1. Apples to Apples
• Pick a product or service that you want to improve or expand capabilities for
o Example: How can we diversify OptumizeMe?
• Each person in the group pulls from the stack of red noun cards. The red cards are made up of everyday things, places, and famous people.
• Share how the product or service could be altered to tailor to the card you drew
o Example:
Everyday things – How could product/service incorporate or use this everyday item
Places – How could geographic restrictions change the offering
Famous people (ex. The FBI, Microsoft, Darth Vader) – How would they use the
product/service
2. Bucketing
• Identify a space you want to explore
o Example: Health care billing, homelessness, cooking lessons
• Give a stack of post-its to each person in your group
• With a Sharpie, each person gets 10 minutes to write down as many ideas or problems for that space that they can think of in that time
• After 10 minutes, post all space ideas/problems on the same wall
• Once all post-its are on the wall, identify trends and sort the post-its into groups that tap into a common area
o Example: For cooking lessons, having a live online class and having a live 4-person
cook-off on Google+ between friends could fall under the same bucket
3. A Day in the Life
• Identify your core customer
• As a discovery method, find a way to observe the customer from when they wake up to when they go to bed. This will help you identify the customer touch points and pain points that provide opportunities
o If you can't be there physically to write down notes or videotape your customer, provide your customer tools so they can record their daily happenings
• When completed, synthesize the information and debrief as a group to identify opportunities to improve your customer’s everyday life
4. Things We Hate
• Talk about things you sincerely do not like (product or services)
• Everyone pitches in to brainstorm solutions
