What is design sprint and what type of projects is it suitable for

Design Sprint allows us to build and test a prototype in just five days. There are many startups and tech companies that use it before making decisions about new products.

The person who created Design Sprint is Jake Knapp. In his book, he defines himself as a process geek and explains how he had tried many problem-solving techniques over the years, but only when working at Google, he faced two different projects, one for the design of the priority mailbox in Gmail and another one for the design of a video conferencing web app, where he realised that the ideas had flowed better than in other creative processes and the main reasons were that they had more time to develop the ideas individually and the deadlines were so tight that they forced them to be focused. With these two ingredients, individual work, and little execution time, he began to design what would be a new way of working that he called Sprint.

Knapp realized that sprints worked. Ideas were built, tested, and launched and most of them used to succeed. He sees sprints as a way to solve big problems, during the process a great volume of work is done at a high speed and it is also fun. As its creator and many people who have participated in Design Sprints say, you have to experience it for yourself to understand it thoroughly.

Design Sprint is especially suitable for those projects that, due to their complexity, are a challenge in themselves, because it helps to focus, prioritize ideas and begin to build a prototype quickly without making large financial investments.

It is very interesting to apply it in those projects that are high risk because their development involves making a large investment or because there is not enough time. Design Sprint can be an excellent starting point that provides information on the feasibility of the project in just five days.

Its application is also ideal for projects that do not make progress or are stuck, DS helps to solve the problems that have caused the project to stop and can give it a new push and start working from a new perspective.

It is not recommended to have too many people participating in a Design Sprint. The ideal number would be 7 participants. If there are more, there is a risk of wasting time with debates that could stop the progress at the appropriate speed. During the five days of development of the Design Sprint, all stakeholders must be present, each one solving the problem of the area they dominate and willing to answer any doubts that may arise from other team members. The roles involved are the following:

Trello Template to organize the five days of the workshop.

Miro Template created by the design consultancy JustMad, it also includes a very useful checklist to mark tasks solved during the sprint.

Template designed by Wayfair with the explanation of the entire process from beginning to end with very interesting tips to facilitate Design Sprint sessions.

When a Design Sprint ends most of its participants are both exhausted and proud of all the work they have done during the five days. Usually, the general feeling is that great teamwork has been achieved; all participants forget about the hierarchies during the sessions, contributing equally and walking in the same direction.

Running a Design Sprint is usually tremendously motivating both individually and as a team. It also opens up the minds of participants, obtaining very inspiring ideas.