Using Google's "Design Sprint" to design an MVP

I recently read about The Design Sprint, a five-day process for solving problems and testing new ideas, created at Google.

I wanted to see how I could adapt it to my situation as a solo, bootstrapped founder.

I've already spent around a month finding a problem worth solving. I've shared some posts on IH in the past documenting that process.

Today I'm sharing my six-step process to design my MVP. I'd love to get feedback on how I could improve it (as well as my end result)!

Here's the problem I decided to try and solve:

My solo MVP sprint

Here's my sprint from a birds-eye view:

1. 👁️ Step 1 - Vision

2. 💡 Step 2 - Inspiration

3. 🤔 Step 3 - How might I...?

4. 🧠 Step 4 - Solution brainstorming

5. ❓ Step 5 - Core hypothesis

6. 🏆 Step 6 - Spec my MVP

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👁️ Step 1 - Vision

A vision is my destination - even if (when) my path is a windy one, full of U-turns and wrong directions...

Here's mine:

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💡 Step 2 - Inspiration

I curated screenshots from 20 different products in Figma, grouping them by product or category. Then I added "stream-of-consciousness" style comments.

I wanted to get inspired not only by products that attempted to solve my problem, but also entirely different ones that I like.

Check out the full "Inspiration Wall" here.

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🤔 Step 3 - How might I...?

I turn user problems and product inspiration into opportunities using “How might I…” questions.

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🧠 Step 4 - Solution brainstorming

This is where it all comes together. I brainstormed solutions that:

1. Answer my “How might I…” questions...

2. in ways that are inspired by other products...

3. and are true to my vision.

FYI - I started with a name (HelloHailey) and a landing page even before I knew what I was building. This is what "Hailey" refers to below.

Here's a quick summary of my top 3:

1.❓ Guess Who? - A question and answer game in Slack where teammates guess which answers belong to which person.

2. 🎉 Slack Party - The Hailey bot acts as the perfect party host. She kickstarts conversation in a dedicated "social" channel in Slack.

3. 🏡 Themed Rooms - Virtual spaces full of coworkers sharing similar interests.

The 🎉 Slack Party concept is my winning solution. Here's why:

1. Low complexity - I think I can build out a working prototype in 2-4 weeks.

2. High engagement (Hopefully...🤞) - This is my best answer so far to “How might I make conversation prompts that people actually enjoy talking about?”.

3. Always on - I want to replicate that in-office experience of bumping into coworkers at the coffee machine and just chatting about nothing in general.

You can read more about all three solutions here if you're curious.

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❓ Step 5 - Core hypothesis

Slack Party relies on one critical hypothesis:

If it's proven wrong, the product will probably fail.

The goal of my MVP is to measurably prove or disprove this core hypothesis.

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🏆 Step 6 - Spec my MVP

I won't go into too much detail here as far as specific product requirements. But you can read the whole spec here if you're curious.

I don't want to spend too much time building without getting feedback, so I'm setting a launch deadline of January 15. I'll cut features as needed to hit this deadline.

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That's it! A design sprint is done best with a cross-functional team. I went through this solo, so it'd be great to get thoughts from other Indie Hackers on the process or the end result.