7
Working sessions
42
Hours of working
6
Number of participants
18 august — 27 september 2018

Design Thinking Sessions
for Homsen.ru

At the beginning of the fall, the team of the bright and fast-growing startup Homsen invited me to help them to develop a methodology for researching the customer experience of their service. The main task on the way out is an updated version of the renovation configurator, that is an important part of the company's online service.
Limitations of the process were classical - the high employment of participants and the need to conduct all the stages in a short period of time. The Sprint format works perfectly here, which allows you to intensively go through all the necessary stages of Design Thinking without losing the group dynamics and team involvement in the process.
Project session program
3 hours
3 hours
Set-up meeting
  • Clarification of the task
  • What we know / what we don't know
  • Stakeholder map
  • Introduction to methodology
  • Rules of the sessions
  • Planning
  • Interview preparation
  • Рypotheses statement
6 hours
6 hours
Session 1 - Empathy
  • Empathy Briefing
  • In-depth interviews - 6 interviews
  • Debriefing of the day
6 hours
6 hours
Session 2 -Analysis and Synthesis I
  • Processing the results of the interview
  • Identifying needs, problems, limitations
  • Empathy map and matrix of needs
6 hours
6 hours
Session 3 -Analysis and Synthesis II
  • Building the CJM
  • Looking for problems in touchpoints
  • Making a matrix of "What have we learned / How can we help?"
6 hours
6 hours
Session 4 - Idea Generation and Prototyping I
  • Creating a high-level prototype
  • Hallway usability testing
  • Identifying problems, generating solutions
  • Iterating prototypes
6 hours
6 hours
Session 5 - Idea Generation and Prototyping II
  • Finalize prototypes
  • Conducting guerilla tests results
  • Preparing for final testing
6 hours
6 hours
Session 6 - Testing the Prototype with External Customers and Internal Customers
  • Testing sessions - 4 tests
  • Processing of test results - test matrices
  • Iterating a prototype based on testing results
  • Designing an interactive prototype in Figma
6 hours
6 hours
Session 7 - Packaging the Results and Debriefing
  • Finalize User stories, Scenarios and Prototypes
  • Summarizing, preparing for the final storytelling
Users insights
In the repair configurator, I am limited to selecting only 4 basic styles. This leads to false selections, that your specialists options are limited as well.
Alex, 25
Manager
"It's just a toy! The final cost of the repair will depend on a large number of parts, and they are not taken into account in the configurator.'
Igor, 34
Graphic designer
"I do not have the time or skills to sit on the site and design my apartment.
Show me a similar apartment before and after the repair with an approximate cost."
Anna, 40
Manager
The main insight from the sessions was that most users were not interested in working with the repair configurator themselves. Despite its outward innovativeness and interactivity, it turned out to be overloaded with unnecessary functions and did not meet the real expectation of users - to get professional advice on repairs and accurate budget calculation.

It was decided to abandon the online configurator in favor of consultations with a live expert and a visual portfolio of renovations.
Participant feedback
Pavel Svistunov
CEO, HOMSEN.RU
We invited Dmitry for a project to create a new version of the apartment repair configurator, in which we planned to identify problems with the existing functionality and create an image of an updated version. In a few weeks Dmitry guided us from understanding the complexities faced by clients to creating a functional prototype.

The DM sessions turned out to be intensive and full of a lot of findings, tools and methodological recommendations. The result of our work was not only the problem solved, but also the volume of experience and knowledge that Dmitry managed to pass on to our team in a short period of time.