Why invest 5 days in a Design Sprint?
The Design Sprint method is getting more and more popular, yet little companies apply it on a regular basis. The main obstacle? Time. 5 days are still considered too much for companies to spare. The temptation to cut the Design Sprint into smaller chunks spread on a longer period is then very strong. What could go wrong? I hate to be the bearer of bad news but cutting the Design Sprint into smaller workshops could make your company completely miss the incredible transformational experience that gives a Design Sprint its special kick.
I know a Design Sprint can be exhausting to run, and these small workshops do look easier to organise and go through. Where does the difference lie, in the end? Why go the extra mile and run a Design Sprint?
Truth is, you can make a Design Sprint in one day if you know what you are looking for. Its principles, however, are unique: let’s reflect on this together, shall we?
A Design Sprint is a practical efficiency model
The Design Sprint format acts as an efficiency model allowing a team to extract precious insights from deliverables produced with limited efforts.
Methods and time constraints come together as one to push the group to embrace the solution -and the priceless insights that come with- quicker. Quality and impact of the Sprint may vary depending on the framing you put in place, at the beginning and at the end of the Sprint itself. There is a before and an after, and it’s this journey the development Sprints will support.
John Maeda likes to talk about design in 3 ways:
- classic design to create beauty,
- design thinking to create value,
- computational design to create impact.
When we sprint, we do a bit of the three, but our vision is more fractal. We know perfection is a scam and we know we have to conceive a service that will make sense to potentially millions of users while using a technology that will soon be obsolete. Understanding all aspects of a problem is the only way to transform those service opportunities into something bigger. There is no such thing as a unique point of view.
More than a creativity workshop, a Design Sprint is a fertile ground for failure-nurturing. Through it, you dedicate days to learn fast and make a team of key stakeholders fall in love with the solution-building. Failing is so expensive -in a Design Sprint, it’s what we are looking for. Through failure, you anticipate risks and build trust in the process. Test analysis is more important than the solution brought to life and these key learnings should be considered as the most precious deliverables of the Sprint.
These new perspectives are crucial, not only for the Sprint but for any future project roadmap. That way, the team can prioritize any investment they make along the way with a clearer head.
A Design Sprint is an artificial configuration for intense growth
Organizing a Design Sprint is about fostering the best ecosystem possible for teachings to arise freely. For us at Laptop, it is something akin to combinatorial art. Each Design Sprint has its context so it’s important to gather and understand the required conditions of success to avoid too variable results.
Each Design Sprint allows us to shed a unique light on solutions, to identify patterns, weak signals and strong learnings that we will have to verify and exploit throughout the project. Iteration then becomes essential because, in the long run, the entirety of the problem will have to be considered. Several Design Sprints will succeed in this purpose much faster than a series of smaller workshops.
A Design Sprint is a management tool by and for the team.
Going through a Design Sprint is putting a user-centric method at the service of the whole company you are working with. Understanding the big picture and properly articulate the business stakes while satisfying user needs serves the core of the company itself. When making all teams fall into line with a broad, complete vision of their client’s experience, you are already taking that first step.
However, this business/customer articulation only has worth if paired up with prioritisation by the team itself, because there are no good ideas without their concrete application in real life. Only teams have expertise and warranty to carry out tested ideas properly. During a Design Sprint, prioritization activities are numerous and force breaks or moments of quality discussion with team members and stakeholders alike by defining why things are done and why they matter. These prioritisation matrixes allow continuous strategic company alignment in a way small workshops do not.
At the end of a Design Sprint, the manager must not forget to confront prioritized features with the importance of the problem the team is trying to solve for its clients or the company. Why would the team get up in the morning to solve that issue?
Giving work meaning is crucial in today’s companies’ success as the comfort zone of their employees is being shaken up in this agile context.
A Design Sprint is a harsh, but necessary, mirror
A Design Sprint invites us to come out of said comfort zone. Sometimes, and mostly because of still-strongly-implanted company cultural myths, the candour, kindness and openness necessary to this format are hard to observe.
The necessary speed of execution inevitably creates friction and tension -it’s what working together does.
This is why this format requires continuously debunking participants’ misconceptions about who has the power to decide, the best idea, the best vision or the vaster knowledge on the subject. More than anything, you’ll have to lay the “testing only perfect products” idea to rest… And it’s not an easy one. Everybody has a right to be listened to, respected and part of the working group. That being said, it becomes clear that the Sprint Master needs to do more than understand the method -they need to be strongly empathetic.
By making the team come together, encouraging meaningful dialogue while creating a quality solution the whole group agrees with, the Sprint Master must maintain the energy going during and even post-Sprint. They show the horizon: it’s only the beginning of the work!
A Design Sprint is a tangible reflexivity tool
Going through a Design Sprint is a true trial of strength that teaches the team the capacity to reach new uncharted territories no one else would’ve explored alone.
Keep in mind the “fail fast to succeed sooner” mantra! The priority here is to make mistakes as quickly as possible to get an overview thanks to a real, tangible product that has been made and tested together.
Companies today struggle with three main issues:
- make BUs talk to each other,
- build or recreate trust with their customers,
- implement a strong product ethic.
A Design Sprint is not only a tool to build. It has the potential to bring a new definition of done to the company on a bigger scale.
Since I’ve been trained at Google Sprint Academy in 2014 while I was working for Adobe, I’ve been tweaking, adapting the Design Sprint to the companies I work with at Le Laptop.
Article en français : https://medium.com/xyz-of-ux/design-sprint-vs-workshop-378c14093154
