In a product launch, no matter how much research has been done, there is always a certain anxiety to see the result and how the end user will react.

So we were wondering if there wouldn't be a way to travel to the future, observe user interactions, and return.

Although time travel is still the stuff of a fictional movie, there is a methodology that can shorten the release process to carry out the necessary tests with the end user. It's not literally a trip to the future, but it already gives us a good idea of the product's efficiency.

This methodology is called Design Sprint!

How about learning how to use the methodology to accelerate your product development, saving time and money?

What is Design Sprint?

Design Sprint is a methodology created by Jake Knapp (author of the book 'Sprint'), being used in several startups in the portfolio of Google Ventures, an arm company of Google.

This methodology has the following objective to prototype, test and validate a product/solution, in a way speedy, in order to save time and money.

Despite being a relatively new methodology, it is based on several other methodologies which we are already more used to. For example:

• Brainstorming;
• Innovation Workshop;
• Hackathon;
• Ideation Session;
• Design Thinking.

However, the difference between Design Sprint is that it aggregates the best practices of these other methodologies and focuses on obtaining something tangible — prototype—, at the end of the process.

What is the purpose of this methodology?

As its name suggests, Design Sprint is all about design and agility.

The purpose of this methodology is to establish a 5-day process to validate a product idea, by means of prototypes and user tests.

Generally, the product development process has some standardized steps:

1. Solution idea;
2. Product construction;
3. Launch;
4. Learning.

However, this process can be quite long and resource intensive.

In this way, the Design Sprint works as if it were a shortcut, between the idea and learning stages, saving time and money from the other stages.

As a parameter, it is common to say that 5 days proposed by Design Sprint are equivalent to 4 to 6 weeks of the standard processl of product development.

Therefore, there is no doubt that Design Sprint is a methodology that brings speed.

Reading Tip: How to apply Design Thinking to your UX projects?

What are your results?

As seen, one of Design Sprint's main final products is a prototype. But, in addition, there are other important results resulting from this methodology, such as:

• Conducting tests within a context, together with end users. That is, there is learning and knowledge creation;
• Involving the entire Design Sprint team, creating alignment between all people about every stage of the process;
• Creating a tangible solution — artifact — for tests with the end user.

When to use?

The Design Sprints can be used in 4 situations:

1. At the start of a project, to define which product to develop and which user need to solve;
2. In the middle of a project, when you are faced with an obstacle or find yourself stuck somewhere in the process;
3. To do things faster and more quickly. That is, it is widely used if you need to inject some speed into the processes;
4. Or, even, it can be used to align the members of a new team, so that everyone is on the same page of a project.

Who is part of the Design Sprint team?

A Design Sprint team must be diverse and contemplate all the roles that exist within a normal product development process. For example:

• Product Manager;
• Engineers;
• UX/UI Designers;
• Researchers;
• Stakeholders.

Of course, the diversity of the team It depends on the project and the company. There may be cases where someone from the legal area, sales, logistics, etc. is needed.

In addition, the presence of a Sprint Master.

The Sprint Master is the person who Will it help operate the Sprint and managing your progress. He acts independently and has no other responsibilities within the Design Sprint he conducts.

Later in the article, we will discuss the Sprint Master's responsibilities in more depth.

Reading Tip: Why Are Balanced Teams Important in UX Design?

How does the Design Sprint process work?

While other methodologies prioritize only collective work or only individual work, Design Sprint works with both situations. There are moments of group work and there are moments of individual work.

A The idea is to absorb the best characteristics of each of these types of work.

Thus, the Design Sprint process is comprised of 3 stages, where each of these stages is divided into 2 stages. Resulting in 6 steps In total:

• Understanding (Understand);
• Definition (Define);
• Diverge (Diverges);
• Decide (Decide);
• Prototype (Prototype);
• Validation (Validate).

Therefore, Design Sprint's proposal is to complete this process in 5 days. So, within a timeline, we have the following vision:

Organizing Design Sprint days

Jake Knapp proposes in his book that the methodology be carried out over 5 days, each day with a main topic and exercises to be performed with the team.

• Day 1 - Map: The focus is on understand the problem, carrying out research with specialists and thoroughly exploring the needs, to then define what the team will solve in this project;
• Day 2 - Sketch: On the second day, the objective is on Draw ideas for possible solutions, exploring the maximum of possibilities in a limited time and carrying out some activities to help everyone on the team to create ideas;
• Day 3 - Decide: On that day, the The purpose is to decide on a main idea that will be taken forward, for prototyping and testing. To this end, several idea-prioritization exercises are also carried out with the team. It is important that only 1 idea is chosen and the team agrees with it;
• Day 4 - Prototype: Day of create a rapid prototype of the chosen solution idea. This prototype should look like a possible final result (high fidelity), but it must be made as simple as possible in the time allowed;
• Day 5 - Test: This is the day of carry out tests and interviews with potential users to validate and invalidate hypotheses generated throughout the sprint, using the prototype created. O The ultimate goal is to generate rapid learning and verify if this project should have a greater investment by the company, or not.

It is also important to remember that the purpose of Design Sprint is to have dedicated team 100% of the time.

How about we go a little deeper into each stage of the methodology?

Reading Tip: How Does UX Design Add Value to the Business?

1st Stage: Understanding - Understand

The purpose of the Understanding phase is gather as much information as possible on the topic addressed in the project.

In this way, they are made various surveys and interviews with end users in order to better understand user journey and start identify potential problems and needs.

In addition to research and interviews, it is also possible to make a Lightning Talk, where experts on the subject are invited to talk and share your knowledge and experiences.

At the same time, during research, interviews and Lightning Talk, team members must take notes in the format How Might We (HMW).

How Might We

Annotations How Might We are essential for help identify a problem or need that the user has during the journey.

Such annotations have this format, where:

• How: assume a Existence of an opportunity;
• Might: Assume that There is no obligation in finding the solution to the problem;
• We: brings up the concept of collectivity, involving the entire team.

Let's go to one practical example:

In an interview with the user, he comments that it is difficult to manage project emails.

Thus, a possible annotation How Might We It would be: “How can we improve email categorization in the software?”.

The main focus of annotations is seek opportunities to improve the user's life.

2nd Stage: Definition - Define

In the Definition stage, there is a moment of selecting with what problem or need the Design Sprint team is going to work on.

However, making that choice can be a bit tricky. For this, there are some tools interesting that can be used at this stage.

Sharing and Affinity Mapping

The idea of this tool is Share all the ratings with the team HMW And understand What are the most interesting opportunities among them.

This way, all team members enter their notes HMW in a painting or even on the wall.

It is clear that many notes will be under the same theme, so it's important Create categories to group similar notes.

Then, after grouping the notes, it's easy to see which of the categories have the most comments and which are the most interesting to work on.

Agile Stories

As Agile Stories They have as their objective Organize user experiences in small flows where opportunities and their respective benefits are placed.

It is possible to work with this tool from a simple story model, such as:

As an end user, I want to be able to better categorize my emails, so that I can then better manage my projects.

Future Press Release

Another tool that can be used to define which opportunity to choose is Future Press Release.

With this tool, the entire Design Sprint team helps create a Image of the future, where the The user is already satisfied with their experience after using a product or interface.

The idea is to put the entire team on the same page, aligned with the objective of the project and what problem should be solved.

In this way, the Future Press Release is shaped as if it were a newspaper headline. Contemplating:

• Title and subtitle;
• What is the problem and who is the user;
• Details of the developed solution;
• Because this solution was developed;
• Because the user liked this solution.

Reading Tip: Brainstorming - Techniques to Unlock Your Ideas

3rd Stage: Diverging - Diverges

Once you have the definition of the problem to be solved, it's time to start idealize some solutions.

In this sense, throughout this stage, the proposal is to have the As many ideas as possible, without criteria or judgments.

The recommendation here is not to keep anything to yourself and to expose any and all imaginable solutions.

Therefore, to avoid any type of judgment, at this stage of Design Sprint, there are some rules that can help break introversion:

1. Without judgments. Always think “yes, and...” instead of “no, but... “;
2. Don't think too much, the proposal is to create quantity and not quality, at that moment;
3. match, Copies and Steal ideas!
4. Don't think about viability, don't restrict ideas;
5. Everyone on the team they must participate;
6. Without distractions!

So, after putting all the ideas out there, how do you organize them? For this, it is common to use a technique called Crazy 8s.

Crazy 8s

This is a dynamics quick, which aims to deepen the ideas proposed in the Diverge stage a little more detailed.

According to the concept written by Google itself, the proposal is create sketches that exceed initial ideas and create a wide range of solutions to the problem.

So how does this exercise work:

1. Each team member is given a sheet of paper and a pen;
2. The sheet must be folded 4 times, so that 8 squares are formed;
3. Members will have 8 minutes to sketch 8 solutions to the problem;
4. The time must be visible to everyone.

At the end of Crazy 8s, another exercise called Solution Sketch.

In this simplest exercise, each member chooses the 2 best ideas And your Sketches and draw them again, with more detail and depth.

It's important for everyone to participate, the excuse of not knowing how to draw doesn't work!

4th Stage: Decide - Decide

With various ideas and Sketches In hand, the time has come for decide which idea will be passed on to the prototyping stage.

However, making decisions isn't always an easy task. In fact, it's often not.

In this sense, there are some tools and workouts that can help the team make a choice. They are:

• Dot Voting: is voting using stickers. Each member receives three votes. Vows may be secret or not;
• Value x Difficulty Chart: this technique is more analytical and involves placing ideas on a graph whose axes are Value to the User and Technical Difficulty. The idea of quadrant 1, which has greater value for the user and less technical difficulty for development, must be the first to be tested during the prototyping phase.

5th Stage: Prototype - Prototype

As its name says, this stage is focused on prototype construction of the chosen solution.

So it's time to choose the prototype types that best suit the needs of the project. Below are some examples that can be used at this stage of Design Sprint:

Paper Prototypes

Because it is a type of prototype of low fidelity, there's not as much concern with visual elements. That way, there's a lot of focus on interaction and the user journey.

Functional Prototypes

It is also interesting to build more interactive prototypes, such as Digital ones.

These types of prototypes bring Closer view of what the final product would be like.

However, it's important to remember that time is short in a Design Sprint. In this way, it is essential create creative and faster solutions for the construction of these prototypes more realistic.

Since developing interfaces can take quite a long time and we don't want to waste this resource.

Physical Prototypes

Depending on the solution chosen, it may be necessary to build a physical prototype to better evaluate and understand the user's interaction with the hardware.

Reading Tip: Prototypes: What You Need to Know for Your UX/UI Projects

6th Stage: Validation - Validate

Finally, the last stage of Design Sprint includes the process of validation of the solution and learning.

Thus, it is in this phase that the tests with end users, observing their interaction and identifying opportunities for improvement.

Design Sprint Master: Essential Tips

As mentioned, in addition to the team that will carry out the Design Sprint, there is also the figure of the Sprint Master.

The Sprint Master is responsible for coordinating the Design Sprint, managing the exercises and dynamics and the time of the processes.

Although it's not a difficult role to play, it's important to keep in mind a few tips to make work easier.

Separate the necessary materials

There is no need for complex materials, in fact, in Design Sprints, very simple instruments are used such as:

• Board, chalkboard or flipchart;
• Post-it notes;
• A3 and A4 paper;
• pen, pencil, eraser and sharpeners;
• Scotch tape;
• round stickers;
• Watch.

All of the above materials are important for the development of Design Sprint activities. But one item that really is essential is the watch.

All activities must be Timed so that the process as a whole can be carried out within the proposed 5 days.

You're not Sprint Master of your own Design Sprint

As a rule, you cannot be a Sprint Master of a Design Sprint of which you are a member of the team.

Especially since participating in the Design Sprint requires total dedication of time. Being a member of the team and Sprint Master are two separate responsibilities, and this could affect your performance in both functions.

However, the role of Sprint Master is not complex. There are a few checklists to follow, so basically, anyone can be a Sprint Master.

Be clear about the problem and the objective

It is necessary to have the full understanding of the purpose of Design Sprint, without this, the entire process will not be efficient.

Being clear about the details and deliverables is also essential.

Get the right people together for Design Sprint

The proposal to carry out the Design Sprint must include the project's focus area.

That way, and with that in mind, it is essential to understand Who are the most appropriate people to make up the Design Sprint team.

Remember that The team must be diverse and the skills and competencies it has to be in accordance with the project area.

Manage stages and steps clearly

For each exercise or dynamic proposed in the Design Sprint stages, explain the scope of each of them and give examples.

The team must have an understanding of the reasons for their achievement and why they are important.

Have a realistic Design Sprint schedule

The Designs Sprint process already has a time proposal dashing. It's fast and laborious. Therefore, Realistically manage time, without setting deadlines that will not be possible to meet.

So, do some good Design Sprint planning. But keep in mind that there are Unexpected and that often the planning needs to be reviewed and flexibilized.

Reading Tip: Understand the Differences Between Outcomes and Outputs

Believe in Design Sprint and motivate people

A team with clear objectives and motivated to make it happen is very important. Therefore, always keep the morals of tall people. It's important to:

• It has to be fun;
• Allow pauses;
• Guarantee rewards.

In addition, to make the team motivated, the Sprint Master is the first to Buy the idea and believe in the project.

In this article, we cover how does the Design Sprint process work and how to apply it with some dynamics and tools. But if you want to learn even more, you can access the site Design Sprint Kit, from Google. There, you can find more explanations and some different concepts and tools.