/tool-design-sprint-map-and-target

name: tool-design-sprint-map-and-target
description: Day 1 (Monday) move of a Design Sprint that produces the bundled Monday artifact containing long-term goal, sprint questions (3-7 testable risks), customer or system map (5-15 step flow), expert interview notes, HMW (How Might We) cluster board, and the Decider's chosen target moment. Use Day 1 morning and afternoon after the sprint brief is locked. Sets the design target for Tuesday's sketches and Wednesday's storyboard.
license: Apache-2.0
metadata:
  classification: tool
  version: "1.0.0"
  updated: 2026-07-04
  tool: design-sprint
  move: map-and-target
  category: discovery
  frameworks:
    - design-sprint
    - sprint
    - character-note-and-vote
  timebox_minutes: 105
  roles:
    - facilitator
    - decider
    - pm
    - design
    - engineering
    - researcher
    - customer-expert
  prerequisites:
    - tool-design-sprint-brief
  inputs:
    - sprint brief
    - existing research
    - analytics
    - customer examples
    - expert interview transcripts (run during Monday)
  outputs:
    - long-term goal
    - sprint questions
    - customer or system map
    - expert interview notes
    - HMW cluster board
    - target moment
  author: product-on-purpose

<!-- PM-Skills | https://github.com/product-on-purpose/pm-skills | Apache 2.0 -->

Design Sprint Map and Target (Monday)

Produce Monday's bundled artifact: the long-term goal that names success in 1-5 years; 3-7 sprint questions converting team fears into testable risks; a 5-15 step customer or system map from key player to outcome; expert interview notes from cameo experts run in parallel; HMW (How Might We) clusters synthesized from the team; and the Decider's chosen target moment. Monday's output becomes Tuesday's design target.

Family contract: [`docs/reference/skill-families/design-sprint-skills-contract.md`](../../docs/reference/skill-families/design-sprint-skills-contract.md). This skill is a member of `design-sprint-skills`.

When to Use

• It is Day 1 of the Design Sprint and the brief is locked (via `tool-design-sprint-brief`).
• The team is together (in-person, remote, or hybrid) for the full Monday workshop.
• Expert interviews are scheduled for Monday afternoon (cameo role; 15-30 minutes each).
• The team needs to converge from "five days of work ahead" to "this specific target moment is what we're prototyping."

When NOT to Use

• The brief is not locked. Return to `tool-design-sprint-brief`; without sprint questions, this skill has nothing to converge toward.
• The challenge is so broad that "long-term goal" would be longer than 5 years. Return to problem framing.
• The team is missing the Decider. The target-moment selection at the end of Monday is the Decider's call; without that call the team disperses Tuesday with no agreed direction.
• The team has already pre-decided the target moment. Monday's value is in the convergence; if it's been pre-decided, Monday becomes ratification theater.

What This Skill Produces

A single bundled artifact with six sections:

1. **Long-term goal**: one sentence naming success in 1-5 years. Aspirational; cannot be hit in this sprint, but should be visible from the target moment. 2. **Sprint questions**: 3-7 questions converting team fears into testable risks. Phrased as "Can we... ?" or "Will... ?" or "How... ?"; NOT phrased as solutions. 3. **Customer or system map**: 5-15 step flow from key player(s) at the left to outcome (long-term goal) at the right. Includes major actors, decision points, and current alternatives. 4. **Expert interview notes**: synthesized observations from 2-4 cameo experts interviewed Monday afternoon. Surfaced as HMW candidates for the cluster board. 5. **HMW cluster board**: 30-100+ How Might We notes from the team, clustered into 4-8 themes; voted with `tool-note-and-vote` heat-map mechanic to surface top clusters. 6. **Target moment**: the single point on the map (or a tight cluster of points) the Decider picks as the prototyping target. Wednesday's storyboard begins from here.

See `references/TEMPLATE.md` for the canonical structure and `references/EXAMPLE.md` for the Brainshelf book-catalog Monday artifact.

Inference Inputs

| Input | What the skill does with it | |---|---| | Sprint brief (from `tool-design-sprint-brief`) | Pulls the locked sprint questions as seed for refinement; pulls the challenge statement as the long-term goal seed; pulls the team roster for role assignments in note-and-vote | | Existing research | Used to draft the customer or system map; researcher walks the team through key findings during the map step | | Analytics | Quantitative grounding for the map's decision-point branch points and abandonment moments | | Customer examples | Concrete stories used to validate the map's key player and surface map-step gaps | | Expert interview transcripts (run during Monday) | Synthesized into HMW candidates by the moderator (typically PM or researcher) during the afternoon |

Monday Time Structure

The full Monday workshop is approximately 7 hours (09:00-12:30 + 13:30-17:00). The skill's bundled artifact emerges across the day:

• **09:00-09:30**: Welcome + brief recap + introductions (does not produce artifact content)
• **09:30-10:30**: Long-term goal (one sentence) + draft sprint questions (3-7)
• **10:30-12:30**: Customer or system map draft (continuous-flow whiteboard work; team builds together)
• **12:30-13:30**: Lunch + first expert interview slot (cameo)
• **13:30-15:30**: Remaining expert interviews (3 slots; 25 min each); team captures HMWs continuously during interviews
• **15:30-16:30**: HMW cluster board synthesis; team adds final HMWs; Facilitator clusters; team heat-map votes via `tool-note-and-vote`
• **16:30-17:00**: Decider picks target moment; signs off; team disperses for Tuesday sketches

This skill's 105-minute timebox covers the facilitated synthesis sections (long-term goal + sprint questions + map draft + HMW clustering + t