I accidentally created a "how to" guide for Design sprints
A one post guide detailing all the steps of a design sprint
A Design Sprint is a process created by Jake Knapp while at Google to solve complex problems in just one week. It is a collaborative process used by teams to quickly ideate, prototype, and test innovative solutions to specific challenges or problems.
If is often used when developing apps and websites but can be used to for physical products and processes for any company in any industry.
A few years ago I spent some time teaching myself how to organise and run a Design Sprint. I did this by reading the “Sprint” book (by Jake Knapp) and by watching a bunch of videos.
Last week I looked at the notes I made during this learning process and realised that I did a pretty good job (I am patting myself on the back as I write this). My notes work as a good guide for anyone who wants to learn about and run a design sprint, so I thought I’d publish them here for all to see.
My notes are a combination of written notes and links to the videos I used to learn about design sprints. The videos are all by AJ & Smart who do a great job of explaining the process. All I have done is put them together in this blog post along with my written notes.
Design Sprint 2.0
My notes are based on the Design Sprint 2.0, developed by AJ & Smart. This version is approved by Jake Knapp
What is a design sprint?
A design sprint is a 4 day process where are team of people get together to solve a complex problem. The process makes sure that they are aligned on the goal and helps them to brainstorm ideas, pick the best one, create a simple prototype, test it with real users, and make improvements based on feedback. It's a quick and efficient way to develop and validate new ideas before investing more resources.
Who should be involved?
Every sprint needs a Decider
The Decider should be involved full time or, at the very least, at key moments. It is the person that has the authority to make key decision for the problem you are working on.
Seven (or fewer) is the ideal number of people for a sprint. These are the kind of people who are typically involved
Decider
Finance person
Marketing / company voice person
Customer expert person
Tech/Logistics person (Can also build a prototype)
Design person
Facilitator (remain unbiased - Me for example)
The full team is only needed in the room on Monday and Tuesday
Design sprint overview
Here is an overview of the Design sprint. For the rest of the post I will explain each of the steps in a bit of detail.
Monday
Expert interviews + HMW
Long term goal + Sprint questions
Map
Lightning demos
4 part sketching
Tuesday
Heat map vote
Solution presentation
Straw poll vote
Decider vote
User test flow
Storyboarding
Wednesday
Prototype
Thursday
Test
Monday (Day 1)
Expert interviews (20 - 30 mins)
In this step you will bring in a series of “experts” who know the problem and get them to talk about it in detail. This can be anyone who has specific knowledge about the problem you are trying to solve.
A way to understand what the problem is and/or where you want to go
Decider gets the ball rolling and asks questions
Good questions to ask each expert:
Can you describe your product?
What problem is your product trying to solve?
Who is using it currently and who would you like to use it?
If there were no problems at all what would the product look like in 2 years time?
Rather watch a video?
How Might We note taking (10 mins)
You want everyone to be paying attention to the experts. You can achieve this by getting them to take notes. Standardising the way that notes are taken makes it easier to share the notes with the whole team.
Everyone takes notes using “How Might We note” taking
Give everyone post-its
Write HMW in the top left corner
Each time an expert mentions a problem or a challenge
Turn it into a HMW note
One HMW note per problem/challenge
For example
“Our analytics tell us that only 60% of people make it to the end of the checkout process”
The How Might We note could be
HMW increase the number of people making it to the end of the check out process
Once the interviews are over organise the HMWs
Place HMWs on the wall
Sort HMWs into named categories
Remove duplicates if obvious
Vote on the HMW
Everyone gets 2 dots
Except decider who gets 4
Everyone votes on the most important HMWs
Put dots wherever you want
Create HMW tree by placing HMW with most dots at the top
Rather watch a video?
If there isn’t a video attached to a particular step it is because the explanation is part of an earlier video. E.g How Might We note taking is explained in the Expert Interviews video.
Long term goal (10 mins)
This step is to make sure that EVERYONE is aligned on the long term goals so that you start off (and stay) in the same direction.
Everyone has 5 minutes to write down what they think the goal should be
1 goal for everyone (Maximum 2)
Each person takes it in turn to read out their goal
Everyone gets one dot (Decider does not vote)
Decider looks at results of the vote and then makes a choice
Rather watch a video?
Sprint questions (10 mins)
This step is a chance for you to be pessimistic and think about what could go wrong when trying to achieve the long term goal you have decided upon
What could stop us from reaching the chosen long term goal?
Each person comes up with 2 sprint questions (max 3)
Each person takes it in turn to read out their questions
Everyone gets 3 dots including the decider
Pick the 3 most voted questions
Decider chooses the main sprint question to focus on
Focus on the questions chosen by the decider
The Map (30-45 minutes)
This step is a chance for you to look at your current solution / current process as a whole and make an easy to understand visual representation of it.
The Map doesn't need to be perfect.
Create the map on a large whiteboard of piece of paper
Actor(s) on the left
Headings
Discover
Learn
Using
Goal
Start by writing the Actor(s) on the left (E.g Customer)
Write the goal (What should the Actor do at the end)
Discover
For each actor of the product
What are all the ways that the Actor discovers the product?
Learn
For each of the ways that an actor discovers the product
How does the actor learn more about the product?
Briefly describe that learning moment
Using
For each of the ways that a user learns more about the product
How do they then use the product?
How do they end up achieving the goal?
Leave emotion out of it. What are the steps?
Rather watch a video?
Target the Map
In this step you will identify the part of your current solution / current process that you want to focus your efforts on.
Take the most voted on HMWs and place them at the right place on the map
If a HMW can fit in 2 places, place it in the most left place
Identify the “Target” area on your map
If there are 2 target areas choose the one to the left
This will be where the focus is of the sprint / prototype
Where you will be solving the problems
The Lightning demos (45-60 mins)
This step will give you some inspiration before you start coming up with solutions of your own. Before you start creating solutions spend some time looking at what other people are doing.
A short research session for your sprint
Each person gets 25 minutes to do research and get inspiration from wherever
Each person finds 3 examples of products or services that they think we can use as inspiration for our product
Can also use examples from your own company or own work/ideas
For each example they need to write the “Big idea” on a post it note which explains what they found.
One person is selected to take notes
Each person presents (BRIEFLY) their big idea examples
For each example the note taker identifies the following
Product/Service name
Big idea/feature that they like
Sketch / Additional note detail
Stick all up on wall
Rather watch a video?
4 step sketch (90 - 120 minutes)
In this step you you can start to think about a solution. This technique helps you to first get the creative juices flowing, experiment with a few ideas and then finally choose an idea to explore in more detail
Notes (For your eyes only): 20 + 3 minutes
Copy down the long term goal and write it at the top of the page
Everyone walk around the room and take notes from today
Anything that might be useful when sketching your final solution
Feel free to look up stuff on the internet for reference
After the time is up take 3 minutes to review your own notes
Ideas (For your eyes only): 20 minutes
Jot down some rough ideas which might help you form your solution
Doodles, headlines, diagrams, stick figures
Anything that helps to take the notes and work from today into some very rough thoughts/ideas
Crazy 8s (For your eyes only): 8 minutes
Pick your favourite idea
Sketch 8 variations of that idea, taking 1 minute on each variation
This can include page layout, headlines, phrases etc etc
Sketch (To be shared anonymously tomorrow): 30 minutes
Each person needs to create a detailed sketch of ONE solution
Its needs to have enough detail to be understood without explanation
Everyone gets 3 pieces of A4
Each page is used to show a step in your solution and any notes that are needed to help explain it.
People will need to be able to understand your idea without your explanation so it is important to get the details right and add any notes to help people understand
Words are important! Be clear and concise so people can understand your idea easily.
Give it a name (Not your name) so people can refer to your idea without knowing it is you
Once the time is up place your 3 pages faced down and in a pile in front of you.
The facilitator will collect all the ideas and prepare for tomorrow.
Tuesday (Day 2)
The Tuesday morning “Art museum” decision
This is preparation that needs to be done before hand so that you and the team can make some choices about the solution you are going to implement
Place each person’s 3 panel sketch on the wall with the title above
Place them evenly around the room with enough space for people to look at as if in an art gallery
If applicable place them in chronological order
Rather watch a video?
Heat map (20 mins)
This is a moment for everyone to examine all the solutions presented and to identify things which people like about them
Give each person 20-30 dots (They can have more if they run out)
For each solution everyone does the following
NO talking
Look at the 3 panel solution
Put a dot besides any part that you like (you don’t have to)
Put 2-3 dots next to the most exciting parts (you don’t have to)
Place any questions/concerns on a sticky underneath the solution
Do this for all solutions
Speed critique (20 mins)
The aim of the speed critique is to create a record of promising ideas.
You are going to spend 3 minutes looking at each solution. Be flexible with the 3 minutes if discussions are productive (also less time if not worth it). For each solution do the following:
Facilitator tells the creator not reveal themselves until told so
Facilitator selects a Scribe
Facilitator narrates the sketch
Facilitator calls out standout ideas where there are many dots
Team calls out standout ideas that the facilitator might miss
Scribe writes standout ideas on a sticky (with a simple name) and places above the sketch
Review the questions/concerns
Creator reveals themselves
Creator explains missed ideas
Creator answers/addresses questions/concerns
Straw poll (10 mins)
The aim of the straw poll is for everyone to let the Decider know their opinion about what they think will work. It will help the Decider to make a decision later.
Everyone gets one vote (Except the decider)
Put their initials on their dot
Facilitator reminds everyone of the long terms goal and sprint questions
Tell everyone to look for ideas with big potential
Set timer for 5 minutes
Each person privately writes down their choice (either a whole solution or one idea in a sketch)
After 5 minutes everyone places their vote on the their choice
Each person gets 1 minute to explain their choice
Supervote (10 minutes)
This is where the decider gets to choose the solution that you will test with real users.
The decider gets 2 votes with their initials on them
Remind the decider of the long terms goal and sprint questions
Decider can do one of the following
Choose one winning solution by placing both dots on that solution
Choose one winning solution and one feature from another solution which they want to be part of the test
Choose two winning solutions. You would need to build 2 prototypes and test them both against each other (not recommended if you do not have the ability to build and test two solutions)
The user test flow (30 mins)
You want to story board your solution BUT that’s quite complicated. The user test flow is a way to get the high level flow nailed down before diving into the detail.
Everyone writes down 6 action steps (individual clicks to get to the next scene) which give the overview of your solution.
Each post it has an action step
E.g User reads facebook post about my app and clicks on the link
Write the first step first (use the map to help)
Write the last step second (use the map and sprint goal/questions to help)
Fill in the middle steps
Each person reads out their flow (1 minute each)
Decider should go first or last
Everyone in the team gets one dot
Decider gets 2
Each person votes on the flow they like
Decider places one dot on their favourite flow
Decider places second dot on a specific action step to add to the prototype
Circle the winning flow
Rather watch a video?
Storyboarding (4 hours)
In this part of the step you are going to start visualising what your solution actually looks like. The storyboard represents the steps your user will take while using your app or your websites. Each part of the storyboard usually represents the screen that your user is using. It can also be used to represents parts of a process that are not screen related. The end result of your story board is what you will build on Wednesday for the user testing that you will do on Thursday.
Choose someone to do the drawing if you can
Create 8 cells on the wall
Place the post its from the chosen user test flow (and the specific action) into the storyboard
Look around the room. See if someone has already drawn one of the steps and use it (can be from anywhere)
Fill in all cells.
Make sure there are no missing steps
Only focus on screens that need to be there
Don’t create new ideas
Fill in details for the first cell
Fill in details for the last cell
Fill in the rest of the cells
Split the group if needed or if some people want to focus on a particular step
Copy shouldn’t be perfect now
Don’t waste time getting copy perfect by committee.
Leave it till tomorrow instead of having a discussion
When in doubt, take risks.
No point testing ideas that you were going to build anyway
Now is the time to learn if that crazy idea works
NB. The test that you will do tomorrow should last no more than 15 minutes
Make sure it can be tested in 15 minutes
This allows for intro and and winding down in the test
This allows for tester to talk out loud and answer your questions
Forces you to only include important stuff
Rather watch a video?
Wednesday (Day 3)
5 top tips
Quiet space for prototyping team where they are not disturbed
Prioritise the screens from the storyboard (focus on top 2 or 3 first)
Time-box each of the screens you need, giving more time to the more important ones
Set check in times so other people can come in and review the work
Only build what you need to get the feedback you need
Fake it
You have one day to build the prototype so fake as much as possible. The facade usually makes up 90% of the solution.
You can prototype anything
Don’t prototype anything you are not willing to throw away
Build enough to learn what you need to know. Nothing more.
Your prototype must appear real
When you test your prototype on Thursday you want to get REAL reactions from your customers. Natural and honest reactions. Feedback on ideas are worth less than real reactions.
Pick the right tools
On screen - Keynote, Powerpoint or Squarespace/Wordpress etc
Paper (For reports or brochures)
Service - Write a script
Physical space - Modify existing space
Object - Modify existing object, 3D print or use keynote to market product
Assign roles
Makers (2 or more)
Makes individual components of the story board
Usually a designer or engineer but can be anyone
Stitcher (1)
Puts the individual components together into a seamless experience
Makes the experience consistent from beginning to end
Writer (1)
Writes all the content that appears in the prototype
Very important to make the prototype realistic
Needs to be an expert in the field they are writing about
Asset collector (1 or more)
Collect photos, icons or sample contents
Scours the web (including own products) looking for useful content that makers, stitcher and writers might need
Interviewer (1)
Conducts the user interviews on Thursday
Writes the script for the user interviews
Best if interviewer doesn’t work on prototype so that that are less invested
Recruiter (1)
This person needs to organise the users who are going to test your prototype
Make sure they are real users who would actually use your product or service
You only need to run the test with 5 people to get good feedback
Recruitment should start as early as possible so no need to wait until Wednesday
Divide up the storyboard
Assign one maker to one storyboard scene at a time
Opening scene is really important to make it realistic
Assign writer and maker to opening scene
Stitch it together
Makes sure all content is consistent throughout the prototype
Ask for help if needed
Create the script
This is the job of the interviewer.
What is the goal of the product?
Need to answer the “can we” questions
Five act interview
Here is a sample structure for how you can do each interview with ideas for the kind of questions you can ask.
Friendly welcome
Smile
Say that you are doing this is improve the product
Not a test of the participant
Informal
Any questions?
OK to record?
One page consent form
Context questions
Small talk to get customer comfortable
Transition into questions relevant to the sprint
Introduce the prototype(s)
Ask the customer if they’d be willing to look at your prototype
Explain that not everything works
Remind them that the prototype is being tested (not them)
No right or wrong answers. Honest feedback is needed
“I didn’t design this so I won’t be offended”
Tell the customer to think out loud.
Tasks and nudges
Ask customer to complete realistic tasks
Don’t micromanage steps. See how they would do the whole task
Open ended tasks lead to interesting and insightful interviews
Ask the customer questions to help them think out loud
What is this? What is it for?
What do you think of that?
What do you expect that will do?
What goes through your mind when you look at this?
What are you looking for?
What would you do next? Why?
Quick debrief
How does this compare to what you do now?
What did you like about this product?
How would you describe this product to a friend?
If you had three magic wishes to improve this product, what would they be?
Trial run (3pm)
Everyone pauses work for this
Stitcher runs through the prototype
Double check against the storyboard
Revisit sprint questions
Interviewer is the primary audience for this trial run
Decider must say if everything is as expected
Update prototype based on feedback
Run a test interview with the updated prototype
Rather watch a video?
Thursday (Day 4)
Today you get to test your prototype with real users with the aim of validating OR invalidating the solution you have created.
Schedule
09:00: Interview 1
10:00: Break
10:30: Interview 2
11:30 : Lunch
12:30: Interview 3
13:30: Break
14:00: Interview 4
15:00: Break
15:30: Interview 5
16:30: Debrief
Interview tips
Be a good host. Smile!
Ask open ended questions, not leading or multiple choice questions
Give the customer room to speak and explain their reactions without making assumptions
Be curious! Find out what your customer is thinking and why they do things
Take notes as a group
Make a grid like this
Horizontal = People who are being tested
Vertical = Pages or things you want to test (Overall concept, onboarding, navigation etc)
Give everyone sticky notes and marker pens to write interesting quotes, observations or interpretations of what they saw
Use colours or symbols to indication if a note is positive, negative or neutral
At end of the interview stick all the notes in the right place
Relax until the next interview
Look for patterns
Gather around the board
Give everyone a notepad and pen
Take 5 minutes to silently review all of the notes
Look for patterns that show up with THREE or more customers
If a pattern shows up with TWO but the reaction is strong, note that too
After 5 minutes ask the team to read the patterns they have found out loud
On another board list every pattern mentioned and label each as positive, negative or neutral
Review sprint goals and sprint questions
Look at you sprint goals and sprint questions
Did you achieve the goal?
What are the answers to your sprint questions?
Next step
Now it’s time for Decider to decide what to do next
Scrap the terrible idea(s)
Build the great idea
Based on the feedback make changes and build the idea
Based on the feedback do another sprint
Rather watch a video?
That’s it - Want to run a sprint?
I hope you found my notes useful. It was never written as a guide, they were just my notes but I hey can give you a good overview of how a sprint works and with a bit of extra reading you can be ready to run a sprint yourself.
I would love some feedback of this post and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like me to help you run a design sprint.
Good luck!
Extras
How to prepare for a design sprint
Equipment checklist
2 or more whiteboards
15 yellow (or other single colour) 3x5 sticky notes
10 thick, black whiteboard markers
1 green whiteboard marker
1 red whiteboard marker
10 black sharpie style pens for sketching
100 A4 printer paper sheets
1 masking tape roll
200 “round colour coding labels” (small dot stickers)
100 large dot stickers (different colour to small ones)
Time timer
Healthy snacks
How to guarantee success in a design sprint
All AJ&Smart videos in one place
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxk9zj3EDi0X5CgoFckoheIFAx-uT2i7j