s a lot of emphasis on figuring out what the problem is. So if you know, if you’re familiar with this diagram, you know that When you’re halfway through the process, you’ve identified the problem. That’s that’s the first half. So there’s this huge emphasis on identifying a problem space in a common user experience design methodology. So in practice, what that can look like, you know, for us, it could be, you know, let’s look at ESDC’s programs holistically. Let’s identify the program with the lowest client sort of client satisfaction rate. In our case, that’s employment insurance. Let’s identify the channel with the lowest client satisfaction rate. So specialized call centers, let’s identify the demographic with the lowest satisfaction rates. So those self [00:06:00] identifying as having a disability. And what that leaves you with is, is what we call a possible problem statement. How might we improve the call center experience for clients who self identify as having a disability and who are seeking EI? And so what that really is, is a vision of the future based on the problems of the present. We were inspired to go beyond this sort of reactive approach to problem solving by our DJ Pia Andrew’s  in one of her blog posts, she writes, if we only iterate away from pain, how will we design, let alone move towards a better future. And as we thought about this, we found this to be very persuasive and tricky. And yeah, a very important point, but the question sort of remained like, okay, so how can we bring in some of these ideas. So where UX design focuses on a problem space, speculative design has a focus on what’s called a preferable space. [00:07:00] So speculative design, typically you’ll look at a range of possible futures. And of course we can’t predict the future. It can be all kinds of different things. So starting from the very widest edges of those triangles there, we see that there are a broad range of possible futures within that. There are some more plausible futures within that. There are probable futures and we’re really trying to isolate. Those ones, which are preferable, those are kind of the spaces that we are trying to design to get ourselves towards. And that space is something we call a protopia. This is a very important concept and it’s actually going to be the subject of our first group activity. So,what is a protopia it’s not a utopia. It’s not a perfect world. But it is a better world than today. I like to say, imagine that next year was better than this year. Hard to think how it couldn’t be in our case. And then imagine that the next year was [00:08:00] better than the year before that. And that continued for 50 years until the year 2071. That would be a protopia. So to illustrate this concept. Also, you know, for us, we are trying to imagine what good government services look like in this protopia and to illustrate that concept for the participants of our sprint, we put together this little video to sort of paint that picture. I’m going to share that with you now. 

Video: The place, I don’t know, the year, 2071, the state of humanity naturally pretty good. The 2070s  have been defined as the new golden age to be sure things are not that perfect. But year over year, things have been getting better since the dark period of the Coronavirus. Progress has been made in every field [00:09:00] of human endeavor, including social cooperation, environmental sustainability, and scientific and technological advances. It is the latter both categories that interests us today in the mid 2040s, a new technological medium called hyper digital technology was discovered its benefits were obvious to humankind. And it proliferated madly. Hyper digital technology is distinguished by the following attributes. It isn’t this brave new world that our design sprint will take place. We will be helping our clients make their way for this new golden age, with all the tools at our disposal. Good luck to us all.

Thomas Hoy: Awesome. So I hope you enjoyed that. That is something that we showed our sprint participants before they embarked on the speculative design sprint. And it brings us to our first [00:10:00] group activity. So I think we’re going to break into two breakout rooms and we’re going to, we’re going to do a little icebreaker. We’re going to get to know the folks who are in the room with us. So we’ll introduce ourselves you’ll say, you know, your name, maybe what you do and. Then trying to answer the question. What would, what would a 50 years optimistic future look like in my field?  What does a protopia look like for, for a UX designer, for instance? So mine would go something like I’m Thomas Hoy, I’m a user experience designer. And I think that in a protopia people, people wouldn’t be interacting with just a little phones and screens and computers, but rather they would be interacting with a whole host of objects because now almost all of the objects in the space that they create for themselves are computers that they can interact with in a much more natural way So that might be the way that I would answer the question. What does a protopia look like in my field? So now I’m going to invite Farwa to break us [00:11:00] out into breakout rooms, where we can meet each other. Try to answer this question and, and get ourselves in the mindset of a protopia that 50 years optimistic future.

Farwa Farshori: So when we started speculative design sprint on day one, what we start with is mapping, trying to start with creating an ideating. But before we do that, I really want to set the stage. Who are we working with? What are we planning on doing in the next hour together I have with you? So I’d like to introduce you to Amelia. Amelia  Is a newcomer. She’s a climate refugee from the Philippines. She’s arrived in Toronto with her two daughters, six months ago. And upon arrival, she found work in a local shop. Recently, the shop closed leaving Amelia unemployed and seeking work. Amelia is overwhelmed and confused. She speaks very little English and she wants guidance from others who have been through a similar situation. So our goal today is to help [00:12:00] Amelia and see through speculative design, what can we create to help Amelia and guide her? So as we get into the speculative design world, I know we started talking a little bit about what protopia is and what we imagine our own protopia to be. But I also want us to take a step back and think about what existed 50 years ago. So 50 years ago we did not have virtual reality. So this past weekend at my cousin’s house, I was able to put on a VR headset and play video games. If I had to play video games about 50 years ago, I would physically have to go to an arcade to play on a controller. So you can imagine having the comfort of VR from your home. To we’ve gotten here from having to go to an arcade store. 50 [00:13:00] years ago, we also didn’t have DVDs or Blu-rays we had VCRs. So the technology has changed quite a bit. So now we want to think about, well, what is technology going to be like 50 years from now and technology that can help Amelia. So let’s start thinking about what if statements. So we’re going to try creating what if statements to be like, well, what if Amelia had X, Y, and Z? How could we help her and to help us get through these what if statements we’re going to look at attributes of hyper digital technology. So as we mentioned before, we imagine hyper digital technology to be the technology of the future to help guide us. We’ve created a couple of attributes and we’re going to use these attributes to help define our solution potentially. So one of these or our ideas, so one of these is affective. One of the attributes is [00:14:00] affective. So what does that mean? So affective means observing and responding to your emotional state. So basically creating something that can detect human emotion based on facial expression and body language. So what can we do that, what if Amelia was able to have her. Emotional state observed. What kind of response would it get her? What would help observe that her emotional state? What would the response be? Let’s start thinking along those lines. Next we have agentive. So this helps act on the user’s behalf. So these are often things that perform tedious activities they can perform any time or nonstop example of this would be like self-driving cars. So again, what if [00:15:00] what if Amelia was able to have something that could act on the user’s behalf? What would that look like? So that’s what our, what if statement would be, so what if Amelia and then we have adaptive. So adaptive, self adaptive algorithms serving individual needs. So what this is is that flexible technology can change its functions based on context. So we’re looking at what if Amelia had something that could help self adapt to her needs? So if she wished for something, it would provide it to her. We also have anticipatory, so experiences that are one step ahead. So it anticipates the needs of Amelia. So what if we had something that, what if Amelia was able to recognize what if Amelia was able to have something that could recognize her [00:16:00] patterns and provide her with the support she needed ahead of time? What would that look like? We then have smart things. A post computer landscape as most objects are now computers. So we’re thinking of things such as being able to interact with everything around you have a voice or a Siri to talk to you at all times, let you know information. So what if Amelia was in a post computer landscape as most objects are now computers, what would that look like? And finally we have post pixel interfaces. So interfaces that are not limited to screens and tapping, but are voice-based gestures AR and VR environment. So what if Amelia had access to a VR or AR environment, what would that look like? So these are some of the conversations we’re going to try and get and ideas that we’re going to try and ideate upon. So what I’m going to do is we’re going to get [00:17:00] into breakout rooms. You can. There are stickies in each little box, your solution, or your idea could ideally be. More than one have more than one attribute. It could be adapt affective and agented, it could be adaptive, but we just want to get as many ideas as we possibly can about what if Amelia statement? So what are all the, what ifs we can think of? What if Amelia had access to XYZ? What if I, that was able to do a, B, C, and D. Okay. So I’m going to move it into breakoutrooms. 

Thomas Hoy: Okay. So that was step one. Is everybody back? Can I get a thumbs up? Are we all here now? Great. That was step one. Great work, everyone. I was, I was really impressed with what I saw. In both rooms, I had a chance to look at both boards. So step two is we’re going to get into that drawing. Remember how I promise you, you are [00:18:00] going to need a piece of paper, it’s time to to pick it up now. And so take a piece of paper if you’re on camera, show it off to me so that I know for sure that you’re following along, because we are going to ask you to eventually upload an image of your drawing. Because that’s going to be part of the the critique. So you can take that and you can fold your piece of paper in half. It doesn’t matter which way you fold it, but fold it in half, fold it in half. Again, doesn’t really matter which way, fold it in half again, and finally fold it in half a final time. So three folds. And when you unfold it, you get. Eight segments. And this is going to launch us into an activity called crazy eights. So I’m gonna show you an example of what crazy eights looks like. This beautiful drawing [00:19:00] was done by Farwa. This is crazy four she had, she just didn’t half of one, but basically I’m going to give you 30 seconds to draw a picture and we’re going to do that for four consecutive minutes. So by the end of it, you’re going to have four really quick. Really crappy drawings. And the reason that we’re doing this well, there’s a couple of reasons really. We’re trying to get past that first idea syndrome. We tend to have an idea and then kind of stick with it. It’s I think it’s an, a human bias. So by picking up a pen, using a different part of our brains, we are going to try to explore as many ideas as we can. This is a really difficult exercise because 30 seconds goes up and it’s like, okay, onto the next idea. What the heck am I going to do I’m out of ideas. Well, your, this is your idea pile. It’s your miro board that you and your group came up with. So as you run out of creative thoughts, glance up at your miro board, what’s on here take in a few words. If that sparks an idea, start drawing. You only got 30 seconds. Get [00:20:00] something down. Is that, is that generally clear? What we’re, what the activity is? Are there any questions? If there are no questions, I am going to start the first timer and invite you to begin your first crazy eight. Now. And that’s time. Next drawing. [00:21:00] 10 seconds. Next drawing. 10 seconds. That’s time, next drawing [00:22:00] Okay. Is this your fourth one Farwa, will you give me a thumbs up if I’m still counting correctly? Is this your fourth drawing? Yeah. Great. 10 seconds. And that’s time that’s halfway through. It’s hard. Right? You got to keep generating ideas, no time for good ideas. You just need [00:23:00] Ideas. Time. That’s time. And I think this is your last one, am I correct? Or do you have two more? Yeah, that’s the last one. Okay. I feel like I’m your, your gym coach. It’s like last one, guys. You can do it. Gym coach shows you how much I go to the gym, personal trainer. [00:24:00] All right. That’s a wrap. That’s crazy eights. How do you feel is your brain tired. Yeah, it’s really tricky. It’s really hard. And it’s a part of our brains. I don’t think we use that often. So hopefully you surprised yourself if you did this really well, you came up with some ideas on the spot that you hadn’t had before we began the activity, and hopefully you, you, you know, you’ve auditioned to them in your brain a little bit. You’ve given them a chance. We are going to draw again. Because drawing is, is really fun. Also because visual communication is a really important part of design and this is a speculative design sprint. So the next thing we’re going to do is we’re going to begin an activity, we call Comicon. So you’re going to look at your eight drawings that you did. So your, your messy eight drawings, and you’re going to turn it into a comic book strip type of thing. This is an example of what that might look [00:25:00] like. So what we really want to do with this activity is explore that idea that you think is the best from your crazy eights, identify which one you’re most excited about. And then break that out into a comic strip so that we can look how it might play out over time. And what I’m going to encourage you to do this is for bonus points. Is if you can actually try to look at a single interaction. So if you have invented, for instance, a hologram that talks to you know, someone who talks them through it, rather than showing a bunch of different ways, it could be useful. Try to actually show what a single interaction would look like and, and try to pull out some of the specificity of what that, what that encounter might might look like. So I’m going to start the timer pick your  favorite. Drawing that you did on your crazy eights and expand on it. And what you really want to do here is create something that speaks well visually, because you’re going to be showing this to your [00:26:00] colleagues, but you’re not going to be able to explain it. It’s going to be just up to them to make sense of your drawing. So it needs to be clear. I recommend don’t use too much text because there’s not going to be a lot of time people aren’t going to read. Stick figures. Simple drawings, a little bit of text, some symbols that these are effective ways to communicate visually. And it’s kind of a maxim of design that really clear visual communication is often the thing that, that will create the most successful design. It’s less like I had the best idea in the world. It’s more, I communicated this thing really, really clearly. So we’re stretching some design muscles here. All [00:27:00] right. You’ve just created a comic. Congratulations. And thank you for participating. So as I said, the next step now is to take out your phone or any sort of camera wielding device that you have take a picture of this and drag it onto your respective mural board. As I, as I was sort of saying in the beginning, there’s a couple ways to do this. Once you’ve taken the photo probably the next step is to get it onto your computer. So if you’re using a Mac, you could use airdrop. If you’re if you’re using something else that a really simple way of doing this is just emailing it to yourself. But w however, you, you get it onto your computer. The next step after that, the easiest thing to do is to drag it directly onto the miro board. All right. We’re at 11:15. If there are any other people who are struggling technically  maybe just put it in chat and we can, we can work together to, to get that straightened out. I’m going to introduce [00:28:00] sort of the final couple of activities that we’re going to do here. We’ll see, we’ll see how much time we have. We, we wanted to have a more relaxed session rather than try to plow through everything. And I hope that came through. So there’s a few thingsthat we won’t get to, but. Hopefully this is giving you a sense of whether or not this is something that can work for your team. So this next stage is called Comicon. And it can feel a little bit unnatural for people sometimes, rather than having the artist of each piece, describe what they drew and what they were thinking. It’s going to start with the moderator. Describing what the piece is communicating to them visually the group. So, so for a maximum of one minute, the moderator will will say, okay, this is what I’m seeing here. It will then go to the group for the group to add anything that they think the moderator may have missed for 30 seconds. And then the final 30 seconds go to the artists. So the artists can explain anything that was missed. Why do it like this? It feels very counterintuitive and sometimes unnatural. There’s a [00:29:00] couple of reasons. The reason is the whole speculative design process is trying to kind of move, move past that whole like big meeting and discussion and group think and design by committee that can so often happen if you approach it in that way of approaching design from a discussion lens. So we’re really not trying to discuss the merits and demerits of ideas right now. We’re just trying to get a very basic high level understanding of what’s in the sketch. And so I’m going to take it away. I’ll, I’ll set myself a timer of one minute to try to describe what’s happening in this image. So I can see that there is a person speaking, a foreign language to some, oh, she’s got her kids there. And then like the Kool-Aid man, this sort of unit pops through the wallet’s got like a briefcase for a head. And I think that it is kind of like a translation robot. And so it is facilitating you know, the speech between several different people. [00:30:00] It’s also able to act as a teacher for the students, so to educate them perhaps in English or in French. And now this person has managed to sort of up-skill with that. That’s what I see. Has the group seen anything that I’ve missed in this image? Is there something that was obvious to them that wasn’t obvious to me invite anyone to speak on it?

Attendee: I think in the third one, they have something over their faces, right? 

Thomas Hoy: Yeah, you’re right. 

Attendee: Yeah. I don’t know if that’s a, maybe a holo lens or something. 

Thomas Hoy: Okay. So I’m going to give last word now, 30 seconds to the artist. If you want to identify yourself, you can tell us what you think we missed. If there’s anything major here.

Attendee: That was  me. I tried to mash together a few ideas, the translation, the fact that there’s refugees from many different cultures. And so if you could get them to help themselves, by putting them into a group where they might share [00:31:00] skills, then you fix the loneliness problem. They translate and they can meet virtually from wherever in the county. And hopefully cross-pollinate new skills. So it’s social companionship, translation and job re-skilling at the same time. 

Thomas Hoy: Amazing. All right, moving right along here. So this is a really interesting one. I can see that a person is having a thought and that thought is going directly into a computer. But not just that this is actually happening with maybe all people, their thoughts are being directly uploaded into a computer. That computer is then being turned into some kind of. Like it’s got a face. So some kind of like a personal assistant or something along those lines. We can also see that there’s a factory line element to this. So maybe this super smart computer is controlling the factory line element, which is creating, it looks like maybe spaceships. And in the final image, we can see that these spaceships are helping people get to their goal on the top of the mountain. These sort of interesting pods does the [00:32:00] group have a different interpretation of this?

Attendee: Not me, man. That was pretty good. 

Thomas Hoy: Okay. So would the artists like to identify themselves and to explain to us, you know, if there’s anything they think I missed? 

Attendee: No, I think you got it. Can you hear me here? Yeah. Yeah, that’s it computer ideas being translated to the computer and sort of the ideas from many parties coming together to create something. The computer brings the ideas together. Fashions sort of a physical design of it. So it wasn’t a face that was not a face, but it’s like a physical design and then the factory starts to initiate it. It creates the output, which is the, the objects that you’re seeing in number five here. And then number six is the, the idea coming together as a challenge for a group of people to create something in, to reach their goal. So it was all for pleasure. And this was a a fun sort of way in the future where people can set on their own adventure by designing it themselves. [00:33:00] And maybe being successful at the end of the day through what they designed 

Thomas Hoy: Sounds really fun. And it makes me think of a post scarcity landscape, which is okay. So. In this one, we have got a, a person. It looks to me like maybe dancing for a dog, but then the dog bowl is empty. And so the person is trying to communicate with the dog, but they’re struggling. And then all of a sudden it’s like, oh, I’m starting to understand the, what the dog is saying. So I’m guessing that there’s some kind of a translation instrument being employed here to facilitate communication between the dog and the human. Is the group seeing anything that I’m missing? If, if not, will the artist if comfortable identify themselves and tell, tell me if there’s anything that I missed in this explanation.

Attendee: No, you got it. I wouldn’t be able to talk to my dog and find out what he wants. Some sort of thing that helps translate between humans and animals. Right. 

Thomas Hoy: Translation is, is a [00:34:00] theme. I think we’re going to keep seeing some more translation ideas here. Okay, so this one is related very directly to Amelia’s issue. And that’s good because we do want to stay sort of persona focused as we, as we you know, come up with these solutions. So the store is no more and Amelia is out on the street with her kids. Then some, some kind of a crazy like necklace thing is projecting. What looks like it could be a cannabis store, but no, I think it might just be maybe some kind of like a holographic helper. And then I can see that there’s some sort of like an app component to this or some kind of, cause there’s an RBC and an email thing. So there’s something going on with like money and communication. And then somehow this results in a new store. I do feel like I’m missing some pieces here as the group sees something that I’m not and would the artist like to express, you know what it is that I’ve missed?

Attendee: No, you got everything [00:35:00] with the exception of the cannabis store. It was supposed to be a, like a government Canada sort of personal helper. And, the idea was to get them both money and sorry to, to help Amelia out automatically with money and a new job right away, to shorten the amount of time that she would feel anxious in between positions.

Thomas Hoy: Awesome okay, so here we go. This, one’s got some texts in it. I’m in a new country. I don’t understand anything. So then there’s they go to the store and then there’s this kind of like signpost thing that, that can do automatic translation. Can I have a bunch of bananas? Got my bananas. So maybe imagining some kind of like a retail experience with an automatic translation is the group seeing something that I’m not, and does the artist want to add any context here?

Attendee: You nailed it. It’s just, it’s basically just like a thing you will talk to you, like select your [00:36:00] language, you speak to it, and then it repeats what you were trying to say just in the language of the local community. So you got it. 

Thomas Hoy: Moving on here. I need a house. I’m your virtual agent? Does this work for you? Yes. So this is kind of imagining like a virtual agent that can come in and facilitate things. I’m imagining. This is also helping with the language barrier and thinking about a person who’s unhoused. Does the group see something that I’m not seeing and would the artists like to add any context there? 

Attendee: Yeah, relating it back to Amelia. I mean just people who’ve come into Canada need housing. Right. So saying, Hey, like we have this virtual virtual agent, like think 50 years in the future, there’s this person that appears in front of the house and says, oh, would this one work for you? It’s like, yeah, it would work. Wow. 

Thomas Hoy: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Okay. I’m not that it sparks some ideas for sure. [00:37:00] Okay. Oh, someone here is an artist. Okay. So sunny morning garden enjoys a sun. Dog is happy because you’re happy cats, genius. The coffee is good. Let’s go for a bike ride. There’s even a festival in the village. Okay. So this is interesting. This to me is less to do with hyper digital technology and maybe Amelia’s immediate situation, but seems more about a value in certain things in what makes a life good. Is that, is that right? Does anyone want to, does the group want to add anything to that? And does the artist want to fill in anything I might have missed here?

Attendee: No, it’s pretty much it. Thanks Chris. By the way, for helping me upload the picture, because I wasn’t able at all, I sent him the picture and he uploaded for me and to the board. But yeah, no. I just, I didn’t want anything technology. I’m very pro technology, by the way, it doesn’t look like that when you sit and look at my drawinh but it’s just like, the story goes with what I draw. So. 

Thomas Hoy: We are down to our last five minutes. And so I’m going to [00:38:00] try to do two things really quickly. First is I’m going to describe to you what we would do next if we had more time and that is every person would get three of these dots and they would put them wherever they want to create kind of a heat map. And that just basically acts as an indicator for where the group is leaning in terms of what is something that we should prototype to have to test as an experience by the end of the week by the end of the sprint. And the funny thing about this is that it’s like, whose line is it? Anyway, the points are made up and the, and the votes don’t matter. Because what ends up happening is you actually get an executive to come in at the end, the decider who comes in and puts this this bright gold star on a on an image. And that’s actually the final decision. So the heat map gives them a sense of where the group is going, but they can go completely in their own direction. And the idea there is that if you get that executive buy-in early on. You’re more likely to see whatever that result, that initial prototype that you create. It’s more likely to see the light of day following the speculative [00:39:00] design sprint. If the executives are engaged and feel that they’ve had, you know, a, a steering force. We’ve got four minutes. I want to show you what our group created during our speculative design sprint. So once you’ve, once you, as a group have decided which concept you think is the most valuable you are going to prototype and user test it, and that is kind of your ultimate source of truth. It’s like, do users do our clients, is this the way they want to be served? And that’s, that’s sort of what it’s all about. So I want to show you what our group came up. And and I actually do want to do a little live user test because I wouldn’t be surprised if there are folks here who’ve, who’ve never done a user test before. So if somebody wants to put their hand up and they can they can be my user test subject for this little hologram personal assistant that we created, 

Attendee: I can do it.

Thomas Hoy: Okay, excellent. Sorry. Who was that? Oh, hi, Olivia. [00:40:00] Okay. So just a little bit of a scenario here. Imagine that, you know, we’re in the year 2071, your name is Bob. You drive a school hover bus. So you’re driving kids to and from school, which means that you’re a seasonally employed worker. So you’re laid off every summer when school is out. That’s basically the scenario. Also, you have this super cool virtual assistant hologram thing that helps you throughout your life and to kick off this interaction I’m going to, so you can, you can interact with it by voice just by speaking to it. And so to kick off this interaction, I’m going to ask you to say Hey holo what’s on my schedule for today.

Attendee: Hey holo, what’s on my schedule for today?

Thomas Hoy: Hmm…you have a physio appointment coming up in one hour. The roads look fine. It’s 24 degrees and dry. There’s nothing else until your hot date with Julia at 7:30. Oh. And Bob, your hover bus gig is ending soon. Same as every year. Would you like to [00:41:00] chat about your options? So we can try to get you some income support from the government while we sort out what’s next. Do you want me to get that started? 

Attendee: Yes, please.

Thomas Hoy: Okay. I’ve taken care of that. I’ll let you know when they’ve made a decision. Probably by Friday at the latest, in terms of what’s next, I’ve done some calculations based on your interests and your financial resources. Here are your top five options. I’m going to cut off here before you get to hear your top five options the point is holo would layout, an array of options for you and would sort of, you could discuss which ones were were best for you. So what we did is we, we shipped a bunch of these little hologram cubes to people around the country, seasonally employed workers, and we had them stick them on their [00:42:00] phones and interact with them. We observed this and we paused the experience at various moments to get their feedback. And based on that feedback, we were able to learn some funky new things and ascertain whether or not we were going in the right direction with our projects really early on, all within two weeks of having started it. So a really short feedback loop that’s 1130. So I suppose we should probably. wrap it there, but that’s been the Tappas version of the speculative design sprint. And hopefully you have a sense now of whether or not this would be something that would be of interest to your team. Something that could be useful if you think it could be, or you’re interested in knowing more we’ve got a speculative design sprint playbook which has sort of a detailed account of what you do in each of the day. We’ve got all kinds of resources, blog posts and things like this. So, so feel free to reach out and connect if you want to learn more. And so maybe I’ll hand it back to Alistair now to. To wrap it up here. [00:43:00]