Design Sprint — Overview
Reimagine the Way Your Team Innovates
Bring together a cross-functional team to accomplish amazing things in just 5 days
The 5 Day Design Sprint was initially created at Google as a way to quickly come up with ideas, make prototypes, and test them in a close-to-real environment while spending minimal money. In this series, you will learn the six phases of a design sprint.
Understand
Gaining understanding is the first phase of a design sprint. To become competent in the problem space, you will educate your team through lightning talks, interviews, and by analyzing your competition. You will learn techniques such as How Might We, Rose Bud Thorn, and Affinity Diagramming.
Define
Define is the second phase of a Design Sprint, which involves analyzing success metrics, defining design principles, and imagining a product announcement in a future press release and future tweet.
Sketch
The Design Sprint team generates and shares a wide range of ideas during the sketch phase. First, with Crazy Eights, which the group then votes on. Then the three winning Crazy Eights ideas are expanded into three clear solution sketches.
Sketch Article Released on March 18, 2023
Decide
The Design Sprint team decides on the final idea that will be tested during the Decide phase. Each participant will present their Solution Sketch, while the group uses decision-making exercises such as the Decision Matrix and Thinking Hats to come to an agreement on a single concept.
Define Article Released on March 19, 2023
Prototype
During the prototype phase, the team will work together to make a model of their idea, called a prototype. This is a facade of the experience they have envisioned in the sketch phase. Functionality is not the goal, but the team should build just what they need to make the prototype real enough to get an authentic response from a potential user in the validate phase.
Prototype Article Released on March 25, 2023
Validate
In the validate phase, the Design Sprint team will put your idea in front of users. This is your moment to sink or swim. The team will get feedback from individuals who use your prototype, and if it’s necessary, you’ll do stakeholder and technical feasibility reviews. At the end of your sprint, you’ll either have a concept that has been confirmed or one that has been shown to be wrong and needs to be fixed.
Validate Article Released on March 26, 2023
I suggest using all six phases of the design sprint, and starting at phase 1: define. However, there are times when you might want to use only one or more methods to run a shorter workshop. If you do, I strongly advise you to purchase Google’s companion book, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days.
I hope the series helps you tackle the thorny problems in your organization in a collaborative, enjoyable, and, most of all, fast way. If you found this helpful, please applaud this article by pressing the “Clap” button. Pro-tip: You can give more claps if you hold down the clap button. I have also created a list of all the articles in this series. Please share the list with your colleagues.
