Your team is challenged to create a new solution and needs to validate the effectiveness of that product before wasting unnecessary time and resources? Design Sprint is a way to accelerate the development of an idea and understand if it is a good candidate to become a worthwhile project.

The business model of technology companies and start-ups, developed from the digital transformation, brought to the market new ways to solve problems, and create solutions. Companies are increasingly focused on developing innovative products to improve processes, increase productivity and generate more efficient results.

In this fast-paced development scenario, it was necessary to find a practical, low-cost way to test and validate ideas before engaging full work teams on unpromising projects. That is how Design Sprint was born, a methodology that works as a synthesis of a large project that involves stages of mapping, sketching, deciding, creating a prototype, and testing with the end user. All this in just five days.

What is Design Sprint?

Design Sprint is a methodology for developing ideas, or solving critical problems, through a process carried out with experts from the work teams in a fast and beneficial way for the business.

This type of collaborative construction allows an idea, product, or solution to be validated and tested by real users at the end of a few days of execution. The methodology optimises the time of those involved and prevents the company from investing money in a project that has no potential to become something worthwhile.

Source: Google Ventures (www.gv.com/sprint)

In practice, Design Sprint is a quick and inexpensive way to figure out whether an idea should move forward and become a project, or whether it should be scrapped.

Read: Achieve a more efficient IT team with the Agile Methodology

Purpose of Design Sprint

This methodology is applied in companies from different sectors, but it works very well in development and technology teams. The Design Sprint is organized into five steps. In each of them, the people involved have a goal to reach. Over the days, specialists answer questions, raise hypotheses for action, create prototypes and test projects with the real interaction of those who will use that tool that is being developed.

How to implement

Select employees who have knowledge and experience in their areas of expertise. As the objective of the methodology is to shorten the completion of a project, the more expertise gathered, the better.

Each participant has a defined role in this collaborative construction:

• Facilitator: they are the guide to the process. He does not perform the tasks but conducts the week with a focus on making time and deadlines to be met.

• Producer: are the experts who create during the stages of the Design Sprint. Here come the development contributors; of marketing; financial and any sector that is part of what needs to be tested.

• Decider: is the person who will give the positive or negative nod to the most important decisions. This figure participates in the first two days, when the sprint course is being set and the decider can develop an opinion on the progress.

• User/Customer rep: is the customer, the real user of the solution being designed. The term customer here is not just about the people who will buy the solution. If the Design Sprint is being developed for a company’s in-house solution, the client here is the person who will make use of what is being built.

Step-by-step structure

Day 1: Raise problems, set goals, and map journeys

The first meeting is the time to break the ice, listen to ideas and determine if everyone involved is on the same page. It is time to align your thinking around what needs to be developed and do a long-term visioning exercise.

This is done by organising the contributions of experts and mapping what the customer needs.

Collaborative construction provides insights and arguments for each participant to write their suggestions anonymously.

Day 2: Define

On the morning of the second meeting, the Design Sprint participants present their post-it is with the ideas that must be executed. This cloud of possible solutions must be linked to how to solve the problems raised the day before.

These ideas are fixed on the mural without identification. They will be voted according to their potential to be developed and with the approval of the Decider, the ones most aligned with the company’s culture and with the resources and possibilities chosen will advance towards the next stage.

Day 3: Build the prototype

The third day is when the product starts to take shape. With the eyes on the customer as a starting point, the solution begins to be designed.

The construction of the prototype can be done in tools and platforms that the team already knows how to use, after all, there is no time to unravel how to use a software.

It is also time to carry out the test script and identify what this sprint wants to reveal. If what is being built is a prototype for improving a product or area of the company, the customer will need to find the answer to their main complaints in the solution. These weaknesses and needs were already discovered on day one.

Day 4: Simulate the idea

In the fourth meeting, the team develops a realistic prototype. Real texts, functions and answers are presented before the testing phase. Everything is prepared for the application of what is being created.

Day 5: Interview and Test

The last day of the Design Sprint is destined for the real test. It is at this stage that interviews are conducted with the customer (internal or external). The ideal is to carry out five separate interviews. They must be attended by the full team and recorded. The interviewer must create an atmosphere of trust so that the interviewee can test the prototype and answer honestly whether their pain can be resolved with what is being presented.

This process will show those who participated in the Design Sprint if the project is promising and should continue to be developed. It is user feedback that will lead to the final verdict on the feasibility of the solution that needs to be created so that it exists.

Why do a Design Sprint?

This development model is a great opportunity for the company to bring together experts and make them think beyond routine. It is time to learn more about the weaknesses and potential of the business and its products.

It is the ideal environment to find faults quickly and cheaply. In addition to bringing people closer, it encourages the maturity of teams that, immersed in a climate that simulates a competition, will face important challenges with a different breath.

Doing a Design Sprint will be the best opportunity to develop something new, or improve something that needs to be done, in just a week.

The model is perfect for anyone working with software development, service platforms, applications, and digital solutions.

At LogAp, our team uses agile development techniques such as Design Sprint so that our client can quickly check what was produced and analyse if your project is according to what you want. Want to learn more about how to get started? Talk to us and get to know our cases!