News Headlines aka Cover Story

What is it?

This Design Thinking practice intends to suspend disbelief, doubts and imminent focus on the daunting task at hand (design of a new product or service). It is forcing participants to start with the end in mind by imagining a distant future in which the product/service has been super successful and provoked the admiration of the public.

The participants start by listing a set of headlines and draft a popular magazine article outlining the success of the product/service and the organization. The magazine article would naturally go in details of the most important user benefits, i.e. why customers love it, beloved features, examples of use cases and may include images, customer quotes and other elements to make the story rich.

This practice frequently precedes other which require creativity.

The group is encouraged to picture and draw even their wildest ideas.

Why use it?

• Helps translate vision into a set of characteristics to describe how it would feel and look when achieved
• It allows to easily articulate the product/service goal
• Allows the team to think big without the constraints of the present and the context they are in or where they are coming from
• Serves as a stepping stone to Value Proposition or Lean Canvas by articulating some of the most important use cases, features and benefits.
• It allows you to gradually move the focus from the features to the benefits (outcomes)
• Provides really good input for the goal to be used in Impact Mapping

Why & How to combine it with other practices?

This practice is really helpful if you find it hard to articulate the goal during an Impact Mapping session. It can help articulate product vision and ambitions.

It is also a good transition from a vision into a more concrete description of expected product/service design, e.g. through Event Storming.

It can provide interesting input for Value Proposition and Lean Canvas.

Further Information

Cover Story on Gamestorming.com