The ultimate guide to Design Sprints

What is a Design Sprint?

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A design sprint is a structured method for the rapid development and validation of ideas. It was developed in 2010 as a five-day workshop by Jake Knapp at Google Ventures and further refined a few years later as a four-day process to become Design Sprint 2.0.‍

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The aim of the design sprint is to find creative solutions to complex problems, create prototypes and test them with test subjects from the target group - all in just one working week. Design sprints combine methods from design thinking, lean startup and agile product development.

Design Sprint vs. Design Sprint 2.0

To avoid confusion right at the start, we want to differentiate the Design Sprint from Design Sprint 2.0. First things first:

The Design Sprint never had a problem with effectiveness...

...once it was up and running. It became increasingly apparent that it was almost impossible for many companies to implement.

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Releasing around 7 participants, many of whom also hold key positions, from all their duties for an entire working week? A mammoth task in practice.

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It became increasingly clear that a more realistic version was needed in a business context.

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The result was Design Sprint 2.0, which now only takes 4 days instead of 5. But that's not the most important change.

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In the original Design Sprint, all participants are expected to be present from Monday to Friday. In Design Sprint 2.0, only the first two days take place with all participants. After that, the design phase begins, in which the ideas developed in the workshop phase are developed into prototypes and then validated in user interviews. Everyone is on board for the workshop. Design then requires designers.

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For companies, this means that a pure in-house workshop requires a handful of employees for 2 days and the design team for 4 days. If an agency is brought in for the design sprint, no internal resources need to be blocked for more than 2 days.

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At brightside Studio, we have found our own approach to Design Sprint 2.0 that takes the best of both versions: Only 2 days of effort for the client's sprint team - then we pull back and take a full three days to create a high-quality prototype and test it in interviews.

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When can a Design Sprint be used?

A design sprint is ideal if you want to validate a new product idea quickly and with as little risk as possible.

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It helps to test major changes to the existing offering before time and budget are invested in implementation. Even if you have an innovative concept but the starting point is unclear, the sprint provides a clear structure for defining the first steps.

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And a design sprint can even make sense for existing products: If you are ready to explore new directions with your product, the design sprint creates the necessary space for this.

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What are the advantages of Design Sprints?

A design sprint produces tangible results in the shortest possible time - with minimal use of resources.

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Instead of months of coordination or endless concept phases, the sprint delivers the first viable solutions after just a few days. This not only makes it fast (hence the name)l, but also cost-efficient: teams achieve an output in just a few days that would otherwise take weeks or even months.

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At the same time, the sprint promotes innovative approaches, as different perspectives come together and work together on specific challenges.

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What are the disadvantages of Design Sprints?

Although a design sprint is effective, it also brings challenges. Without existing in-house experience in the team, implementation can be bumpy - especially if there is no external moderation.

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It also requires strong internal support: a sprint only works if decision-makers and specialist departments are willing to invest time and attention. And this is precisely the crux of the matter - the sprint itself is an investment: employees are taken out of their day-to-day business for several days.

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There is also a certain risk - because despite all the structure and user focus, the tested idea may not be convincing in the end.

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How to prepare a Design Sprint?

As the saying goes:

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“Planning is half the battle.”

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To make sure you don't stumble before your workshop even starts, we have collected answers to the most important questions about preparation.

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How do you pitch a design sprint internally?

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The first problem lurks right at the beginning - at least if you don't work in a position with a high level of decision-making authority for budgets.

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The question then arises: how do you get your decision-maker on board so that they give the green light for a design sprint?

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‍This is where the business value of design sprints comes into play.

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The Business Case for Design Sprints 2.0

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If you are pitching a Design Sprint 2.0 internally, you should be aware of the investment involved:

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• Your participating employees will not be able to carry out their usual tasks for the two workshop days, as they should concentrate fully on the design sprint workshop. If you hold the prototyping and user interviews in-house, a small core team from the sprint will be absent for 4 days.
• In order to recruit users from the target group for user testing, a budget must be planned.
• If the design sprint is to be held by external experts for the method, costs are also incurred for this.

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Don't hide these aspects in your pitch. Instead, address them openly and refute them with the business benefits of your planned design sprint.

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Benefit #1: Rapid Insights

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What would otherwise take several months is done in 5 days. From defining the problem to testing a solution with real users.

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Benefit #2: Save budget

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What if the user tests at the end of the sprint show that the designed solution does not work in the real application by users? Has the sprint then failed?

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No, on the contrary: in this case, an idea could not be validated - thus preventing it from being developed with a high investment over weeks and months. The reality is rarely black and white, but often also gray: these are all the cases in which an idea does not fail completely, but can be put on the road to success through an “early pivot”.

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Benefit #3: Foster innovation

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You can't really force innovative ideas. However, you can increase your chances of a stroke of genius by encouraging innovative thinking. This is exactly what happens in the Design Sprint: participants are explicitly encouraged to think “out of the box”. And by the way, being released from the usual tasks also works wonders for focus and creativity in the search for solutions.

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Benefit #4: Finding a common direction

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Day 1 of the design sprint is all about stakeholder alignment. Especially when internal debates about problems, prioritization and future steps keep breaking out in the company, a design sprint can help to finally get everyone on the same page.

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Choose sprinters: Who should take part?

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I'm building my Design Sprint team and I'm taking...

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There are no fixed rules for the composition and size of the sprint team, but there are a few rules of thumb:

Perhaps the most important rule is that the team should be interdisciplinary. Invite the most relevant experts from other departments who can bring a valuable perspective to the problem. This could be employees from marketing, customer service or sales.‍

In addition, your entire sprint team should keep their calendars free for the 2-day workshop at the beginning of the week. This also includes informing colleagues about the temporary unavailability.

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CEO as part of your Design Sprint? 

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Should the CEO himself be part of the sprint? ‍

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There is no clear answer to this question. But there are clear advantages and disadvantages.‍

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The advantages:

→ Important expertise: The CEO can speak directly for the vision, strategic goals and priorities of the company

→ Quick decisions: Key decisions can be approved directly

→ Flattened hierarchies: The CEO's participation can soften the silos and hierarchies between the other participants

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The disadvantages:

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→ Power dynamics: The presence of the CEO can intimidate other participants and discourage them from sharing their “out of the box” ideas.

→ Interruptions: For the Design Sprint, all participants should clear their calendars. This is often particularly difficult for CEOs with many commitments.

→ Distribution of roles: The sprint lead may find it difficult to maintain control of the workshop if the CEO is particularly active.

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If you are aware of these advantages and disadvantages, you can consciously address them during the planning stage - for example, by having the CEO attend the workshop only for the alignment on day 1, but not for the creative subsequent days.

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The most important roles in the design sprint team

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Good organization is the foundation for a successful design sprint. The less the workshop gets bogged down, the more time and concentration there is for creativity. It is therefore advisable to assign roles to the participants.

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When we hold design sprints with companies, we divide up the roles as follows:

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We cover these roles within the Sprint Team:

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→ Sprint Lead — Responsible for the entire sprint

→ Moderator — This person manages time, conversations and the entire sprint process. Should be able to lead meetings confidently and summarize discussions spontaneously.

→ Sprint Host — Responsible for food, snacks and drinks

→ Runner — Prepares workshop material and fetches e.g. food

→ Prototyper — Responsible for the creation of the prototype

→ Recruiter — Responsible for recruiting users for the interviews

→ Interviewer — Conducts the interviews on day 5

→ Notetaker — Take notes during the interviews.

→ Photographer — Documents the design sprint

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The company provides these roles:

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→ Decision-maker — Without a decision-maker, decisions do not stand. If the decision-maker is unable to attend the entire sprint week, he/she should appoint a deputy. By the way: The CEO does not necessarily have to be the decision-maker.

→ Experts — Share their knowledge and bring all participants up to the same state of knowledge.

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Where to find candidates for user testing?

No design sprint without real user insights - and no real user insights without suitable candidates for the interviews.

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Theoretically, the design sprint stipulates that users are only recruited after the end of the workshop phase, i.e. from day 3. This is because it is often only during the workshop that it becomes clear exactly what the target group for which the prototype is being built looks like.

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Theoretisch sieht der Design Sprint vor, dass die Nutzer erst nach dem Ende der Workshop-Phase, also ab Tag 3, rekrutiert werden. Denn oft wird erst während des Workshops klar, wie die Zielgruppe, für die der Prototyp gebaut wird, genau aussieht.

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How many users to interview? 

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We say: it should be 5, because even after 5 interviews, major patterns should emerge. Bear in mind that illness, forgetfulness or unreliability can lead to candidates dropping out. With a “reserve bank” of 1-2 users available on call, you are on the safe side.

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Where to find interviewees?

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This also depends on what phase your product is in. If it is already on the market, you can draw on active users via an incentive. If this is not the case, you can place ads via social networks, search in Facebook or LinkedIn groups, use tester pools from specialized agencies or outsource the entire recruitment process.

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How does a Design Sprint 2.0 work at brightside Studio?

In Design Sprint 2.0, the sketching of solutions planned for day 2 of the original Design Sprint is incorporated into day 1 of the workshop.

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This results in a 4-day sprint - but we at brightside Studio do things differently: ‍We use the time gained to optimize the prototype in order to provide users with a product that feels as real as possible in tests.‍

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Here is a quick overview before we look at the individual stages in detail - including schedules for each individual day.

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Day 1 (Workshop): Understanding the problem and sketching the solution: On Monday, the team creates a focused foundation for the sprint week through structured conversations and in-depth, individualized ideation using a four-step process that emphasizes critical thinking over creative design.‍

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Day 2 (Workshop): Decide solution and create plan: On Tuesday, after the previous day's goal and solution finding, the team makes structured decisions by presenting the best ideas, transforming their strongest elements into a storyboard, following a clear five-step decision-making process that serves as the basis for the prototype.‍

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Day 3: Create Prototype: On Wednesday, the storyboard is converted into a realistic prototype, which is not intended to be a perfect solution, but a simulation that is as credible as possible for the user*internal test on Friday.‍

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Day 4: Finalize prototype: On Thursday, the prototype is finalized, an interview guide with general and prototype-specific questions is created and the prototype is tested internally before being presented to users on Friday.‍

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Day 5: Testing & Interviews: On Friday, the team concludes the intensive sprint week by presenting the prototype to users:inside, observing their reactions and thus gaining valuable insights into what has been achieved and what next steps should follow. Optionally, the workshop participants can also come back here to observe.

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Detailed Design Sprint 2.0 at brightside Studio

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Day 1: Understanding the problem and outlining solutions

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Structured discussions take place on Monday, creating a solid foundation and a clear focus for the sprint week. This structure enables the team to absorb a maximum amount of information in the shortest possible time while avoiding typical digressions. You start with the end goal and agree on a long-term goal.

In the afternoon, a method that encourages deep thinking will be used. Instead of a standard group brainstorming session, each person will outline their own detailed and well-founded solutions. They will follow a four-step process that prioritizes critical thinking over creative design.

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Our schedule for day 1:

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10:00 am

Write the agenda on the whiteboard. So that everyone knows what will happen next.

Introductions. The participants get to know each other through a short round of introductions. We introduce the moderator and the decision-maker and explain their roles.

Explain the sprint. We introduce the five-day sprint process, go through the checklist and briefly describe each activity.

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10:15 am

Interviewing experts. We interview experts from the Sprint team as well as external guests. The goal is fifteen to thirty minutes per interview. We ask about the vision, about existing customer research, about how things work and about previous efforts. In doing so, we act like reporters. In the meantime, we update our long-term goal, our open questions and our map.

We set long-term goals. Let's become optimistic. Why does this project exist? Where do we want it to be in six months, a year or even five years? The long-term goals are recorded on the whiteboard.

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11:00 am

How Might We notes. We explain the principle of “How might we...” notes (HMW). To do this, we distribute whiteboard markers and sticky notes. Together we reformulate problems as opportunities. Each note begins with “HMW” in the top left-hand corner. We write one idea per post-it.

Organizing HMW notes. We stick all the HMW notes on a wall in any order. We place similar ideas next to each other. As themes emerge, we label them accordingly.

Choosing the most relevant HMW notes. Each person gets two votes and can vote twice for their own or the same notes.

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12:00 pm | Creating a map. We list the users and key players on the left-hand side. On the right-hand side, we draw the goal we want to achieve. In the middle, we create a simple flowchart with five to fifteen steps that shows how customers interact with the product.

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1:00 pm | Lunch break

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2:00 pm | Lightning Demos. We look at great solutions from different companies - including ourselves. We take three minutes for each demo. We capture good ideas with a quick sketch on the whiteboard.

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3:30 pm | Four step sketches. We briefly explain the four steps. Then everyone sketches. When we've finished, we collect the sketches in a pile and keep them for tomorrow.

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• Notes (20 minutes): We walk quietly through the room and collect thoughts and ideas.
• Ideas (20 minutes). Everyone writes down their first rough ideas and circles the most promising ones.
• Crazy 8s (8 minutes). We fold a sheet of paper into eight squares and sketch a variation of one of the best ideas in each one - one minute per sketch.
• Solution sketches(30–90 minutes). We create a three-part storyboard by sketching three post-its on a sheet of paper. The sketch remains anonymous, is self-explanatory and doesn't have to be perfect. Each one is given a catchy title.

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Day 2: Decide on a solution and create a detailed plan

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After we have understood the problem on Monday, defined a goal for the sprint and outlined solutions, decisions are made on Tuesday.

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First, the best ideas from the previous day are presented. In the second half of the day, the best elements of the selected idea sketches are incorporated into a storyboard that describes the successive solution steps and will serve as a template for the development of the prototype.

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To speed up the decision-making process in the group, a strict five-stage decision-making process is recommended.

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10:00 am | Selection of solutions in a five-stage process

We follow these five steps to select the strongest solutions:

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• Art museum. We stick the solution sketches in a row next to each other on the wall.
• Heat map. All team members examine each solution sketch in silence and mark interesting aspects with dot stickers.
• Speed Critique. The highlights of each idea are quickly discussed and big ideas are recorded on post-its.
• Abstimmung. Die Höhepunkte jeder Idee werden schnell besprochen und große Ideen werden auf Post-its festgehalten.
• Supervote. The decision-maker receives three big points. The idea with the most points is created and tested as a prototype in the following days.

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1:00 pm | Lunch break

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2:00 pm| Create a storyboard

We create a storyboard to plan the prototype.

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1. Draw a grid. We draw about fifteen boxes on a whiteboard.
2. Choose an entry scene. We think about how customers normally come across your product or service. We keep the entry point simple: e.g. a web search, an article in a magazine, the product on the shelf, etc.
3. Fill in the storyboard. If possible, we use existing sketches for the storyboard. We only draw if no sketches are available, but not together. Only as many details are added as the team needs to create the prototype on Wednesday. Unsure? It makes sense to take a risk here. The finished story should comprise five to fifteen steps.

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At the end of day 2, the workshop part of the design sprint is complete. While decision-makers and experts from the customer side return to their everyday work, the design work based on the workshop begins for us.

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Day 3 (Design Sprint Agency only): Prototyping I

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On Wednesday, the storyboards are prototyped before user feedback is collected on Friday. The aim of this design sprint day is to create the basis for a good simulation of the final solution idea, not a perfect version of the solution itself.

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It is not about developing a visually perfect prototype. There is no focus on professional branding or perfect usability. It should look real enough for the user, but that's all that's necessary.

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10:00 am | Preparing for prototyping

• Choosing the right tools. Quick wireframes can be created with Miro and Whimsical. If you want to go even faster, we fall back on pen and paper. Figma is the standard for prototype development.
• Create user flows. They form the essential building blocks for the creation of wireframes and the visualization of prototypes.‍

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1:00 pm | Lunch break

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2:00 pm | Assembling the prototype. As the work is divided into parts, it can easily happen that the overall view is lost. The prototyper checks the quality and ensures that all parts in the wireframes are linked together in a meaningful way.

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Interesting things about Day 3:

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• ‍Everything can be implemented in a prototype - including processes (e.g. through videos)
• Prototypes can (and sometimes should) be thrown away - we are always prepared to throw away what we have built in case of doubt and avoid a strong personal connection to the idea or prototype
• We build just enough so that we can learn - no more
• The prototype must appear to be real - paper prototypes are not realistic enough to gather realistic user feedback

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Day 4 (Design Sprint Agency only): Prototyping II

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On Thursday, the prototype will be further developed and finalized. At the same time, we are fine-tuning the user interviews. For this purpose, a script is created that serves as a guide for the interview. This script contains general questions about the user as well as specific questions about the prototype itself.

Before the prototype is presented to the users, it should be tested internally by several colleagues.

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10:00 am | Working on the prototype and preparing for day 5

• Create an interview script. The interviewer prepares for the test on Friday by writing a script
• Remind users. We make sure that the selected test subjects have firmly scheduled the appointment. An email is good, a phone call is better.

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1:00 pm| Lunch break

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2:00 pm | Finalize and test the prototype. We go through the prototype several times and make sure that all links work and no screen is missing. We test the prototype with colleagues who were not part of the development and can look at the logic with a fresh pair of eyes.

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Day 5, Part 1 (Design Sprint Agency only): Testing

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The sprint began with major challenges that may not have started on day 1. By Friday, we had developed promising solutions together with the team of experts on the corporate side, selected the best ones and then created a realistic prototype. That alone would be an impressively productive week. But on the last day, we go one step further by interviewing users and observing how they react to the prototype. At the end of the day, we know what we have really achieved and what to do next.

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The interview

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To bring some order to today's learning experience and facilitate later interpretation and reflection, it is advisable to conduct structured interviews with the test users. The following interview format with 7 steps has proven itself in practice - regardless of whether the interview takes place on site or remotely with screen sharing in the video call:

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• Friendly welcome. This includes a personal introduction and a thank you to the test user. A relaxed, informal atmosphere should also be encouraged. A note that it is not the user who is being tested, but the prototype, can help here. At this point, it is also a good idea to present the general course of events and give the test users the opportunity to ask questions.
  
  
• Ask general, open context questions about the user. The first step is to find out more about the user's individual context. Open questions should be asked in order to obtain the richest possible answers and stories. In the further course, the conversation should be steered in the direction of the topic on which the design sprint is based.
  

• Presentation of the prototype. Now the test user is asked whether it is okay for him/her to be shown a prototype. This makes it clear that the test user is doing the interviewer a favor, not the other way around. We encourage direct feedback and emphasize again that it is about the idea, not about people (e.g. by saying that the interviewer did not personally develop the prototype). We make it clear that there are no right or wrong answers and point out to the test user that he/she should articulate his/her thoughts during testing (think-aloud).
  

• Detailed tasks for the test user to perform with the help of the prototype(s). The test user should engage with the prototype as deeply and realistically as possible. This can be encouraged by assigning him/her detailed tasks to be completed with the prototype. While the test user is working on the task(s) using the prototype, our interviewer asks easy-to-answer, open-ended questions to encourage the test user to express their emotions and thoughts (e.g. What do you think about this element? What could this be good for?).
  

• A short debriefing to capture the test user's general thoughts and impressions. At the end of the interview, we ask a few questions of a general nature to identify the test user's main thoughts, emotions, successes and failures. Compared to the previous phase, this is more about the overall impression of the customer.
  

• What question did I not ask that I should have asked?" This question is very effective as it allows the user to express thoughts and address things that we have not thought of ourselves.
  

• We thank them for their participation and valuable feedback.

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What to consider when conducting a user interview:

• To avoid putting test users under too much pressure or distracting them, only one sprint member should take on the role of interviewer.
• Five is the magic number. After five customer interviews, great patterns will emerge. Conduct all five interviews in one day.
• Observe together, learn together. The sprint team should not be split up. Watching together is more efficient and leads to better conclusions.
• A win every time. The prototype can be an efficient failure or an imperfect success. Either way, there are lessons to be learned about what is needed for the next step.

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Day 5, part 2: Conclusion & next steps

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As the workshop week draws to a close, the next steps are discussed.

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After each interview | Collect insights

After each interview, a feedback matrix should be created on a whiteboard (if you see each other in person) or in Miro. A column is created for each test user. Positive, negative and neutral observations and ideas are recorded on post-its. There should then be a break before the next interview begins.

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After all interviews | Group insights and formulate next steps

Similar insights and thoughts are grouped together to create a pattern. The next step is to bring out the initial design sprint questions from Monday and link them to the observed reaction patterns. It may not be possible to answer all of these questions now, but the next steps can already be determined. Overall, you have a much better understanding of the user and context of use, which in turn serves as a foundation for the further development of the idea.

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To conclude the sprint

At the end of the design sprint, the sprint team meets with the decision-maker and discusses the question, learning outcomes and next steps.

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The latter is particularly important to ensure that the process continues at an appropriate pace.if the prototype has been falsified: How should the search for the solution continue?

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And if the prototype has been validated: Of course, the extreme cases are not the only possible outcomes - often neither everything is accepted nor everything is rejected and step-by-step adjustments can result in prototypes that perform successfully in follow-up tests.

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