How much can I learn from running design sprints?

A lot.

Design sprint is a system that can help you solve and test big challenges and problems in just 5 days. This process is invented by Google Ventures but today a lot of agencies are trying to make it better by releasing some new enhanced version of it.

I run this process in a lot of context and I gain experience on it and each time I run it or I teach it I learn something new about it. Below are my top 3 lessons learned from running this process throught workshops.

The first lesson is that something magic happen when each day starts with a clear goal.

On Monday, the team focus on understanding the problem and align on it, Thuesday each team member sketches a solution, on Wendnesday the team decide on the best solution, on Thursday they build a prototype and on Friday they test it.

Each day is challenging and has one clear focused goal.

This focal point creates team spirit, clarity and motivation to reach it.

At the end of each day , once you achieve your goal, you are done. You can checked off and go home satisfied.

The second lesson is getting more done once we ban devices.

Since we set the rule of not using any device during the sprint, we were able to get more focus, without checking emails or our social networks. This is helped the team to focus on what they have in hand and get more done.

The third lesson is experimentaion is more important then planning. Experimetation allowed me and the team to continuosly improve the process and make it better.

Each time I run a sprint I learn not only from the team’s feedbacks but also from what I observe on the team dynamics and energy.

I hope this helped you learn something new.