Table of Contents
- Design Sprint: Is it worth the time and money?
- Why do a design sprint?
- When Design Sprints work?
- 1. Setting a new project's direction
- 2. Establishing processes
- 3. Aligning diverse teams
- 4. Gaining speed and focus
- The problem with Sprint mentality
- 1. Speed over Depth
- 2. Assumptions over Research
- 3. One-shot wonders over Iteration
- All you need to know
- Final thoughts
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Design Sprint: Is it worth the time and money?
The answer is almost always yes.
A design sprint is without a doubt, the fastest and cheapest way to validate business strategies or test product ideas with real users. It relies on a consecutive row of workshops that support co-creation and empowerment.
How many times have you heard someone from management say, "Let's be more efficient!" or "Let's innovate!" without knowing how to go about doing so? Well, a design sprint encourages a 'start doing' attitude.
Here are a few scenarios where a design sprint approach might be the most effective framework to choose:
Validating assumptions
Reducing the risk of failures
Establishing an initial process
Setting direction on a new project
Gaining speed, efficiency, and focus
Aligning your team around a product or vision
Why do a design sprint?
Design sprints will help you understand essential areas to focus on, ideate solutions, turn your ideas into a testable hypothesis, make a prototype and get feedback from real users.
I’ve run 20+ sprints at work and as a consultant. The number one thing I hear is “Wow! We got a lot done”. It’s rare that stakeholders can really focus on a specific problem/solution without distractions. Getting people into the same room for hours or days can really move the ball forward.
Inexperience teams especially love this because it gives them a step-by-step formula that brings them from a problem to a solution with real-user feedback. They get a taste of design thinking methodologies with meeting principles that focus on moving forward.
You can squeeze months of work into weeks (or less).
Here’s a statistic to back up my claim. According to IBM, design thinking research can lead to a 75% reduction in design & delivery time, often reducing an 8-month project to 3-4 months.
A few not-so-pleasant scenarios can happen if you decide to ignore the importance of design sprints.
- Taking longer to get to market
- Having an ineffective team collaboration
- Developing products with poor user experience
- Siloed teams and gaps in collaboration knowledge
- Wasting resources on features that don’t get used
- Missing opportunities to gain competitive advantage
- Unsuccessful product launches due to lack of user testing
- Making decisions without understanding user preferences and behaviors
- Investing too much time and money in ideas and products without validating user needs
When Design Sprints work?
Design Sprints aren’t inherently bad; in fact, they can be incredibly effective when applied in the right contexts. Here are scenarios where sprints can shine:
1. Setting a new project's direction
Starting something new? This is where sprints can actually shine.
Use Design Sprints to define a clear, shared vision. Think of it as the design equivalent of a kickoff meeting, but with more Post-it notes and better coffee.
This initial alignment can set the tone for the entire project. A well-conducted sprint at the outset can ensure everyone is on the same page, moving toward a common goal.
Why this works: Nobody has preconceived notions yet. There's no legacy baggage. No "but we've always done it this way" syndrome.
Pro tip: Use this sprint type to create a "North Star" document that everyone can reference throughout the project. Include the vision, key principles, and success metrics.
This becomes your guiding light when decisions get tough later.
2. Establishing processes
Need to map workflows or lay a solid foundation? Design Sprints can help quickly delineate processes and frameworks that teams can build upon.
The fast-paced environment can be conducive to defining roles, responsibilities, and workflows without getting bogged down in nitty-gritty details.
Translation: Sprints are great for drawing the map, terrible for walking the journey.
Pro tip: Create "process prototypes" during these sprints. Map out a typical day/week/month in your new process and identify potential friction points before they become real problems.
3. Aligning diverse teams
Bringing together a diverse group with different perspectives? Sprints can unite minds quickly and foster a unified approach.
The collaborative nature encourages cross-functional teams to break down silos and work towards a shared objective.
Warning: This only works if everyone actually shows up and participates. Half-hearted sprint participation is worse than no sprint at all.
Pro tip: Create pre-sprint "context sharing" sessions where each team member presents their perspective on the problem in 5 minutes or less. This levels the playing field before the sprint begins.
4. Gaining speed and focus
In situations where quick, impactful results are needed, Design Sprints can provide that laser-sharp focus. They're particularly useful for projects with tight deadlines where immediate progress is essential.
But (and this is a big but): Only when the problem is well-understood and the solution space is relatively clear.
Pro tip: Before committing to a speed-focused sprint, ask: "What's the worst that happens if we take an extra week?" If the answer is "not much," take the extra time for research.
This framework is part of UX Playbook. Get shortcuts to a master of UX processes, for any projects, without expensive bootcamps.
The problem with Sprint mentality
1. Speed over Depth
Speed can be thrilling, but depth is where lasting solutions are found. In the rush to get prototypes out the door, critical nuances can be lost.
A design sprint might give the illusion of progress, but without delving deep into user needs and behaviors, the solutions can be superficial.
Here's what actually happens in most "fast" sprints:
- Day 1: "We know our users!"
- Day 3: "This prototype looks great!"
- Day 5: "Ship it!"
- Week 6: "Why is nobody using this?"
The problem isn't speed itself. It's shallow speed.
Real depth requires asking uncomfortable questions. Like why users behave differently than they say they do. Or why your brilliant solution works in conference rooms but fails in coffee shops.
Pro tip: Before your next sprint, spend one day on "assumption mapping."
List every assumption your team has about users, their problems, and your proposed solutions. Then rank them by risk level.
Use your sprint to test the riskiest assumptions, not just build the most obvious features.
2. Assumptions over Research
Assumptions are the mortal enemies of good design. While brainstorming and rapid prototyping can yield creative ideas, without solid research, those ideas are shots in the dark.
Assumptions can lead to misaligned priorities and missed opportunities to genuinely meet user needs.
Let me tell you about the most expensive assumption I've ever seen.
A fintech startup spent million $$$ building a "simplified" investment app based on the assumption that young investors wanted fewer options. They sprinted through design, development, and launch.
Turns out, young investors didn't want fewer options. They wanted better education about their options.
The app failed spectacularly. Users felt patronized, not empowered.
Pro tip: Create a "research debt" backlog alongside your sprint backlog.
For every assumption you make during a sprint, add a corresponding research question to investigate later. This ensures speed doesn't completely sacrifice learning.
3. One-shot wonders over Iteration
Rarely does a one-off solution hit the mark. Iteration—test, learn, refine, repeat—is the bedrock of effective design. Sprints, by nature, focus on short bursts, which can translate to one-shot wonders that don't evolve based on feedback and real-world use.
The dirty secret of the design world? Most "revolutionary" solutions are actually evolution in disguise.
Instagram didn't start as Instagram. It started as Burbn, a location-based check-in app. Through iteration—not sprinting—the team discovered that photo-sharing was the most engaging feature. They stripped everything else away and focused on that single insight.
That's not a Sprint story. That's an iteration story.
Pro tip: Replace "sprint reviews" with "iteration planning sessions."
Instead of celebrating what you built, focus on what you learned and what to test next. Make iteration cycles shorter than sprint cycles—test something new every 3-5 days.
All you need to know
The amount of work that can be accomplished during a design sprint is incredible. You’ll be amazed at how productive your team can be when they have a good sprint structure to guide them.
- Consent is key
- Trust the process
- Take regular breaks
- Write names on the board
- Focus on the big 3; ask questions, jot things down and mind the clock
- Get people to commit to the sprint in advance or don’t do the sprint at all
- Know that it’s natural to be nervous but try your best to project confidence
- You don’t have to be perfect. Learn from the process and make the next sprint better
- Being a good facilitator requires a balance of patience and impatience, confidence and humility
Here are some best practices for designing your Design Sprint slides:
- Use large font sizes
- Avoid slides with a lot of text
- Include plenty of white space
- Use color to highlight key points
- Keep design elements to a minimum
- Use visual aids only when appropriate
- Include concise bullet points as instructions
- Be explicit about the timing for each exercise
- Create title pages before diving into each exercise
- Show examples of a desired output for each exercise
- Limit transitions and animations, if needed use subtle animations
Final thoughts
If you’re interested in trying out a design sprint for the first time, I recommend you do your homework by reading the Design Sprint book.
Whether for research, marketing, growth design, branding, strategy, or any other disciplines related to building a product or exploring new markets, the design sprint method is acknowledged as a viable, efficient, and cost-saving research option.
Considering that design sprints help you reduce risk, offer a more efficient process to validate ideas, remove traditional convictions and accelerate innovation, you can’t afford to try this method.
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