2 years ago I read Jake Knapp’s Sprint book and it changed my approach to product development for ever! Since then I have run over 20 Sprints for startups, SMEs, large Enterprise companies and digital agencies.
A short history …
The Design Sprint process is the brainchild of Jake Knapp, who used the process to orchestrate the successful launch of products such as Gmail and Hangouts (now Meet) during his time at Google.
After hundreds of sprints and countless success stories, Jake moved fulltime into Google Ventures where the Design Sprint process was refined and applied to many of GV’s portfolio companies like Uber, Slack and Nest to name a few. Jake and several other GV design partners worked together to publish the Sprint book, which was released on March 8, 2016 and very quickly became a NY Times Bestseller.
A new approach to better, products faster…
I remember how I felt after completing my Scrum Master training (some 12 years ago yikes..) and returning to the software business I had co-founded to announce to everyone that we were moving to Agile. It was an exciting moment and I was fortunate enough to have a fantastic, talented team that embraced the change and the results were phenomenal. It worked for us and for thousands of other software teams around the world.
Getting releasable versions of software to production and into customers hands in weeks/months rather than months/years was incredibly valuable in terms of early learnings and insights. But the pressure for companies to innovate quicker and deliver better products faster, just keeps on mounting. Everyone and everything seems to be “transforming” and it is no longer a winning formula to be Agile and able to achieve validated learnings in weeks and months.
So when the Google Sprint book was released in 2016, the timing couldn’t have been better. The idea that you could go from challenge to a testable prototype solution in just 5 days seemed like a myth. If not a myth then surely only for the elite “valley” folks.
Wow this works and can be used by anyone …
I was wrong, obviously. After reading the book, creating a checklist and running my first trial design sprint. It was clear that the tools and techniques could be applied to great effect, with a bit of prep, by anyone who has a passion for solving problems.
Designing and building digital products and services is a risky and expensive business. The ability to learn whether a possible solution solves the challenge within 5 days, puts the team in a very strong position. If the prototype we test on day 5 doesn’t quite work for the target user group. Then we go again (normally only 1 more 4 day iteration) until we settle on a solution worthy of the time and effort required to create a shippable software release. And with way more certainty that we will not be wasting client and shareholders money.
My top 5 …
My top 5 reasons why every product design team needs to read the book, make their checklist and start running design sprints if you haven’t already.
Design sprints help you validate or invalidate a design solution in 5 days, before moving ahead with the expensive business of product design and development — good for any size company and product team
Design sprints help foster a culture of innovation and brings teams closer together through an intense but highly focussed and rewarding process — good for large companies who are struggling to innovate
Design sprints can help you get your idea off the ground in the right way and offers a fantastic entry point into defining your early stage product strategy — good for startups who may be struggling with where to start
Design sprints help you achieve a better understanding of your customers and the problems you are trying to solve for them — good for anyone building a digital product or service
Design sprints help you create a tangible representation of your product. Combined with real user insights, can be used to sell your idea into senior management or help raise funds for ongoing development — good if you are struggling to get buy-in to your ideas or raise funds
Stay tuned, my next post will cover practical learnings and insights from running Design Sprints for a large variety of clients with different challenges, business goals and user needs.
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