Introduction

As I joined Carbon Direct, I was immediately presented with an exciting challenge that would test my skills as a Senior Product Designer. Carbon Direct, a company known for its robust, science-backed solutions, helps businesses and governments measure and manage their carbon footprint through advisory services and a SaaS platform. Serving a diverse customer portfolio — including Fortune 500 companies, high-growth startups, and primary-sector industries — Carbon Direct lets customers manage their carbon footprint across three key areas: measurement (GHG inventory), reduction (decarbonization strategies), and removal (carbon credit voluntary market).

While well-established in the measurement and removal spaces, the “Decarbonization” area — focusing on reduction and mitigation strategies — represented a new opportunity for Carbon Direct to expand its offerings and impact. I was thrilled to join the newly formed Decarbonization team and establish the scope and roadmap for this workstream. Our starting point was a common customer question:

I collaborated closely with Laura (Sr. Product Manager) and Jasper (Sr. Engineer) as the core team. To leverage all available expertise, I also involved cross-functional stakeholders in collaborative workshops, including a Climate Scientist, Customer Support Manager, Carbon Accountant, and Data Analyst.

I structured the project to run for five days, with the following key milestones:

• Collect existing insights about customers and the market
• Identify past decarbonization efforts and pain points
• Focus the scope and prioritize a user problem to solve
• Run collaborative sessions to validate assumptions, test ideas, and generate sketches
• Develop a user flow and wireframes representing potential solutions
• Present results to leadership

Challenges

As I dove into the project, I quickly realized our team faced several significant challenges:

These challenges reflected Carbon Direct’s broader aim of productizing deep scientific expertise and bespoke advisory solutions into a scalable SaaS platform. I was excited by the opportunity to show how we could achieve this while identifying the ideal customer profile for maximum impact.

Approach and Methodology

To rapidly align the team and leverage internal expertise under tight timelines, I adapted the Design Sprint to focus on the Understand, Sketch, and Decide phases. Tailoring the Design Sprint would let us:

• Gather existing customer insights and identify past decarbonization efforts
• Accelerate the team’s learning curve by engaging carbon science experts
• Make rapid decisions to move forward despite uncertainty
• Focus on translating domain expertise into compelling platform features

I facilitated collaborative Miro workshops to map the problem space, sketch solutions, and define a roadmap. I also conducted individual interviews with cross-functional stakeholders to gather insights and validate assumptions.

Process & Execution

Each day of the sprint, our process centered around key activities:

1. Insight Collection and Problem Definition

   • I conducted in-depth research to clarify the broad problem definition
   • Together with the team, we identified market opportunities and aligned them with company OKRs
   • I created iterative customer journey maps focusing on the decarbonization phase
   • We developed persona cards for primary and secondary users
   • I mapped the existing advisory team process to identify gaps and opportunities

2. Problem Mapping and Goal Setting

   • I facilitated a session to define the long-term goal for the project
   • We created a comprehensive map of actors and actions leading to the end goal
   • I prepared targeted questions for team input in upcoming sessions

3. Expert Consultation and Problem Targeting

   • I presented the problem map to stakeholders in individual interviews
   • We collected and documented stakeholder feedback
   • I guided the team in transforming feedback into "How Might We" (HMW) statements
   • Together, we organized HMW statements into categories
   • We selected a specific target HMW statement to focus on in the sketching session

4. Solution Ideation

   • I led a review of insights gathered throughout the week
   • I facilitated a team sketching session to generate solution ideas
   • We connected ideas with personas, customer journey, and unique differentiators

5. Concept Refinement and Presentation

   • I transformed our sketches into a cohesive flowchart diagram
   • I developed comprehensive wireframes incorporating key insights and ideas
   • We presented the flowchart and wireframes to the internal team
   • We delivered the final presentation to leadership

Deliverables and Artifacts

Throughout the sprint, we created several key deliverables that guided our thinking and decision-making.

I spearheaded the effort to define Carbon Direct’s market positioning for its decarbonization solution. This involved a thorough analysis of our unique value proposition and how it fits within the broader market landscape. I ensured this positioning aligned with our company’s objectives and key results (OKRs), creating a clear link between our product strategy and overall business goals.

I facilitated the creation of comprehensive user journey maps capturing the entire customer experience across the carbon management process, with special emphasis on the critical decarbonization phase. Through multiple iterations and collaborative sessions, we refined these maps based on insights about varying customer “carbon maturity” levels, providing a nuanced view of user needs at different stages of their decarbonization journey.

Building on our research and analysis, I guided the team in developing detailed persona cards representing our ideal platform customers. I was thrilled to uncover the concept of “carbon maturity” levels, which emerged as a key lens for prioritizing features and solutions. Each persona card included rich detail about user goals, pain points, and needs, serving as a valuable reference throughout our design process.

I interviewed members of our science advisory team, gaining deep insight into their tasks, challenges, and needs when working with customers on decarbonization strategies. This documentation ensured our solutions were firmly grounded in the realities faced by our internal experts, bridging the gap between scientific expertise and user-friendly platform design.

I facilitated the creation of a comprehensive map representing key actors in the decarbonization workstream, which served as a foundation for gathering feedback from our cross-functional team. I then led the effort to distill that feedback into actionable “How Might We” (HMW) statements, capturing both user and internal-team pain points and providing clear direction for our ideation process.

Using our HMW statements as prompts, I organized and facilitated a dynamic sketching session. This collaborative effort ensured our team generated a wide range of potential solutions directly addressing the identified challenges. The sketches served as a visual brainstorm, capturing innovative ideas and potential feature concepts.

Synthesizing insights from all previous sprint stages, I developed a comprehensive flowchart diagram that formed the backbone of our 6-month decarbonization roadmap. This flowchart connected our proposed solutions into a coherent, actionable plan, illustrating how different features and touchpoints would work together to address user needs and business objectives.

To effectively communicate our ideas and proposed solutions to stakeholders, I created detailed wireframes. These brought our key concepts to life, showcasing the potential user interface and interactions, and served as a powerful tool for facilitating discussions around feasibility, impact, and next steps.

Challenges Encountered During the Sprint

As the senior product designer facilitating this sprint, I encountered and overcame several challenges. Two significant hurdles were managing scope and focus, and maximizing limited stakeholder availability.

Managing Scope and Focus

The challenge: After our first day, the breadth of gaps and opportunities we had identified was overwhelming. It became clear we couldn’t address all of them within the constraints of our sprint, potentially derailing our progress.

My approach:

• I quickly brought the issue to the team’s attention, facilitating an open discussion about the various opportunities and their potential impact.
• Together, we made the difficult but necessary decision to draw a line in the sand and move forward with a specific long-term goal.
• I ensured we thoroughly documented our decision-making process, anticipating the need to justify our choice later.
• We created a backlog of the other identified opportunities, preserving these valuable insights for future exploration.

The outcome: This allowed us to move forward with a clear focus while keeping track of future areas to explore. We chose a goal that would best synergize with our customer needs and business objectives. By addressing this challenge head-on, we maintained momentum and delivered more impactful results by the end of the week, while demonstrating our strategic thinking to stakeholders.

Maximizing Limited Stakeholder Availability

The challenge: Ensuring efficient use of our science advisors’ limited time during the sprint was crucial. These key stakeholders had numerous responsibilities, and their availability was constrained.

My approach:

• I conducted preliminary research to understand the science advisors’ roles and responsibilities.
• This groundwork allowed my team to formulate informed assumptions about their work processes and pain points.
• I established a clear schedule and structure for each interview, preparing targeted questions and scenarios based on our assumptions.
• During the interviews, we focused on quickly validating or challenging these assumptions, rather than engaging in open-ended discussions.

The outcome: This strategic approach let us gather maximum insight in minimum time, respecting our stakeholders’ busy schedules while still obtaining crucial information. The experience underscored the importance of preparation and strategic thinking in design sprints, especially when working with stakeholders who have significant time constraints.

Outcomes and Impact

It was rewarding to see our project receive praise from peers and leadership for rapidly aligning the team and generating meaningful solutions. The “carbon maturity” concept we developed was further iterated upon and integrated into the company’s strategic thinking. One of the most rewarding outcomes was seeing how the project improved collaboration between advisory and platform teams and gave leadership insight into the challenges and opportunities of productizing bespoke solutions.

While the Decarbonization team unfortunately dissolved shortly after the design sprint due to the Product Manager’s departure, the impact of our work continued to resonate. I was reassigned to the “Measure” workstream, where I applied the insights and methodologies from this sprint to drive significant results over the next seven months:

Lessons

This experience reaffirmed my belief that Design Sprints are a powerful tool for focusing a team and generating meaningful solutions, even within tight constraints. But I learned that a tool like the Design Sprint is only effective when tailored to the unique needs of its participants. Drawing on years of experience with various design processes, I was able to quickly adapt this approach to fit our specific circumstances.

Tools like the Design Sprint are only effective when tailored to the unique needs of their participants.

This experience also helped me hone my ability to communicate how the process could streamline our work and deliver impactful results. Leveraging my background as a design consultant and founder, I was able to speak the language of my cross-functional colleagues, aligning our efforts and ensuring successful collaboration.

Cross-functional collaboration is key to the success of large and complex initiatives.