In today’s tech-dominated world, proper user experience (UX) is extremely critical for any digital product, such as a website or app, because it determines whether or not the product will be able to fulfill the user’s needs. Good UX design isn’t just about making things look nice, but it also ensures that things work properly and feel intuitive.
This is why UX agency Meticular has launched its Microsprint service, which allows clients to turn their ideas into a concrete plan for a minimum viable product (MVP) within a single afternoon. The company’s core belief is that better software experiences lead to better life experiences, which underscores the importance of proper UX in every product.
A Microsprint is a compact version of the design sprint, a methodology invented by Google Ventures, which usually takes an entire five-day work week. While a full design sprint is effective in coming up with a product that works well, it is also time- and resource-intensive, requiring around five people from the client to dedicate an entire work week to the design sprint. According to Meticular, this can be quite a huge ask for clients, as their teams may be too busy to take a full week for a design sprint. To allow clients to reap the benefits while saving time, Meticular took the best practices from the design sprint methodology and compressed it into a single afternoon’s workshop that typically takes up to four hours.
Meticular conducts Microsprints with its clients that are looking to create web or native apps, add new features to existing apps, and are on a tight deadline for release. After signing up for a Microsprint, the client takes a preparatory survey that will give Meticular a baseline knowledge of the client. This is followed by a half-hour kickoff call, where the workshop’s agenda is established and various matters are clarified before heading into the workshop.
In the workshop proper, the client can send up to four participants, who will work with Meticular in an intense, hands-on, and condensed process, which seeks to accomplish a week’s worth of progress in one afternoon.
Using Meticular’s software tools, clients will receive their deliverables upon the workshop’s completion. These are finalized product requirements that their product team can base their work on, a list of features designers and developers should prioritize, and a clearer vision of the finish line.
James Taylor, Founder and CEO of Meticular, says: “Sometimes, people plan software projects with various features in mind. We flip that in reverse by looking at who the client's product users are, then we determine the features that are needed. This resonates with people better and leads to much better results. The Microsprint gives clients a detailed list of features and a clear roadmap to make their MVP a reality. Another great effect of a Microsprint is that it gets the client's entire team on the same page, giving them insights on things they might not have considered heading into the workshop.”
According to Taylor, the Microsprint is part of Meticular’s philosophy of getting things wrong before getting it right. He believes that many organizations easily fall into the trap of thinking they know exactly what the users want, when in reality, not enough research has been done. Meticular places emphasis on repeated user testing of products under a controlled, logical, trial-and-error process.
“Some designers have big egos, so when they design something, they believe they get it right the first time. But often that's forcing the user to conform to their perception of what the users needs are, not what they actually are. Whereas, for us, whenever we design something, we challenge ourselves to do it in a way that may not come natural to us, but makes sense to the users,” Taylor says.
Media contact:
Name: James Taylor
Email: [email protected]
