Design Sprints

You can test the ideas in a “design sprint” to create a prototype and test it with real customers within 5 days!

I have used design sprints allot and they never fail to produce amazing insight and ideas very quickly.
If you have a big problem to solve with a small amount of budget, time and resources then this is the method for you.
I can even come in and help you just click the button below and fill out the form. If you need more information then carry on reading.

Yes please

A design sprint needs a team of no more than 7 people, full time for 5 days.

Your shopping list:

Sticky notes
Plenty of sharpie pens
Stick dots
Masking tape
Plain paper
A timer
Snacks and drinks
Plenty of wall space
A whiteboard or 2 or 3
(you can never have enough)

You will also need a dedicated lockable room to host the sprint.
All of the Sprint team must clear their diaries for the duration of the Sprint to make sure they are focused and have no outside distractions.
Basically it’s like a working holiday.

Now you have your team, your room, your resources and the book as your guide it’s time to get started. Here is how your week will look:

Monday
Create a goal

Now you have your goal ask “how might we…” allot until you have a map of how to achieve that goal.
Tuesday
Sketch your idea

Time to dust off your pencil case and get creative. Use “crazy eights” to create a concept of how a customer journey might look.
Wednesday
Pick your best idea

Now vote for your personal favourite. The business owner gets extra votes or a “super vote” which gives them more power in the decision.
Thursday
create a prototype

Either digital and clickable if you have the skills or simply draw out the customer experience on paper and run the process manually.
Friday
test it with real customers

It’s time to share your work with your target market to get early honest feedback to kill or validate your idea. Fail fast, fail frequently then win.

At the end of week 1 you can chose to go in to a further week to finesse your idea and retest it with customers to gain more confidence.

Or if customers did not connect and validate your idea you can go back to Tuesdays sketches and Wednesdays idea scores and pick another one to take into a prototype and customer testing.

If this still does not work then you have failed fast and cheaply. Saving time and resources.

You could create a new problem statement or goal and try again to focusing on a different customer group or business problem.

In between these 2 phases there is a gap where you would create a pitch pack and sell the idea to gain support to move the prototype into the production phase.

If successful a team would need to be assembled and a vision or story shared with them to pitch the idea, roadmap and create a plan.

This where Agile deliver would come in. Find out more about that here.

Get the book to understand more and facilitate your own design print.