Final answer:
An entry-level designer during a design sprint may contribute to defining the problem through customer interviews, expert analysis, and evaluating existing products. This early phase ensures a structured and informed foundation for further idea generation, concept selection, prototyping, and testing.
Step-by-step explanation:
During a design sprint, the role of an entry-level designer is multifaceted. An additional task that an entry-level designer could perform in the initial days of the sprint, beyond ideating and helping decide on potential solutions, is defining the problem. In the early stages of a sprint, defining the problem is crucial, and it often involves tactics like customer interviews, analyzing information from experts, and evaluating existing products or technical data.
The participation of an entry-level designer in this phase ensures that the design process is grounded in a well-understood challenge. This could involve activities such as mind searches, conducting design sessions, and participating in brainstorming with the team, all of which contribute to a structured approach to innovation. Furthermore, the idea dumps that form as a result of brainstorming are crucial as they foster creative solutions that could address the defined problem effectively.
Once the problem is defined, requirements and constraints are identified, and brainstorming alternative solutions ensues. All these ideas are evaluated, leading to the selection of a design concept that meets the criteria and can be moved further into the design process towards prototyping and testing.