TEST

Step 1 | Test planning

Sponsorship and roles

Establishing strong sponsorship, coaching, and test teams during the Test phase of the innovation design journey is critical for success. Here is a breakdown of suggested roles:

  
    Role
    Description
  
    Business Sponsor
    Ensure Test Lead and Test Team have the support, time, and resources needed to conduct the test.
  
    Test 
Phase Leader
    Accountable for the Test phase of the overall design journey: work effort, team management, client satisfaction, quality, on budget. Ensures test plan and materials are completed to support design. On-site guide for any test planning efforts during design sessions. Provides coaching and advisory to test coaches and team leaders.
  
    Test Team Leader
    Person accountable for the test.  The Lead ensures the testing is completed and learning is documented. 
  
    Test Documenter
    Accountable for capturing learnings from the test in the shared documentation folders. 

    Test Team
    • Ideally, Test Team members participated in the Design session as part of the Design Team for the overall journey.
 
• Each Test Team has 5 – 15 team members responsible for:  
1. Setting up and conducting tests as designed;

2. Analyzing the results for meaningful learning; 

3. Sharing meaningful output from the tests with the Test Documenter; and 
4. Making specific design recommendations to evolve the prototype elements.
  
    Innovation Coach
    Selected coaches could include members of the overall innovation design journey team, as well as other qualified internal or outside resources:
• Provides team with training at the kickoff

• Provide coaching during test sprints (weekly check-ins) 
• Interfaces with teams at end of each 2-week sprint to facilitate sharing of recommendations and learning
• Guides the test process  
• Facilitates Learning Consolidation conference calls

EXERCISE

Map Prototype elements on impact/ implementation matrix.

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Test planning | Prototype elements

Armed with the final Prototype that resulted from the Design Session, it’s time to determine which elements of the prototype should be tested.

Access Test Tools

Test planning | Storyboarding and assumptions

Key Question: What are the critical assumptions the test team has about the prototype and how it works? Next, develop small, quick, inexpensive experiments to test an “aspect” or “element” of the prototype and associated assumptions.

Once the key elements of the prototype have been determined, it’s time to storyboard how that element works and outline assumptions key assumptions.

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Test planning | Idea selection rubric

Use these elements to evaluate the ideas presented for testing. Scale: 1-5 with 5 being GREAT!

The idea

Inspirational

Are you excited to immediately get to work on this idea?

Connected

Will your idea address a real need?

Relevant

Does your idea address the design challenge

Rapid test

Low risk

Can it be done for less than $500?

Quick & Easy

Can the experiment be set-up and run in less than two weeks?

Generative

Will the experiment answer a "how can it work" question?

Test planning | Developing the test

When developing a test plan, be sure to include:

Assumptions
Activities
Learnings

This is NOT a scientific experiment.

Keep in mind:

What are the critical assumptions that would enable the solution to work?
Develop small, quick, inexpensive experiments to those assumptions.
Test should be $500 or less and conducted within two weeks.

Access Test Tools

CASE STUDY: TEST ASSUMPTIONS

Thriving Communities Project - Ft. Payne, AL

Prototype: “N.E. Alabama Scenic Barn Quilt Trail,” a common thread that unites us to create a Geotourism Community.

To deliver their prototype concept of creating a trail of artistic artifacts linked to regional assets (state parks, canyons, historic sites), the Ft. Payne team had an innovative idea to integrate QR codes into trailhead signs for easy, instant downloads of stories and information to help connect and promote the community.

As they storyboarded how the concept would work, they realized they were making a very important assumption--that people would have cell-phone service at trailhead locations. Knowing much of their solution design hinged on the cell-service factor, the team’s first Test Sprint sought to validate this assumption.

During the testing process, the team discovered that multiple trailhead locations in densely forested areas did not meet the “cell-service” requirement. This important learning enabled the team to revise and reboot before significant resources were at stake.

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Test planning | Kick-off meeting

The final step of test planning is to host a Test Kick-Off Meeting with Sponsors, Test Leaders, and Innovation Coaches to launch this phase of the design journey, as well as gain support and engagement for testing.

Be sure to have all the test planning materials completed and ready to present at the Kick-Off!

Meeting Details:

Who’s leading the meeting? Designated Engagement Leader and Test Phase Leader for overall design journey, along with a Sponsor representative
Participants? Overall Design Journey team, Business Sponsors, and Test Team Leaders, Documenters, and Team Members
Where? Virtual or in-person
How long? 1-2 hours (depending on the number of test teams)

Suggested Meeting Agenda:

Welcome
Overview of Design Journey to Date and Prototype Model
Test: Approach, Schedule, Teams, Tools
Teams Share Storyboard and Test Plan (5 - 7 minutes each)
Q&A with Sponsors and Leaders about Test Sprints process
Closing & Next Steps

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