Running a design sprint to envision a carbon credit marketplace

Problem

Cargill wanted to leverage their international reach to connect farms with investors interested in funding environmentally friendly farming practices. They had a high-level idea but were having trouble narrowing in on a specific solution that they could validate before investing too much time and money.

Solution

Postlight ran a Design Sprint with key stakeholders at Cargill to explore the problem space and their ideas, pick a single product concept to test, prototype the concept, and create a pitch deck to facilitate user tests and conversations with potential users.

Plan

Preparation is the key to success. Before we met with the client I created a design sprint plan and template customized to be done remotely with shortened timelines.

Prep

As our plan was coming together, we interviewed the client to start building a relationship and get some initial background information on the project. We also walked them through the tools and activities ahead of time so we were all prepared on day one.

Sprint

Next, we facilitated a 3-day sprint where we aligned on the vision, mapped user journeys, brainstormed ideas, and picked solutions to test. By the end of the sprint, we picked 2 key moments from the user journey and voted on our top solution ideas for each.

Storyboard

I took the top-voted ideas for each key moment and put together an end-to-end storyboard of the product we wanted to prototype and test. I find this step to be more efficient when a designer connects the dots and asks for feedback rather than involving the client in the creation of the storyboard itself.

Mockups and Prototype

With approval from the client, I turned the storyboard into high-fidelity mockups and a clickable prototype. The turn-around time for this part of the project was 1 week with a few additional days given for adjustments based on client feedback.

Pitch deck

I also designed a pitch deck to help Cargill succinctly tell the story of their product concept when testing with users.

Outcome

We successfully completed the sprint and defined a product concept that Cargill used to validate their idea with internal stakeholders and potential users. With valuable learnings in hand, Cargill has recently come back to Postlight to build the MVP of their product with the intention of launching a beta test by the end of 2022.

Endorsements

“It has been truly amazing working with Paul on the Cargill Nature Scale design sprint. Beyond the amazing visuals, Paul developed a deep relationship with the clients, earned trust and shaped the strategy for the prototype and deck. While our project was quick; the impact was huge & was a pleasure!”

Nathan Henry - Associate Director of Product Management, Postlight