Explain a Design Sprint in 1 Minute…GO!

Design Sprint in 1 Minute is the concept of setting aside a chunk of time, usually 4 to 5 days, to conduct back-to-back workshops and design/testing sessions. The process is meant to validate a product idea in a fraction of the usual time. It was created by Jake Knapp when he was working at Google and was frustrated with the lengthiness of a product’s lifecycle.

The Sprint, as Jake Knapp designed it, takes place from a Monday to a Friday.

Monday Design Sprint

Day One of a Design is about problem definition and team alignment. What will we do? How do we want to approach this problem? How might we solve it? There is lots of doodling and pondering involved, and by the end of the day people are excited that they’ve come together on a direction, a problem to solve, and some great ideas for solutions.

Tuesday Design Sprint

On Day Two, we take yesterday’s sketches and concept ideas and turn them into something more concrete. We create a storyboard of the idea: how A leads to B, and B to C, etc. The end result is a definitive flow that will be used to inform the creation of the prototype on the next day of the Sprint.

Wednesday Design Sprint

Day Three of a Design Sprint is prototyping day! We take everything we decided about the product on Day Two and start putting something together that looks a lot like the real thing. For a digital product, the UX and UI team work together to design screen flows that can be linked together in such a way that they appear to be a functional application.

We are creative world solvers! Learn more about Rocksaucedev Design Sprint in 1 Minute

Thursday

On Day Four, we refine and polish that prototype so that we can test it on real users tomorrow!

Friday

Day Five, the last day of the Design Sprint, is usability testing day. We bring in 5 different people that represent the target user because we want them to test out the product. Watching all of these users work their way through the flow of the product provides priceless data about its validity. Maybe we learn that the idea is flawless; maybe we’ll find that it’s great but needs some important tweaks; and it’s even possible that we’ll learn the idea is a flop that nobody finds useful. That last one is no fun, but it’s better to know the bad news now than to figure it out way down the road.

A Sprint might help you become a millionaire by making a good idea great. A Sprint also can save you a ton of money because it rules out a bad idea after one week instead of after 6 months of design and development. Either way, the Design Sprint has done its duty once again!

If you’re looking for someone to facilitate a Design Sprint or a Innovation Workshop (a brainstorming session on steroids), give Rocksauce Studios a call at 866-981-6847 or send us a message. We help our customers design and launch solutions that people will actually use.