Designed and facilitated a 2-week sprint that turned existing research into a habit-forming product concept for elite athletes — built on Nir Eyal's Hooked model.
REM42 (Duroflex) × INSPIRE Institute · Design Facilitation · 2022
REM42 (a sleep-coaching company) partnered with the INSPIRE Institute to help athletes sleep and perform better — a new, unfamiliar user group. The research team had done the discovery; what was missing was a way to turn it into a product concept the whole cross-functional team believed in. I designed and ran the workshop that did that, structuring it around a behavioural-design framework so the output would drive habit formation, not just a feature list.
"DESIGN TO INFLUENCE BEHAVIOUR"
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WHAT I PERSONALLY OWNED
The research was the researchers'; the convergence was mine
The Challenge
REM42 had a basic sleep app but was entering an unfamiliar, demanding segment — high-performance athletes aged roughly 12–25 — and had research but no agreed direction. The risk in that situation is a workshop that generates a wall of sticky notes and no decision. My job was to design a process that would reliably move a diverse group (designers, PMs, athletes, coaches, institute staff) from divergent input to a concept leadership could actually commit to.
HOW I SET IT UP?
Because the research already existed, I didn't re-run it — I made observations and secondary research regarding the INSPIRE Institute and the market for tracking vitals to familiarise myself with the athletes' world and current technologies, then built the workshop to convert the existing research into direction rather than gather more. That distinction kept a tight timeline realistic.
The Facilitation Approach
I structured the engagement in two phases:
PHASE 1: BUILD SHARED CONTEXT (2 WEEKS, ~2 HRS/DAY)
Before any ideation, I ran a "sleep spirit" alignment phase using games, quizzes, and Pechakucha sessions, plus a domain talk from Dr. Tripat and input from athletes and coaches. The point: a cross-functional group can't converge until it shares a mental model. This phase is what made the later sprint fast.
PHASE 2: A 5 - DAY DESIGN SPRINT
I designed and ran the daily structure:
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Days 1–2 — Diverge then sort: Broke "How Might We" questions into smaller inquiries, ran four rounds of brainwriting for breadth, then sorted the raw solutions into niches to remove duplication. Captured Needs & Wants for each user type (athlete, coach, assistant coach) and distilled them into a Value Proposition Canvas via voting.
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Day 1&2
Day 3
Day 4&5
Understanding
users
Sorting
solutions
Needs & Wants
Value
Proposition
Presentation & Feedback
Concept & Roadmap
User journey & Scenarios
Solution sketches
DAY 1 & 2
HMW #3 & #4: Producing mass solution
How Might We: #3
How Might We: #4
ACTIVITY 1: BRAINSTORM
Unfiltered set of solution for #3 & #4 on day 1
ACTIVITY 2: SORTING IDEATED SOLUTIONS
Categorizing solutions derived from brainstorming session
ACTIVITY 3: NEEDS & WANTS
Ideating on possible set of features based on the needs and wants contributed by the team
ACTIVITY 4: VALUE PROPOSITION
Value Proposition Canvas
DAY 3
DAY 3: DEFINE THE JOURNEY
Prioritised with a WOW/POW/NOW system (engaging-and-impactful / irrelevant / must-have-now), then mapped the user journey and sketched where each solution lived.
ACTIVITY 1: VOTING
Narrowing down solutions via Voting system
ACTIVITY 2: USER JOURNEY & SCENARIOS
Mapping customer journey
ACTIVITY 3: SKETCHING
Sketching out the journey derived
DAY 4 & 5
DAY 4 & 5 - PRESENT & COMMIT
Both teams presented to REM42 decision-makers, who agreed to build a combined plan from the strongest solutions; I then planned the roadmap with the PMs.
Value proposition brought to table by both teams
THE CONCEPT
The majority of athletes are between 12 and 25 years old. They don't like long, boring guides or a serious approach. They want something fun, engaging, and interesting to catch their attention, making it enjoyable for them to develop habits or routines. As designers, we found a playful way to implement solutions from the workshop to grab users' interest.
Concept to hook athletes into using our sleep health app
The key facilitation decisions
Why two weeks of context-building before a five-day sprint?
A sprint only works if everyone shares a baseline. Front-loading alignment with a mixed group of athletes, coaches, and product people meant the ideation phase didn't stall on basic disagreements — the slow start bought speed later.
Why WOW/POW/NOW instead of open discussion?
With a large, enthusiastic, non-designer group, unstructured prioritisation drifts. A simple, visible framework let everyone prioritise honestly and fast, and gave leadership a defensible rationale for what made the cut.
Applying the Hook model to the real audience.
The research pointed to a 12–25 audience that rejects long, earnest guidance and responds to playful, engaging mechanics. I anchored the concept in a habit-forming (Hook-model) approach so the output matched how this audience actually builds routines — behavioural design, not decoration.
Inspired from Hook's model
Outcome
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A single, prioritised product concept — a gamified sleep-health experience for young athletes — synthesised from many divergent workshop solutions.
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A cross-functional group aligned around one direction, with leadership committing to develop it.
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A roadmap planned with PMs, setting up concept testing with athletes as the next phase.
What made this work?
The value here wasn't a polished screen — it was convergence. A well-sequenced process turned existing research and a big, mixed group into a decision, fast: the two-week context phase made the sprint efficient, and the WOW/POW/NOW structure turned enthusiasm into priorities leadership could act on. We deliberately deferred visual tone and aesthetics to keep the focus on concept; next time I'd reserve a slot for lightweight visual exploration within the sprint, so the concept hands off with a clearer look-and-feel — building that into the agenda is how I'd tighten the next workshop.