Design Sprints: A Step-By-Step Guide
Digital and innovation teams should deliver high-quality results within a short period of time while remaining within budget. In reality, however, many projects are dragging on. We are convinced that it doesn't have to be this way. That's why design sprints are an essential tool for every project manager.
Perhaps one of these observations also applies to your team:
- Interdisciplinary teams are faced with the challenge of developing joint business goals and aligning their work accordingly.
- Teams are working towards unclear goals. The scope of the project changes repeatedly and the adjustments create a diffuse sense of aimlessness.
- Teams lack the data basis for making decisions. Instead, they have endless discussions.
- Teams should be “innovative,” but they don't know where to start and in which direction to run.
- Product development cycles are long. As a result, teams lose motivation and run out of “breath”.
Design Sprints are an effective approach that teams use to solve problems faster, more collaboratively, and more efficiently. The process allows ideas to be developed and reviewed quickly in just a few days. It helps teams achieve better results in less time. The important thing is: You must set aside four days for this as a team. That means canceling appointments, muting the phone and closing the laptop. This is the only way you can work together effectively.
The design sprint process was developed at Google Ventures in Silicon Valley and is used in companies worldwide. The Design Sprint brings cross-functional teams and stakeholders together.
In this step-by-step guide, we answer the following questions:
- What is a Design Sprint?
- Why should I do a Design Sprint?
- How does a Design Sprint work?
- When should I do a Design Sprint?
- Who takes part in a Design Sprint?
- Which tools do I use in a Design Sprint?
- What happens after a Design Sprint?
- What are the success factors for Design Sprints?
This guide will help you get a deeper understanding of Design Sprints. So let's dive in!
#1 What is a Design Sprint?
The Design Sprint supports organizations that want to work quickly and efficiently on digital and innovation projects. A Design Sprint is a structured 4-day process for solving complex problems. It is used to develop new products or services and to promote innovation. Design Sprints combine other innovative approaches such as design thinking, prototyping, and user testing. The aim is to validate ideas in a short period of time and to create user-oriented solutions.
The Design Sprint condenses months of work into 4 days.
The Design Sprint process is a collaborative process. It involves cross-functional teams and stakeholders and is designed to streamline the development process.
Important framework conditions for a Design Sprint are:
- Duration: 4 days, e.g. from Monday to Thursday from approx. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- No distractions: During this time, you cannot accept any further obligations, e.g. calls or work phases.
- Team: At least 4 people, including one person who can make decisions.
- Presenter: A person who guides you through the process and demands decisions. Presenters cannot participate in the sprint themselves.
- Customers: To run a test on the fourth day, you need access to real customers. Especially when it comes to B2B ideas, it is important to make a good selection in this regard.
- Space/material: In order for you to be able to work in the same room for four days, it should meet certain criteria, such as daylight and the ability to ventilate. It should be equipped with whiteboards, pens, and post-its.
#2 Why should I do a Design Sprint?
Companies that want to make themselves fit for the future don't just need a good product. Companies can no longer rely on products that are still well placed on the market today. Constant market developments require further portfolio developments in ever shorter cycles in order to remain attractive. This requires powerful and innovative teams.
Keywords that describe innovative teams are Collaboration and Co-creation. In Design Sprint, we work collaboratively and co-creatively. After a short period of time, team members feel the efficiency of working together. After just 4 days, the idea is tested and ready for the next iteration. In everyday work, this process often takes months.
Design sprints are the fastest way for teams to grow together and find out whether a product or feature idea is worthwhile. Guessing and endless meetings that last weeks are being replaced by tangible and visible progress.
Design Sprints offer these benefits:
- Increased collaboration and engagement: Design Sprints bring cross-functional teams together. They enable better collaboration and the exchange of ideas.
- Shorter time to market: Design Sprints enable teams to quickly turn ideas into tangible and test them with the help of prototypes. This shortens the time until a product or service is launched on the market.
- Better focus on user needs: After a short time, we test the idea with real customers. From the outset, the design process ensures that the end product meets the needs and expectations of users. To check whether our assumptions were correct, we carry out a user test on the fourth day. That guarantees your success.
- Low risk: Design sprints enable teams to test their ideas and make changes early on. The risk of costly errors is thus reduced.
Improved innovation: Teams that carry out Design Sprints are encouraged to think creatively and question assumptions. Design Sprints therefore lead, on the one hand, to innovative solutions and better results. On the other hand, the mindset from the Design Sprint has an effect beyond the actual sprint.
#3 How does a Design Sprint work?
There are two different types of Design Sprints. The “classic” 5-day Design Sprint. The process from defining challenges to complete testing takes a total of 5 days. All participants in Design Sprint 1.0 take part in every day of the sprint and must free themselves for five days.
In particular, we moderate a 4-day version of the Design Sprint. Your team will take time to participate for at least the first two days. A smaller team then creates and tests the prototype. Compared to the 5-day Design Sprint, the content is streamlined without losing quality.
The Design Sprint is a 4-day process:
- On Day 1, we clarify the challenge that we would like to address over the course of the week in a group work phase. In the afternoon, the group is already developing initial solutions to solve the challenge.
- On Day 2, we select one of all possible solutions and decide as a group. From then on, we work on visualizing our ideas and making them testable. For this purpose, we use the Storyboard method, for example.
- On Day 3, part of the team develops a high-fidelity prototype in a short time with the help of our design team. It visualizes the idea and feels like a real product. Another part of the team is planning to carry out the user tests.
- On Day 4 we test the prototype in a small team. We observe how users interact with the product and record our observations. From this, we derive insights for further development and next steps.
#4 When should I do a Design Sprint?
There are various occasions along a project life cycle where it makes sense to carry out a Design Sprint. These depend primarily on specific requirements and project goals. The following are a few examples of when a Design Sprint can be useful:
- Common vision: New team, new challenge. You want to send a team on a journey with a digital or innovative project and a shared vision is missing. We use Design Sprints to develop and test visions.
- Starting a new project: Design Sprints help in the early stages of a project. Project teams get to know each other, build mutual trust and develop common goals.
- Develop new business models: Developing or adapting business models in ongoing business involves a high level of risk. In addition, this requires a lot of time. Design Sprints reduce risk and time to just a few days.
- Refining an existing product: Do you already have a product on the market and would like to further develop it? We identify the areas where it makes sense to improve the product and develop solutions.
The Design Sprint is not a miracle cure. However, the process is so flexible that many applications can be tailored to it. The big advantage is that you work together as a team for four days in a row and with few distractions. If you can't guarantee that, a Design Sprint isn't right for you.
And let's be honest: A Design Sprint alone won't solve all your challenges. It does not replace a process of transformation or strategy. However, for topics where you are just starting out, where you want to achieve a tangible result in a short period of time or for which you are looking for a fresh impulse, the Design Sprint is ideal. It can also be integrated as a component in transformation and strategy processes, for example.
#5 Who takes part in a Design Sprint?
Depending on the project and challenge, various roles take part in a Design Sprint. Typical roles include:
- Decision maker: Their participation is an absolute must. Decision makers have the last word in a Design Sprint. In a Design Sprint, many ideas and many potential solutions are often developed. Decision makers ensure goal-oriented work with their last word. This role saves teams lengthy discussions and works more efficiently. Decision makers are typically CEOs, founders, or product managers.
- Customer expert: Who knows customers best? Who is close to them? Employees from the areas of marketing or sales typically have the target group particularly well in the roles of marketing manager, sales manager, call center employee, PR or community management. Their experience is essential for a Design Sprint in order to take the needs of users into account right from the start.
- Experts: CTOs or IT architects have a deep understanding of technology. The participation of experts is particularly useful in Design Sprints, where technical feasibility is to be taken into account.
- Designer: On the third day of the Design Sprint, the prototype is developed, which is used to test the idea with customers. The implementation of the Design Sprint is the responsibility of the design.
- Presenter: They optimally guide the team through the process. Presenters ask questions, make decisions and ensure that the Design Sprint runs smoothly. Presenters should under no circumstances work themselves in terms of content or design in the Design Sprint.
#6 Which tools do I use in a Design Sprint?
Design Sprints have the greatest power when they are carried out on site and the entire team is physically in one room. The collaboration takes place using analog tools. Ideas are written on post-its and glued to whiteboards. Timers help you divide the day into smaller sections and not get bogged down. In general, the following tools help in a Design Sprint:
- Post-its in various colors and sizes
- 2 whiteboards and magic paper (alternatively brown paper)
- 1 timer
- Felt-tip pens (easier to read than ballpoint pens), preferably Pentels or Sharpies
- Sticker dots for voting
- A supply of DIN A4 paper (blank)
- Fruit and healthy snacks
- Enough drinks (e.g. water)
- Coffee and tea (as high quality as possible)
- Light lunch (preferably delivered to the office)
#7 What happens after a Design Sprint?
You leave the Design Sprint with a tangible presentation of your product. You have already tried it out with your first customers and collected starting points for the further development of the idea. After the Design Sprint, however, you are quickly caught back in everyday life. So that all the insights and motivation don't fall apart like a house of cards after the Design Sprint, we attach great importance to planning the next steps with you on the fourth day.
You leave the Design Sprint with a binding to-do list. There, in coordination within the team, we record who will continue and complete which tasks by what point in time. This is how you use the resulting momentum to achieve your goals.
It is also possible to carry out an iterative sprint. Here, we develop the idea further, incorporate the findings from testing and push your idea forward until completion.
#8 What are the success factors for Design Sprints?
There are various factors that contribute to making a Design Sprint a success. The Design Sprint process already lays a good basis for your success. In contrast to the design thinking process, the procedure is more streamlined, feels more structured and the period from the idea to the tested solution is in many cases shorter.
In working together, we rely on four Design Sprint principles that contribute to success:
- We work “alone together”: All participants are working towards the same specific goal. We use the individual thoughts and ideas of everyone involved to achieve good results as a team. To do this, we rely on individual work phases, the results of which then find their way into the group. We're replacing endless discussions with decisions and progress. Therefore, this principle is the most important principle.
- Starting is more important than making it perfect from the start: We always like to immediately start with the "best throw" and tinker for a long time on the perfect solution. Our experience shows: It is better to start and gradually improve the supposedly best solution through iteration. In Design Sprints, we get results quickly and test them promptly. The knowledge gained then helps us to make the idea even better in the next step.
- Showing is better than explaining: In everyday life, we often explain ideas with many words. Our colleagues want to understand the idea, but interpret it with their own ideas. In Design Sprints, we make our ideas tangible again and again, e.g. through sketches or the final prototype.
- Don't rely on creativity: You don't have to be particularly creative to carry out a Design Sprint. After all, creativity is not important. In Design Sprints, we use effective exercises that get the best out of all participants. This is how we come up with a good solution as a team.
In addition to the principles, there are a number of other factors that contribute to making a Design Sprint effective and successful. These are the most important:
- A clear goal: The Design Sprint should have a clear goal that is known to all participants and that they can work towards.
- (External) moderation: The Design Sprint should be led by an experienced Sprint moderator. This person guides participants through the process and ensures that the goal is achieved. We always recommend working with external moderators and never taking on a dual role of moderation and content design.
- A decision maker: This person should be present on day 1 and day 2 and be available at all times. Otherwise, there is a risk of decisions being revoked or existing decisions being questioned.
- An interdisciplinary team: The team participating in the Design Sprint should consist of different disciplines and perspectives to generate a wide range of ideas and opinions.
- Collaboration and communication: An effective Design Sprint requires an open and collaborative work environment in which participants can share and discuss ideas.
- An open mind: A Design Sprint requires participants to be open to new ideas and willing to question traditional approaches.
- Time limit: Design Sprints should generally take no longer than five days to ensure that the team stays focused and achieves the goal. Longer isn't always better!
- No laptops or cell phones: In a Design Sprint, we work with our hands and post-its. Laptops are usually distracting. We recommend that you leave an absence note for the time of the Design Sprint and keep the e-mail inbox closed.
In addition to the factors mentioned above, there are of course plenty of other factors that are just as important for a successful Design Sprint, such as lots of snacks or a good workshop space. But these are also things that experienced moderators know and will guide you through the implementation.
We believe that Design Sprints are a good way to break out of familiar patterns of behavior and thinking and gain new experiences. The energy that all participants take away from just 4 days of a Design Sprint is enormous. The results of the Design Sprint in the form of a tested prototype speak for themselves.
Sounds interesting to you? Then try it out!
