So you want to run your first Sprint. You’ve convinced your team of the transformative power workshops will have on your business, and you’re determined to make it work. You’ve read and re-read the book, checked out every single article you could find on Medium, watched alll the YouTube videos you could find. Yet, the idea of running a Sprint is STILL intimidating to you, despite hours of research and preparation.
We get it, Design Sprint can seem like a whole new world of information and tactics — and it can be overwhelming. We get questions allll of the time on how to prepare for your very first Sprint, and we decided to answer them once and for all with this comprehensive guide. Read on for exact steps you need to take before, during, and after the Sprint to make it a success (handy checklists, pre-Sprint prep hacks, and pro facilitation tips included!)
Don’t have time for the whole thing? We got you covered, navigate through the article with the table of contents:
So What Is A Design Sprint?
The Design Sprint framework is a step-by-step process for answering crucial questions through prototyping and testing ideas with consumers. It was originally created by Jake Knapp of Google Ventures.
As Knapp describes in his NY Times Best-Selling book Sprint, Design Sprints are like a collection of “greatest hits” from business strategy, innovation, behavior science, design, and more. And it’s all packaged into a 5-day step-by-step process that any team can use.
The four-day version of the Sprint — Design Sprint 2.0 — was created by us after running hundreds of Sprints and identifying ways of making exercises more effective. The only update approved by Sprint-inventor Jake Knapp, Design Sprint 2.0 shaves an entire day off the process so the team arrives at a tested solution in just four days! Read all about how Design Sprint 2.0 works here, or watch this handy video (straight out of our Design Sprint Masterclass)
It might be best to ditch the “design” part of the term because it causes so much confusion. Sprints are not just for designers or tech companies. They’re for any company and team who have to work through difficult, impactful, potentially-lucrative, potentially-costly problems. They are also a fantastic career booster (even if you’re not working in the field of UX!)
One of the best parts of this framework is that you get your answer quickly. After that, you’ll have total project clarity, enhanced team alignment, a working prototype, and a pathway to achieving your set goal. Those who have conducted Sprints know the incredible value they bring (hint: more work satisfaction and $$$)
In this post, you’re going to learn exactly how to run your first Design Sprint, step-by-step. We’ll get Design Sprint beginners prepared for day 1 (Monday). In addition, you’ll have a game plan to execute the rest of the days with complete confidence.
Facilitator’s Mindset & Building Confidence
Here’s a simple truth that might be hard to stomach: the best course and instructions in the world will do you no good if you’re not mentally ready.
You have to be in the right mental space. Luckily, your world does not have to be perfect to begin. We all have life’s everyday stressors to deal with. But with the right mindset and environment, your first Design Sprint workshop will be destined for success.
The trick is to stay positive and to keep moving.
If you’ve gone through the Design Sprint Masterclass, the online course where we teach everything we know about running Sprints, you already have all the knowledge and tools you need to make your Sprints a success. From preparatory checklists to facilitator tips, no stone has been unturned regarding Sprint instructions. On day 1, you simply throw up the already-prepared 117-page presentation slide deck that walks everyone through the exact step-by-step process: it’s fool-proof. (Note: There is a link to free presentation decks below in the Key Resources.)
As for random things that might come up, you’ll know enough to keep you moving forward. And as Marie Forleo says, you don’t need all the answers because “everything is figure-outable.”
Add to this, there are hundreds of facilitators around the world who have already successfully deployed design Sprints. They had all the same fears and questions starting out and made it through it all. As an encouraging note, our CEO Jonathan Courtney jokingly said that a workshopper “could probably mess up 80% of the facilitation,” and it would still turn out fine (read his best advice for starting out workshoppers here).
The magic spell to ace your Sprint is easy: trust the process. Design Sprint has been battle-tested in hundreds of scenarios and is a proven method that works.
If you trust and rely on the process, you’ll enable so-called non-creatives to be wildly creative, and skeptical participants to flourish with significant contributions.
Rest assured that if you prepare and follow the instructions, any doubt or fear you have about conducting your first Design Sprint can be overcome. So keep a positive mindset, breathe, and get on with it. It will be great!
Design Sprint Needs Assessment and Selling It
Hey, we get it, sales can be hard. Maybe it’s just not your thing, maybe your team is not on board with trying out new ways of working, or maybe you’ve simply never done it before and don’t know where to start. The thing is, getting buy-in before running a Sprint is crucial for its success. Otherwise, you run the risk of continually having to deal with skeptics and low engagement levels from your team.
So how do you sell your team or a potential client on running a Design Sprint? We’re glad you asked!
If you’re trying to convince your direct team, give this video a look:
If you’re trying to sell it to a potential client, you’ll find our best tips here:
To sum up, our top tips on how to sell a Design Sprint are:
- Focus on finding a solution to their problem, not on trying to sell the Sprint. It might be tempting to pump your own tires and babble on and on about how great the process is, but that won’t get you far. Focussing on the team’s needs, on the other hand, will build rapport and ensure you’re running a Sprint when it’s needed, not just for the sake of it.
- Unearth the real challenge. Ask open-ended questions like, “What does the typical user journey look like? What’s working well, what’s not?” The point is not to stump the decision-maker, but rather to discover the root causes and understanding the whole problem. Once you know these answers, which is really a gap analysis, you’ll use that information in your pitch to conduct a Design Sprint. If the gap is big and painful enough, it would be crazy not to pursue a solution.
- Show, don’t tell. If the team you’re pitching to has never tried out workshops, they simply might not realize how effective this way of working is. We recommend starting small, with an easy workshop based on the principles of Design Sprint – Lightning Decision Jam. Running an LDJ before selling a client on a Sprint has worked for us in 99% of the cases, so we highly recommend giving this one a try.
- Focus on tangible outcomes. With Design Sprint, you’re not trying to sell a flimsy methodology that has no tangible outcomes: you will have a high-fidelity prototype that’s been tested on users by the end of just four days! Having direct user feedback to a potential business solution is highly valuable for any company which doesn’t want to waste time and money, so focus on the tangibility of the method, and the buy-in is guaranteed.
Crucial Conversations And Research before the Design Sprint
Before the Design Sprint, you have to initiate crucial conversations with key stakeholders to justify a Sprint and to coordinate the right parties to make it work.
Lots of careful research is needed before any Sprint and the following is a list of conversations and tasks to practically guarantee success in your workshop. In some of the items below, you will do this task again when the appropriate Sprint day asks for it. However, you want to go into day one with some of these ideas already starting to take form. Yes, they’ll likely change during the Sprint, but this helps you wrap your head around each unique project.
The Team — You’ll need to have an early conversation with the Decider of the Sprint – the person who will make the final call and decisions (often the business owner, CEO, or product manager). You’ll also need a team of experts and stakeholders in the company to participate in the Sprint.
The Decider can help you assemble this team. Your goal is to assemble a diverse group, to get a wholesome picture of the challenge. Here are some examples of who you might have in that team: the CEO, CTO, CMO, Head of Design, Product Manager, Marketing Manager, Sales Rep, Customer Service Rep, etc. A good rule of thumb is to try to keep your team size under 7 people: bigger groups still can run successful Sprints but are substantially harder to manage.
The Challenge — Make sure you clearly understand the challenge the organization needs to solve. What are you trying to achieve? What is the main challenge? What are the top 3 questions you want to be answered in the Sprint? Even though the challenge gets decided on in the process of the Sprint, it’s good to have a starting point.
The Long-Term Goal — Begin with the end in mind. If you did everything right in the Sprint, you should be well on the path to achieving your long-term goal. Ask your team, “Why are we doing this project? Where do we want to be in six months, a year, or even five years from now?” These questions are very important, so don’t expect them to be easy.
No matter what everyone agrees upon, the Design Sprint is the first step to helping you achieve this long-term goal. Along the way, you’ll accumulate some early wins as well such as your user-validated prototype.
The Map — This is basically the customer journey pathway. Map out the touchpoints from someone starting off as a complete stranger and then becoming a paying customer with the deliverable. Again, while this is an exercise in the Sprint, having a template that the team can fill in (as opposed to a blank whiteboard) helps them get going.
HMW Questions — This is the first exercise on day 1, and it’s done during the Expert Interviews. So in this session, the core Sprint participants are writing down HMW questions and getting clarity from all the experts in the room. HMW stands for “How might we . . . ?” For example, people might write down “How might we increase revenue with the current product?” Brainstorm with the Sprint owner to have a few HMW questions before day 1.
Lightning Demos — This is done in the second half of the first day. Like all of the tasks above, doing a few lightning demos pre-Sprint will really help you think outside of the box.
The goal of lightning demos is to get inspired by other solutions. To do this, you’ll have to do a little research online. When you have a few good solutions — and they need not be from similar industries — you demonstrate these to the group. In that presentation, you’re essentially saying “This is how this company solves this problem.” Use post-it notes and write down the big idea plus a few notes on how the company solved a problem.
Want to learn more about the Design Sprint? Join Facilitator Club and connect with experts in the field
Roles & Responsibilities in Design Sprint
There are many roles in Design Sprint. Below are a few to keep in mind as you recruit and assign people to your dream team:
- Sprint Lead — Leads the entire Sprint (AKA, Workshop Facilitator/You).
- Sprint Host — This person makes sure everyone is happy and fed.
- Experts — Subject-matter experts responsible for teaching others about the topic/challenges.
- Music Manager — Sets up and controls music during the workshop.
- Runner — Preps supplies and makes food runs.
- Prototyper — Responsible for getting the prototype done on time.
- Recruiter — Responsible for recruiting, qualifying, and scheduling testers for day 3.
- Interviewer — Responsible for conducting interviews.
- Notetaker — Responsible for taking notes during the interviews.
- Photographer — Responsible for documenting the Sprint with great photos.
- Basecamp Updater — Responsible for communicating Sprint updates.
The Room And Materials for the Design Sprint
The perfect Design Sprint room is a bit like an incubator. You want a controlled environment that’s conducive to production. You don’t want noise coming in from the outside. Also, you must warn people who aren’t taking part in the Sprint to stay outside. This is a four-day intensive, so any distraction — even a workmate wanting to touch base with you for a few minutes — is not ideal.
Select a space in your office that is quiet and away from massive foot traffic if possible (or go offsite to ensure max concentration!). Ideally, the room shouldn’t have too many things on the walls such as paintings or art. You want a plain room with blinds in case the view gets too distracting (or the sun gets too bright). At the very least, you want: 1) a separate room, 2) whiteboard space, 3) natural light, 4) tables and chairs.
As far as materials for the Sprint, here is the list of everything you’ll need:
Must have:
- Rectangular post-its (yellow)
- Square Post-its (yellow)
- Square Post-its (blue or pink)
- Small red dots (8mm)
- Large green dots (18mm)
- Sharpies
- Masking Tape
- Scissors
- Glue sticks
- White A4 paper
- A5 paper (or A4 cut in half)
- Snacks & drinks
Great to have:
- Time Timer
- Magic Paper
- Camera
- Bluetooth Speaker
- Clip Boards
As a bonus, we have created a Workshop playlist, full of hours of music to play during your Sprint.
As mentioned above, make sure you’ve delegated this task to the Music Manager who will set all of this up, speakers and all.
Lastly, if you are super nervous about day 1 of your first Sprint — try getting comfortable with the room you’ll be in. You can record yourself delivering the first few slides and instructions in this room while you’re all alone. You’ll see that once you nail the first slides and the first day, all the fear was just in your head.
Line Up Experts
The last bit you must do before the actual Sprint is to double-check that the experts are ready for day 1. Send them a quick email or call, and make sure they have excellent directions to the space if they’re coming from outside of the company. Accommodate them in every way and be enthusiastic at every point of contact.
As a fall-back, make sure you have others who can step in if an emergency comes up and they can’t make it. In your initial talks with the experts, they are committing to showing up to help. In that same conversation, you might have them set up their replacement with you. For example, if a CMO is coming to the Sprint, their replacement can be their creative director or marketing director. This is tricky since everything is last-minute, but a lot is at stake here so try to confirm back-ups because the show must go on!
Explaining The Design Sprint
You’ve managed to get everyone on board–congrats! Your first Sprint is about to start, and step number one is to get everyone on the same page. Don’t assume that just because people showed up to your workshop, they already know what it’s all about. Explain what the Design Sprint is, how it will help your team get ahead, and why the process works.
Keep your explanation short, sweet, and clear. We like this one from the creator of the Sprint himself, “The Sprint is a unique [four]-day process for answering crucial questions through prototyping and testing ideas with customers.” In essence, “Sprints offer a path to solve big problems, test new ideas, get more done, and do it faster. They also allow you to have more fun along the way.”
After defining the Sprint, reinforce why you’re doing it in the first place–to solve a real problem within your team: scope creep, team misalignment, unclear goals, or lost motivation. These are things that make projects feel like chores, and Design Sprint is the joyful solution.
Set Workshop Expectations
Setting expectations is crucial for the success of any workshop, but even more so–Design Sprint. Why? Well, because Design Sprint fundamentally changes the way teams work together, and how collaborative work happens. This is what ultimately makes it so great, but this is also what makes it feel weird at times.
Let them know that the process will feel uncomfortable, that they will feel like they’re letting go of good ideas, and moving too fast. Acknowledge that they’ll go through an emotional rollercoaster of “this is amazing!” to “this is NEVER going to work.” All this is an inevitable part of the process and doesn’t mean that Design Sprint doesn’t work for your particular team.
Really stress the process of the Sprint. If they trust it, it will work. It’s a proven, battle-tested recipe, and it’s fun. Explain how no Sprint is perfect, but erring on action will reap outstanding results. By simply participating and following instructions, they will have a successful Sprint.
Don’t forget to mention the commitment to be distraction-free–aka abandoning their phones and laptops completely. There is only one time when they’ll need a computer or phone, and that is for the Lightning Demos because some research is required. This is a task facilitators continually remind people about at the beginning of each session. You can say something less nagging like, “Okay, let’s get back into ‘focused production’ mode. Let’s all make sure our phones are off and jump in!”
Make sure to take the pressure off by assuring your team that they don’t need to be creative. The exercises don’t require artistic level skills and groundbreaking ideas. In fact, they are specifically designed to foster out-of-the-box thinking without the participants even realizing it.
As a facilitator, it’s your job to make sure the Sprint keeps moving along — hence the name. It’s not a marathon so even though your participant’s work might not be perfect, their efforts are usually good enough to get them to the next milestone. Be a good time-keeper. Remind people how much time they have, and keep them moving right along.
Occasionally, you might get some trouble-makers in the Sprint that appear to derail your strict schedule. Dealing with skeptics and trouble-makers in a workshop is a topic of its own, but a good rule of thumb is to hear them out. Ignoring someone with strong opinions is going to make them even more determined to drive the point across. Kindly check in with the participant and don’t assume anything. If they are a bit off, just listen to them. Also, remind them that they were selectively chosen for their immense value in the Sprint. If people feel listened to and valued, you can usually clear up any misunderstanding.
Here are some ideas from the Sprint book and Design Sprint Masterclass to maintain the group’s energy and motivation:
- Begin and end on a high note. Congratulate, thank, and applaud the team for their work and participation.
- ABC: Always Be Capturing. Synthesize the team’s findings on the board and in your notes. Keep asking yourself “How should I capture this?”
- Take care of humans. Pace your team and keep them energized. Take breaks every 60–90 minutes. Have a light lunch and serve healthy food at the right times.
- Decide and move on. Allow the Decider to break decision grid-lock, and move on.
The Sprint is meant to be effective, efficient, and fun. The Design Sprint Masterclass includes lots of things that encourage teamwork and joyful productivity. If you don’t have the masterclass materials to fall back on, use your best judgment on what you can do to quickly bring teams and individuals together.
Connect with other Workshoppers worldwide and share your own experiences and expertise in our FREE community
Step-By-Step Tasks For Each Day of the Design Sprint
As you know, each day in the Sprint has quite a few agenda items. The following outlines every step and every task in order — along with a few facilitator tips. If you’ve read Jake Knapp’s Sprint book and watched the YouTube videos on Design Sprints, this basic outline should serve you well.
Now if you haven’t done any background research on Sprint, this step-by-step schedule is likely to confuse you. This is not a stand-alone guide for this complex process, so get up to speed before you attempt a Sprint on your own.
We’re not the ones to sing our own praise, but taking the Design Sprint Masterclass is hands down the best way to prepare for a Design Sprint. The reason it prepares you so well for your own Sprint is because in addition to all slide decks, checklists, and facilitation tips you have access to regular Q&A calls, AND to an exclusive community on Facebook which is full of experienced facilitators of every stripe — plus the team at AJ&Smart. You’ll never be alone or have your questions unanswered.
Now, we know that not everyone has the chance to get on the Design Sprint Masterclass yet, so there are 100% free resources below. While piecing the free info together will likely take you way more time and effort, it is the freeway to clumsily cobble all the lessons together if you don’t have the Masterclass.
Monday Agenda
Start Monday with preparing the room. Get all the supplies ready and double-check the technology. As participants come in, greet them, and make them feel comfortable.
Icebreaker Task: On a big post-it note, have participants write out: “My name is . . . My role is . . . My wish for this Sprint is . . . ” When everyone is done, have them read out their own intro.
Next, tell them who you are, what Sprints are, the ground rules, and what to expect. Introduce the Decider and what that role means. Stress the no phones rule. From here, you can show them the day’s agenda.
Session 1: Define The Challenge
- Introduce the experts and have participants fill out the HMW post-its. (How Might We . . . )
- Long-Term Goal (LTGs) and Sprint Questions. On post-it notes, have participants quietly write out the 2-year goal for the company. Tell participants that this is a “together alone” activity so they’ll have to do this quietly. Later, participants will present their LTGs and the Decider picks out one of them.
- Now it’s time for participants to write out the “Can We . . .” questions. “How might we. . . ” questions point out the biggest challenges. “Can we . . .” questions are the answers to the “How might we” challenges. When people are done, vote on the “Can we . . . “ questions individually. The Decider picks the top Can We’s. Create Sprint questions from the top Can We’s.
- The Map — Create the map and add the top “How Might We’s” to it. Again, you’re mapping the customer journey and all the touchpoints along the way. Decide together on an area in the map that would be a good place to test solutions. Circle that part of the map. That’s the target.
Session 2: Product Solutions
- Lightning Demos — Allow participants to use their laptop to do research for these demos. As they take notes, remind them to keep the longterm goal, Sprint questions, and target in mind. Have each person briefly present their demo.
- Next, have participants start the 4-Part Sketching exercises. These are the Note-Taking, Ideas (aka Doodling), Crazy 8’s, and the 3 Step Concept (aka, Solution Sketch). For the Note-Taking exercise, remind them that it’s about copying what they already have produced. For the Crazy 8’s exercise, tell participants you get one minute per cell.
Now you’re at the end of day 1 of the Sprint. Make sure to hang up your concepts and celebrate day one with the participants. Thank them for their focused work today, and consider blowing off a little steam by taking them out for a quick drink.
Tuesday Agenda
By day 2, you should be very familiar with everyone and the momentum is building. Summarize what the group did yesterday and some of the big wins. Let the participants know that the whole goal for Tuesday is to decide on a solution the entire team wants to go forward with, and then to create a crystal clear storyboard. Voting will be a collection of heat map of opinions.
Session 1: Decide On A Solution
- Set up a gallery area with yesterday’s concepts.
- Next are the concept presentations so the whole team knows what each concept is about. Start with re-reading the Sprint questions. Then, each person votes on concepts with their dots.
- The solution presentation is done next to align understanding the concepts. The facilitator does the solution presentation where they call out the Name, Big Idea, and Parts with a lot of heat.
- Now the Straw Poll begins. They’ll create a post-it that has the Concept Title on it with quick reasons why they think it’s great. Participants have 2 minutes to pitch their concept. The facilitator takes notes on the heat map of votes and summarizes their best features. Lastly, the decider comes in and places their vote.
Session 2: Storyboard
- Pre-Storyboard User Test Flow: This is used to prepare the flow of steps for the prototype. This handy exercise is not in the Sprint book, so here’s a handy explanation video we prepared for you:
- Use the winning concept. Each person uses exactly 6 post-its to sequentially guide the user through the solution. That is, plot the steps and flow the user will go through. (The Sprint book suggests 5–15 steps, but stick to 6.)
- Create a 123/ABC wall matrix. Each person will read out their post-its and post up their sequence of the user test flow.
- Participants vote on the best flow with their voting dots. Then, the decider comes in and makes the final choice.
- Next, is the storyboard. The purpose of this is to leave no open questions for the prototypers. To start, draw 8 boxes on the whiteboard, then place the 6 post-it notes inside the boxes.
- Look around the gallery and cut out drawings you can re-use in the storyboard. No new ideas or unnecessary things.
- Now, fill in the missing pieces of each step with drawings. Start with the first box and then the last box.
- While some people are doing this, others can set up the User Recruiting piece. They can create an online form, create an ad, and post it. Your personal networks will reap the best result. Also, you can use Facebook groups and Facebook Ads to hyper-target individuals. In the ad, state the company, broad test topic, place, time, and incentive (gift cards?). Do not let potential users know too much about the test.
- Read through your storyboard out loud to make sure nothing obvious is missing. Day two is finished!
- End the day on a high note. Bring the day’s successes to their attention.
Wednesday Agenda
Start the day by summarizing what the group did yesterday and some of the big wins. Tell the team that the goal of day 3 is to create a working prototype. The goal is not to have a visually polished prototype. Don’t worry about professional branding and high-level usability. It should look real enough for users, but that’s it.
Facilitators must make sure time is spent wisely and needless things like having the perfect logo or color scheme should be avoided. Below are two types of prototyping you can choose from depending on what your product or service is.
Digital Prototyping
- Decide what design platform you will use and share it with the team.
- Prioritize the day’s work by marking the 2 or 3 screens you’ll focus on.
- Decide who is working on each screen.
- Have someone organize and keep time for the breaks, lunches, and check-ins.
Tools for Digital Prototyping:
- Sketch (design platform)
- Figma (design platform)
- InVision (great functionality and easy to use)
- Marvel (currently better for embedding videos)
- NounProject (icons)
- FontAwesome (icons)
- Unsplash (quality photos)
Non-Digital Prototyping
- Create your physical prototype by using things that already exist. For example, for a new snack bar, you can cut up the packages of existing snack bars and patch them together to create a working prototype.
- With expensive, complicated, and/or time-consuming items you can create the sales literature or promotional assets for the product.
- Use a 3D printer to create prototypes.
- You can use the open-source electronics platform, Arduino, to create interactive products that have a hardware and/or software component.
User Test Prep And Recruiting Follow-Up
- Check your user recruiting results. You can call them with follow-up questions to get the best candidates for the test. These qualifier questions will mirror the ideal customer for your product. If this test will be done remotely, confirm their technology setup in the follow-up questions. When you’ve decided who the interviewees are, confirm their appointment. You need 5 confirmed bookings and 2 alternates.
- Set up a live stream recording so others can view the tests or watch them later.
- Set up a test schedule to show the name of the test, the time of the test, and the topic to test.
- Keeping the Sprint questions, long-term goal, and prototype in mind, write down the key questions for the interview with your team. Now you’re all set for the final day!
- End the day on a high note. Bring the day’s successes to their attention.
Thursday Agenda
Day 4 is the testing day. Start your day with the review of Day 3, and then confirm the day’s agenda. Today you will do a couple of rounds of interviews with the users you recruited and do a braindump on what your team discovered. By the end of the day, you will have answered your Sprint questions and fully-aligned to accomplish the long-term goal.
Testing
- It’s best to set the test up as early as possible and book tests back to back. (30–60m per test)
- Create a Feedback Board so you can follow topics in the interview (no scripts) and post your feedback later.
- These tests will be conducted by two people who were actually in the Design Sprint.
- As for tools, for online interviews use tools like Snagit or Youtube Stream with OBS.
- When conducting the interviews, here are a few tips. Before you start, help them feel at ease. Encourage them to be as open as possible.
- Your team will be taking notes during the interview with two colored post-it notes: green and orange. Green is positive comments and Orange is for misunderstandings or negative comments. At a glance, you can see how all the interviews went.
- Ask open-ended, non-leading questions.
- Remain neutral when you hear the questions. (Verbal and non-verbal responses can be leading as well!)
- When it’s over, kindly thank them for their time and show them how to redeem their test incentive.
Braindump
- Together, but alone, analyze the trends of the interviews. The Notetaker adds in all the points from the Wall of Feedback and the Sprint lead writes down the answers to the Sprint Question plus 3–5 recommendations.
- At the end of this day, let the team know they’ll get the summary report soon. And like day one, do something sociable and celebratory with your team.
Summary Report
Wooo, congrats! You made it through your very first Sprint! Give yourself a pat on a back, acknowledge all the hard work you’ve done…and get ready for some more. Truth is, the Sprint is only as useful as its iteration. You have to summarize your findings and decide on further course of action, using the insights and data gained in the Sprint.
That’s where Summary Report comes into play. The report must answer the Sprint Questions and the Long-term goal and give clear recommendations for the next steps. You’ll send this to everyone in the Sprint.
The following are some items you’ll want to include in this document:
- A summary of what you did each day and the purpose.
- Quick Points of high-level outcomes after testing.
- What worked.
- Challenges, including critical/negative feedback.
- Long Term Goal.
- Sprint Questions.
- Revisit of the expectations of the Sprint and how you addressed that.
- Next Steps & Recommendations (detailed).
- Detailed Prototype Feedback.
- A couple of images of the Design Sprint throughout the document.
Design Sprint Participant Follow-Up
A week or so after the Sprint, follow-up with a group call. Thank everyone for their hard work. Then, talk about everyone’s experience with Design Sprint. When everyone has spoken, turn to the report (delivery summary) and what they thought about it. Talk about the positives and negatives. Use this time to confirm the next steps with the team.
Free Design Sprint Resources
- Design Sprint Webclass — Get the gist of the Sprint and some valuable tips too.
- Step-by-step Design Sprint presentations: Wayfair’s 100-page version & SprintCube’s 226-page version.
- Trello Board for Design Sprint 2.0 — Videos! For the Sprint (A collection of quick videos organized by day and topic)
- Our YouTube Channel! We CONSTANTLY share valuable knowledge there so you don’t want to miss out, on that one.
- Workshopper blog! Since you here now anyway, take a look around, we always share loads of resources (most of them for free) and strive to enable Workshopper all over the world to do their best work. Here are the best Design Sprint articles to get you started: Handy hacks to make your Sprints smooth, 11 most frequently asked Design Sprint questions answered by Jake Knapp, Design Sprint Myths
- Great Case Studies: Lego, Oak, Share Foods, and Zero.
- Jake And Jonathan Podcast — All things design Sprint and some interesting side-chat. (1,000 sticks rating!)
- The Workshopper Playbook. This book will teach you the ultimate framework for running any type of workshop. After reading it you’ll understand exactly why are Design Sprints so effective, and will be able to create your own custom workshops to fit virtually any challenge. Oh, did we mention we’re giving it out for free?! Get it here while supplies last.
Paid Free Design Sprint Resources
- Sprint book by Jake Knapp
- Our Design Sprint Masterclass. This is the best, most thorough resource for anyone looking to run Sprints on their own.
- Private Facebook Group (part of the Masterclass bonus) — This is the no-facilitator-left-behind bonus that is worth its weight in gold!
- Sprint Preparation Guide (Masterclass asset, 3 pages)
- Design Sprint Checklist (Masterclass asset, 22 pages)
- Design Sprint Workshop Presentation (Masterclass asset, 117 pages)
Next Steps
And there you have it–you’re all set to go out there and try running a Sprint on your own! Just like with any other skill, practice makes perfect. You’re not going to become a world-class facilitator without trying your hand at a few SPrints first, so the best thing to do right now is to go out there and start facilitating! Get a few of Sprints under your belt and you’ll not only future-proof your career as a VIP employee, but you’ll achieve incredible breakthroughs as well. Good luck to you!
Are you looking to future proof your career and learn a skill that will make you irreplaceable for ANY team? Then we have just the right thing for you! The Workshopper Playbook* is an entire that will teach you how to level up your career using workshops, AND will show the step-by-step method for creating and running custom workshops.
*We’re giving away copies of The Workshopper Playbook for FREE for a limited time, you’ll just need to cover shipping. Hot off the press, get it here, only while stocks last.
