A design sprint, not to be confused with a scrum sprint or other types of sprints, is a 5-day process to build and test a new product or idea. It was created by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky while working with other companies at Google Ventures.

Since the initial release of the design sprint, it has been bent, broken, modified, and challenged.....and it still holds up as one of the best ways to align your team and solve big problems fast. However, the design sprint is such a powerful tool that it should not be used all the time. It's a set of 5 intense workshop sessions that requires a lot of time and effort from your team to execute. With that in mind, here's when you should consider using it:

‍

‍

When should I use Design Sprint? 

‍

1. Project Kick-offs
2. Testing a new big risky idea
3. When your team has been stuck on the same problem for a while
4. When you want to introduce your team to design thinking principles
   ‍

Know that the design sprint can be modified and broken down to meet your needs. I often shorten it to just 3 days when working with teams, or pull specific sessions out of it to reach a smaller, individual outcome. Buckle in, the design sprint is king for a reason, because it's a beast to set-up and execute.

How do I start using Design Sprints?

Here's a general outline of the outcomes you'll achieve each day:
‍

‍

Monday: (Collect)

1. Dive deep into the problem space
2. Identify and align on the long-term goal
3. Create a visual representation of the user flow
4. Align on the area you want to influence
   
   ‍

Tuesday: (Create)

1. Find and share ideas
2. Generate possible solutions
3. Recruit users to test with
   
   ‍

Wednesday: (Choose, Commit):

1. Choose which solution(s) to bring to life
2. Dive deeper to define and align on the solution
3. Create user script & research scoring
   
   ‍

Thursday: (Build)

1. Bring the prototype to life
   
   ‍

Friday: (Test)

1. Perform testing
2. Synthesize insights
3. Determine next steps

‍

‍

Who do I invite to a Design Sprint?

The design sprint typically revolves around a core or durable product team which can represent business needs and customer needs while evaluate usability and feasibility risks. While it's best to have all of these roles filled by individual team members, you can modify the contributors based on your needs. The only rule to stick to is not to let the sprint get too big. I usually try to keep it to 7 team members or less.

‍

‍

Decider: The Decider is the person who makes the final decisions during the sprint. This person usually has the authority and knowledge to make decisions that will influence the outcome of the project. They play a key role in resolving disagreements and ensuring the sprint stays on track.
‍

‍

Customer Expert: This role is held by someone who has deep insights into the needs, behaviors, and preferences of the customers. They bring valuable knowledge about customer experiences and expectations, which is crucial for developing customer-focused solutions.
‍

‍

Design Expert: The Design Expert brings in expertise in design principles, methods, and best practices. Their role is to guide the team in creating user-centric designs, ensuring the solutions are not only functional but also aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly.
‍

‍

Technical Expert: This participant has expertise in the technical aspects relevant to the project, such as software engineering, programming, or technical infrastructure. They help the team understand the technical feasibility of proposed solutions and contribute to building a viable prototype.
‍

‍

Sprint Expert: The Sprint Expert is usually someone who is well-versed in the Design Sprint process itself. They guide the team through the sprint, ensuring that the process is followed correctly and efficiently. This role often involves facilitation, timekeeping, and helping the team stay focused on the sprint goals.

‍

Monday Guide
‍

‍

Goal 1: Dive deep into the problem space
‍

Those who are experienced in design sprints understand that the sprints success hinges on the learnings and knowledge of the user by the participating team. Some facilitators or design agencies will even run user research interviews before the sprint starts to make sure they have a handle on the problem space.

‍

Here’s what you need your team, or at least the customer expert, to know:
‍

1. Painpoints of the user - what is the user struggling with?
2. Desires of the user - what is the user actually trying to accomplish?
3. Existing product use cases - how do they currently reach their desired outcome or accomplish their job?
   ‍

There are many ways to communicate customer learnings to prime the team during the sprint, but the design sprint uses one called “Expert Interviews”. It can be a little tricky, and it’s recommended that the sprint facilitator has experience running this exercise before trying it out. Here’s how to make it happen

‍

‍

‍

Expert Interviews

‍

Outcome: Everyone in the room has an understanding of a specialist issue, derived from listening to an expert. The group has a collection of opportunities to explore captured on stickynotes.

Expert Interviews use a simple note-taking exercise called “How Might We.” (HMW) that can be turned into challenges to be worked on.

‍

Here’s what ‘How Might We’ note-taking means:

‍

• “How” suggests that there is going to be a solution,
• “Might” implies that there are many possible ways of solving this problem and removes the pressure of coming up with the perfect solution,
• “We” indicates that the whole group will work on the solution together.

‍

While the interview is taking place, everyone works individually to write down each problem/opportunity they can think of on a separate sticky note in the HMW format (one HMW per sticky note).

‍

‍

Here’s an example of how to turn a problem you hear into a HMW:
‍

“If one of our customers has had a bad experience with us, we find it difficult and expensive to win them back, and we often lose them.” You could rephrase that into a HMW...

How might we win back customers who have had a bad experience?

‍

‍

After everyone understands what they’re doing and why, start your expert interviews. You can use some of the questions below for customer experts:
‍

1. Question 1: Can you describe the typical challenges and pain points our customers face in their journey with our product/service?
2. Question 2: Based on your experience, what features or aspects of our product/service do customers value the most, and why?
3. Question 3: Are there any emerging trends or changing needs among our customers that we should be aware of and consider in our design process?

‍

I also like to use this technique with the decider or business stakeholder to help the team understand their motivations. Ask the decider (or the person who has the most knowledge of the business and company strategy) some of the questions below to help prime the team for the long-term goal of the sprint.
‍

1. Question 1: What are the long-term objectives of this project, and how do they align with our overall business strategy?
2. Question 2: Can you identify any key risks or potential roadblocks that could impact the success of this project?
3. Question 3: From your perspective, what would constitute a successful outcome for this Design Sprint?

‍

Once the interview is completed, you, as the facilitator, will ask each participant, one by one, to stick their HMW questions on the wall and read them aloud to the group. The goal here is not for each person to explain each HMW in detail, simply read what's on the sticky note. Give each person 1 minute to stick up and read all their HMW’s. Finally, have your team vote on the top 4-5 HMW questions to focus on during the sprint.

‍

‍

Here's what your final HMW board should look like: 

‍

‍

Goal 2: Identify and align on the long-term goal

‍

Okay, so you’ve explored the problem space, and you have some insights from your business expert into the overall market, direction, and strategy of the product. Now it’s time to get specific. It’s time to define and align on the goal of the sprint.

Here’s how you can easily get your team to create and commit to the sprint goal:

‍

Long-term Goal:

‍

Outcome: Alignment on a visionary, positive long-term goal for a product or service

‍

Tell the group that this goal is an optimistic vision, something like a North Star, which does not take possible obstacles into consideration.
‍

‍

1. Explain that formulating a 2-Year Goal helps gain a common direction for further workshop exercises.
2. Everyone will write “In 2 years time...” at the top of their sticky note and then each individual is to complete the sentence about what they believe the future will look like.
3. Make sure that the group understands that they should write one goal per stickynote.
4. Give the group some examples to help them get started. The goals on the left are good examples, as they are concise and give an optimistic, yet tangible vision. The goals on the right are less useful as they are too broad and vague.
5. Ask each participant, one by one, to put their sticky notes with the 2-year-goals on the wall and read them aloud to the group. The goal here is not for each person to explain each goal in detail, but to simply read what's on the sticky note. Give each person 1 minute to stick up and read all their sticky notes.
6. Hand out one red voting dot to everyone except the Decider.
7. Give the group 4 more minutes to read through the sticky notes on the wall and then choose one 2-year-goal that they think has the clearest, most inspirational vision. If they have made their decision, they can put their red dot on that stickynote at any time. Everyone is allowed to vote on their own sticky note.
8. In the next step, the Decider gets one green dot. The Decider has 3 minutes to take a look at the sticky notes and make a final decision for one 2-year-goal. The opinions of the team in the form of the red dots can support the Decider in this decision making process.
9. The Decider will put the green dot on the sticky note that they choose and then will read out the 2-year-goal to the team.

‍
‍

You can also take this goal a few steps further to define metrics, and even do a pre-mortum on what might prevent your team from reaching the sprint goal. For now, we’ll keep moving.
‍

‍
‍

Goal 3: Create a visual representation of the user flow
‍

You’re getting close to finishing off the first day of the design sprint! Before you conclude the day, you need to make sure the team all has the same understanding of the users, their workflow, and where the sprint goal and HMW’s you just create line up with it.

Here’s how to make it happen with your team:

The User Journey Map
‍

‍

Outcome: A map with the different stages of a product journey. Having a high-level map also helps with choosing an area of maximum impact to focus on and defining the course of action
‍

Start with the following template below with ‘Users’ or ‘Actors’ on the left, and the following flow: 
‍

‍
Discover --> Learn --> Use --> Goal.

‍

Here's an example of what a completed map looks like: 

‍

1. Start by jotting down ‘Actors’–all the people who interact with the system. To keep it high-level, try to keep the number of Actors to four max, and group them if necessary (i.e. Customer Service team). After listing all relevant Actors, choose the main one - the user of this product or service that you want to focus on most.
   ‍
2. The next step is defining the end goal you want the main Actor to achieve. What do they currently want to achieve in our product? What do they want to get done?
   ‍
3. Use the sprint goal you just generated to help derive your map goal

Now that you have the actors and the goal, it’s time to let the team independently generate their maps.

‍

I like to give the team between 6-8 sticky notes each to limit the number of steps that can happen between the starting point and the goal. This will help keep the maps high-level and force the team to only include the most important crucial portions of the user journey.

‍

Sometimes it can be helpful to have the team just focus on the use portion of the user journey in a sprint and toss the discover and learn steps or align on an “opening scene” for everyone to have the same starting point. Below is an example of how you should set up your different maps for all of your team members.

‍

‍

‍

Bring everyone back together after they have completed their maps and have each team member present the map on the board. Line them up like the example below.
‍

Finally, ask every team member to vote on which map they think best represents the journey and have the decider make the final call. An experienced facilitator can also identify the most important portions and overlaps across the maps and generate a new map from the individual ones.

‍

YES! You have all the pieces in place to keep moving with your sprint! Now let’s put them all together and make a final decision.

Goal 4: Align on the area you want to influence

Here we go, it’s your

‍

‍

‍

‍

CONGRATS, you completed 1 day of the design sprint! Take a look back at all of the assets and outcomes that you have accomplished and aligned on with your team.
‍

‍
If you want to learn more, feel free to get in touch with me or use the MIRO board here.