EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

About Metabolic Shift

Metabolic Shift was an early-stage product concept exploring how a digital companion could help users fast more consistently and safely through real-time metabolic guidance.

Before moving into design or development, the team needed clarity on the behavioural problem, the product’s differentiation, and what success would look like. I led a structured 4-day product definition sprint to align stakeholders, surface risks, and define a focused MVP grounded in behavioural insight.

The sprint brought together Product, Engineering, Growth, and Data to move from ambiguity to a shared product direction and measurable learning plan.

Problem

The team had strong belief in the opportunity, but there was no shared understanding of:

• The real user problem

• How the product would differentiate from existing fasting apps

• Which behaviours we were trying to change

• What success looked like

Early discussions were drifting toward features rather than outcomes, creating a risk of building a solution that wouldn’t meaningfully impact user behaviour.

Without alignment, we risked investing time and engineering effort into a product that solved the wrong problem.

Solution

I designed and facilitated a 4-day cross-functional sprint to create clarity, reduce risk, and define a behaviour-driven MVP.

The sprint was structured to progressively move the team from understanding to decision-making:

Day 1 — Alignment & Problem Framing
We aligned on the target user, core tension, strategic constraints, and success metrics, surfacing key assumptions and risks.

Day 2 — Insight & Behavioural Context
Through market analysis, behavioural signals, and emotional journey mapping, we identified where uncertainty and decision conflict occurred during the fasting experience.

Day 3 — MVP Definition
Using a MoSCoW prioritisation workshop and experience blueprint, we defined a focused MVP designed to validate our core hypothesis.

Day 4 — Measurement & Experimentation
We established a success framework, instrumentation plan, and decision model to ensure the MVP would generate actionable learning post-launch.

This approach ensured the product direction was grounded in behavioural insight rather than feature assumptions.

Deliverables

By the end of the sprint, the team had a clear and actionable product foundation:

• Validated problem statement and behavioural hypothesis

• Market landscape and opportunity gaps

• Emotional journey map highlighting key intervention moments

• Design principles to guide future execution

• Clearly scoped MVP aligned to the core hypothesis

• Experience blueprint mapping key product moments

• Measurement framework with North Star metric and guardrails

• Experimentation and decision plan

These artefacts created a shared understanding across disciplines and provided a strong foundation for design and development.

Impact

The sprint transformed an ambiguous product idea into a clear, testable direction.

1. Strategic Impact

The team shifted from feature exploration to hypothesis-driven product thinking, aligning around behaviour change rather than functionality.

2. Team Alignment

Stakeholders left with a shared understanding of the problem, the opportunity, and the path forward, reducing the risk of misaligned execution.

3. Product Clarity

The MVP scope provided engineering with a focused build target, while the measurement plan ensured we could evaluate impact and iterate confidently.

4. Decision Confidence

By defining success criteria upfront, the team was equipped to treat the MVP as a learning experiment rather than a one-time release.

PROCESS BREAKDOWN

Structuring the Sprint

The goal of the sprint was to create clarity before committing to design or build. Rather than jumping into solutions, I structured the sprint to progressively move the team from understanding the problem to defining a measurable product direction.

Each day focused on a specific outcome, ensuring we built shared understanding first, then translated insights into decisions.

DAY 1 — ALIGNMENT & PROBLEM FRAMING

Why This Step Mattered

Early conversations revealed different interpretations of the problem across stakeholders. Without alignment, we risked designing a solution based on assumptions rather than a shared understanding of user needs.

What We Did

I facilitated a series of workshops to:

• Align on the target user and context

• Surface individual perspectives on the problem

• Identify strategic constraints (safety, technical, business)

• Define a behaviour-driven success metric

• Map key assumptions using an impact vs uncertainty framework

Outcome

By the end of Day 1, the team had:

✔ A shared problem statement
✔ A clear behavioural hypothesis
✔ Visibility of key risks
✔ Alignment on what success looked like

This created a strong foundation for the rest of the sprint.

DAY 2 — INSIGHT & BEHAVIOURAL CONTEXT

Why This Step Mattered

To design a meaningful solution, we needed to understand both the market landscape and the behavioural drivers influencing user decisions.

This step ensured we were solving a real behavioural problem rather than replicating existing patterns.

What We Did

We explored the category through:

• Market landscape review to identify gaps

• Directional behavioural signals to understand drop-off patterns

• Emotional journey mapping to uncover moments of uncertainty

• Hypothesis generation to connect insights to product direction

• Definition of design principles to guide future decisions

Outcome

We identified two critical moments where the product could create the most value:

⭐ The 12–24 hour reassurance phase
⭐ The 36–42 hour decision phase

These insights reframed the product from a tracking tool to a decision-support experience.

DAY 3 — MVP DEFINITION

Why This Step Mattered

With insights in place, the next step was to define the smallest product that could validate our hypothesis. This prevented scope creep and ensured focus on behaviour change rather than feature completeness.

What We Did

I facilitated a prioritisation workshop that included:

• Feature brainstorming to capture all ideas

• MoSCoW prioritisation to define MVP scope

• Experience blueprint mapping to visualise the end-to-end journey

Outcome

We defined a focused MVP centred around:

• Real-time metabolic guidance

• Decision support at key moments

• Safety onboarding and guardrails

This gave the team a clear and achievable build target.

DAY 4 — MEASUREMENT & EXPERIMENTATION

Why This Step Mattered

The purpose of the MVP was to validate behaviour change, not simply deliver features. Establishing a measurement framework ensured we could evaluate whether the product achieved its intended impact.

What We Did

We defined:

• The primary behavioural hypothesis

• A North Star metric and supporting metrics

• Safety guardrails to monitor risk

• Instrumentation requirements for analytics

• A decision framework outlining next steps based on results

Outcome

The MVP was positioned as a learning experiment with clear success criteria, enabling the team to move forward with confidence and a shared understanding of how to evaluate impact.

KEY ARTIFACTS & VISUALS

Throughout the sprint, I created a series of collaborative artefacts to align the team, surface insights, and support decision-making. These included problem framing workshops, behavioural mapping, MVP prioritisation, and a measurement framework.

Together, these artefacts document how the team moved from an initial concept to a clearly defined product direction grounded in behavioural insight.

Rather than presenting each exercise individually, the full FigJam board is available below for those interested in exploring the process in detail.

Sprint Board

👉 View the full sprint board

This board captures the evolution of thinking across the four days, including workshop outputs, key decisions, and the artefacts that shaped the final MVP direction.

WHAT THIS DEMONSTRATES

This sprint reflects how I approach early-stage product challenges: by creating clarity before committing to solutions.

Rather than jumping into design, I focused on aligning stakeholders around the right problem, surfacing behavioural insights, and defining a measurable direction. The outcome wasn’t just a set of artefacts, it was shared confidence in what to build, why it mattered, and how success would be evaluated.

This work highlights my ability to:

• Facilitate cross-functional alignment in ambiguous spaces

• Translate complex discussions into clear decisions

• Balance user needs with business, technical, and safety considerations

• Define strategy and success criteria before execution

• Use structured frameworks to reduce product risk

Ultimately, this sprint demonstrates how I contribute beyond interface design, by helping teams move from ideas to informed, outcome-driven product decisions.