A Design Sprint is a tried-and-true method that can help you jumpstart a project at work. It is a five-day process where you dissect a business challenge through a set of powerful activities. Design Sprint activities are carefully planned and executed to lead the group to their end result: a rapid prototype that has been vetted with real customers. The implementation of each design sprint activity helps you accomplish a month’s worth of work in a week.

The Design Sprint was initially developed at Google Ventures as a process for “answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas with customers.” It’s an excellent way to push through confusion and inertia to come up with new ideas and find out quickly if your customers might respond positively to them.

Why do we need Design Sprints?

Most teams and organizations probably have a challenge that would benefit from a Design Sprint. But, if you’re wondering if it’s a good thing to consider, here are some scenarios that point to a strong need for a Sprint:

• You’re about to kick off a project or a new product, and you want momentum, excitement, alignment, and focus from the start.
• You’re in the middle of an initiative, and you don’t know where to go next.
• You haven’t talked to your customers enough, and your team feels stuck in an internal feedback loop.
• You think you need to pivot in your business or product model and want to explore the right way to go next.

Any of these scenarios are good reasons to hold a design sprint. Consider setting aside five days for a cross-disciplinary team to complete a Sprint. (Please don’t try to run your first Sprint in less than five days.)

Design Sprint Activities

One of the beautiful things about the Design Sprint is that it is a prescriptive (in the best meaning of the word!) week of events. You don’t need to wonder what to do. You don’t need to struggle to come up with an agenda.

This doesn’t mean a Design Sprint is “easy”; it does mean that the activities for each day are clearly defined so any team can jump in and run a Sprint if they take the time to read up on the process.

Do you need a professional Design Sprint facilitator?

Here at Voltage Control, we are professional Design Sprint facilitators, so it’s difficult to be unbiased when it comes to this question. We think teams can certainly run a design sprint on their own if they have one person on the team who wants to take the lead, do the prep and lead the group through all the activities. However, if you can make the investment, you might want to consider a professional facilitator. They can take care of logistics and making sure the team stays on track.

Preparation & Planning

Preparation and planning for your Design Sprint is the first step. Don’t underestimate the time that needs to be put into a Sprint before it even starts. It could take one to two weeks of someone’s time to get ready for a sprint. Here are some of the things you’ll do during this phase:

• Read the book Sprint.
• Secure a spot for your Sprint — on-site, or, even better, off-site.
• Buy Design Sprint supplies.
• Make your participant list. (Spoiler: more people isn’t better.)
• Plan for how you’re going to find research participants.
• Prepare the Sprint participants.
• (If needed) Engage a professional facilitator.
• Gather background research and data that might inform your Sprint.

Day 1 | Design Sprint Activities

The first day of your Design Sprint charts the course for the rest of the week and creates the focus.

Here are the activities:

• Create a long-term goal.
• Map the business challenge you’re tackling.
• Talk to internal experts on your team to get their perspectives on the challenge.
• Identify a target: agree on the specific part of your problem that you will focus on during the week

Day 2 | Design Sprint Activities

If day 1 of a Design Sprint is getting laser-focused on the problem or issue you face, the second day is when you begin to think bout how you might solve your problem.

Here’s an overview of activities for day 2:

• Gather inspiration: the team shares outside inspiration that might inform your solution (i.e., what are other companies doing that we love or might want to “copy”/remix?)
• Sketch: The group sketches ideas for answers using the Four-Step Sketch method. Drawing ability is NOT necessary! It’s more about the thought.
• Plan for customer testing: On Friday, you’ll be interviewing customers, so you also start work on that recruitment on this day (if you haven’t already.)

Day 3 | Design Sprint Activities

On the third day of your Sprint, you look at all of the solutions you’ve come up with and start to hone in on what you might prototype and test.

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Here’s an overview of what happens on this day:

• Critique each solution: keeping an eye on which ones are best for achieving the goal you set on day one.
• Create a storyboard: mix and match your favorite ideas from all of the sketches and piece together a storyboard that will be turned into a prototype that you’ll show to customers.

Day 4 | Design Sprint Activities

The fourth day of a design sprint is when things get very exciting, and depending on your experience with prototyping — a bit scary or daunting. You’ll be making your storyboard into your prototype.

• Prototyping is the main activity for the day!
• Prepping for your user interviews. Make sure you have a user interview script as well as a method for taking notes.

Day 5 | Design Sprint Activities

The last day of your Design Sprint is the moment of truth. It’s when you show users your prototype and get their feedback. This is when you’ll learn if your idea has legs and you should run with it, or if you need to rethink things.

After the Sprint Activities

A Design Sprint might be a week-long, but the activities should spread into the week after — at the very least.

Some of the essential things to do after your Sprint are:

• Hold a debrief or retrospective with the group to define what you learned.
• Communicate to your larger org or team what you learned.
• Align on your next steps.
• Read Beyond the Prototype: We saw companies struggle in the post-Sprint world, so we wrote a whole book about it. Check it out for more details about what to do after a Sprint.

The post An Overview of Design Sprint Activities appeared first on Voltage Control.

Design sprints are one of the innovation hot topics of the moment, right up there with design thinking. (Unsurprisingly, the two ideas go hand-in-hand.) So, what is a design sprint and why is it so popular right now? It sounds a bit intense, but the good news is that a design sprint requires no actual running.

Design sprints are a highly effective, even fun, method for approaching a problem or key project. As the word sprint indicates, they’re about getting results fast. Read on to find out what design sprints are and why organizations of all kinds are jumping on board.

What is a Design Sprint?

A design sprint is a focused, five-day process to quickly gather insights on your users, prototype ideas, and validate them. The method originated at Google Ventures and, as they describe it: “it’s a ‘greatest hits’ of business strategy, innovation, behavior science, design thinking, and more — packaged into a battle-tested process that any team can use.”

The process was also described in the book Sprint by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky. (We highly recommend reading this book if you want to run a sprint on your own.)

What’s great about the design sprint is that it is a tried-and-true formula. If you follow the agenda for each day, you will have a productive week.

What’s great about the design sprint is that it is a tried-and-true formula. If you follow the agenda for each day, you will have a productive week. Over five days, a small group focuses on a business challenge, uncovers actionable insights, and prototypes and tests a possible solution.

Who’s doing design sprints?
Companies of all shapes and sizes are using the design sprint method and having great success. Google Ventures has run over 150 sprints with companies like Slack, Flatiron Health, and Blue Bottle Coffee. There are also Design Sprint Agencies, like our own, that design and facilitate Design Sprints.

The top reasons design sprints are so popular right now:

1. Results in 5 Days

Everyone is busier than ever at work, and many of us juggle multiple projects in our jobs. In this work climate, it might seem crazy to think that your team can set aside five days for a design sprint. But, if you do, you’ll find that the “lost time” actually leads to leaps in productivity and innovation.

If you have projects that are lingering or taking months to get off the ground, the compressed time period of the sprint can inject tons of needed energy and momentum.

When teams go “heads-down” on a sprint, you achieve at least a month’s worth of work in five days.

We’ve found that when teams go “heads-down” on a sprint, you achieve at least a month’s worth of work in five days. You’ll be amazed at what you have by the Friday of your sprint. It may lead to a true breakthrough or innovation, or at the very least, sprints are excellent moments for team connection and alignment.

2. Hear from Your Customers

Many companies talk about being customer-centric, but at the same time, many companies don’t set aside the time to really talk to their customers. Especially face-to-face. This is another great thing about design sprints: getting customer feedback is baked into the process.

All of the activities in the design sprint lead up to sharing a prototype with potential customers or users and getting feedback. Typically, on the Friday of a Design Sprint week, you interview five users and get their input on your potential product or solution.

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Just as the sprint is very effective in five days, you also get rich and meaningful insights from interviews with “just” five users.

3. Design Sprints Teach New Ways of Working

Another benefit of design sprints is that they teach your team new ways of working on problems or approaching challenges. Today, many organizations are investing in design thinking training, which is undeniably important. But, the power of design sprints is that participants learn through doing. You don’t need to tell people how to design think, you can have them actually do it through a design sprint.

The power of design sprints is that participants learn through doing. You don’t need to tell people how to design think, you can have them actually do it through a design sprint.

After a five day sprint, your team will have hands-on experience with finding insights on your company, looking for outside inspiration, coming up with solutions, prototyping ideas, and interviewing customers. These are important skills for anyone to take back to their day job.

4. The Power of the Prototype

Just as user testing is essential to the design sprint, so is prototyping. Prototyping is another skill and asset that most companies are looking to leverage right now.

Through a design sprint, you will see first-hand how prototyping gets you to better solutions faster.

Through the design sprint process, teams prototype a solution. But, don’t let this deter or overwhelm you. Prototypes don’t need to be fancy or technical seo. It may be a clickable prototype made with something like Sketch, Invision or Framer, but your prototype can also be as simple as a landing page, a paper sketch or simple wireframe.

Through a design sprint, you will see first-hand how prototyping gets you to better solutions faster.

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5. Design Sprints are Flexible

Another reason we love design sprints is that they are flexible. We’ve been talking a lot about the classic five-day design sprint, but they don’t have to take a full work week.

Ideally, you have five days to set aside, but we understand that that is not always possible. You can expand or contract the design sprint to the time you have. For example, we ran a four-day sprint with the delivery service Favor and it was highly successful. Or, there are ways to spread a design sprint over several weeks or to use some of the techniques in a two-hour meeting.

In other words, don’t let time stand in your way. Most design sprint facilitators or consultants will work with you to design something that works with the time you have.

You Don’t Have to Design Sprint Alone

If you want to run a design sprint at your company but are overwhelmed at the idea of planning and facilitating it, you’re in the right place. Voltage Control designs and leads design sprints for companies large and small.

Having a professional facilitator run your sprint ensures that you can focus on the ideas and the work, not the logistics or “doing it right.” Reach out to us at hello@voltagecontrol.com if you want to talk about running a design sprint at your company.

The post What is a Design Sprint and Why is Everyone Talking About It? appeared first on Voltage Control.

Innovation is the engine of new business. Without it there is no competition, there is no improvement, and there is no change. That’s because consumers enjoy seeing new inventions. They enjoy trying new things — especially products that improve their day-to-day lives — and discovering the bounds of what different industries can offer.

Hiring an innovation facilitator is one of the wisest things you can do.

That’s why hiring an innovation facilitator is one of the wisest things you can do. Companies should embrace innovation as a part of their core ideals; it’s about fostering a culture that drives ground-breaking ideas and pursuing new challenges.

An innovation facilitator can help you stay competitive in your market by looking to what’s next. They’re an investment in the future and a way to get an edge against your competition. So, what exactly can you expect from an innovation facilitator?

An Innovation Facilitator Will See Your Company For What It Is

Managers usually think they know what’s best for their companies. It’s only natural since they’re trained to lead and have a vision. They’re supposed to fall in love with what the organization represents and the products it makes.

But, that corporate idealism can actually hurt managers’ business decisions. Their bias can cause them to be blind to shortcomings in the company. Hiring an innovation facilitator can help reduce any bias managers may have. Innovation facilitators approach the company from a completely objective and unbiased viewpoint. By hiring one, you get the advantage of analyzing your company in a way you couldn’t before.

Innovation facilitators may recommend changes that weren’t considered before. For example, they may recommend rearranging how teams are structured or how key meetings take place. Coming with a fresh perspective, an innovation facilitator can see issues and blockers in a company that the internal team might miss.

Innovation Facilitators Plan For the Future

Markets, as well as entire industries, are constantly changing. Companies need to be at the forefront of this change if they want to stay ahead of their competition. To do that, they should consider hiring an innovation facilitator.

Since innovation facilitators work with many different companies, they have many different kinds of experiences. They can draw on these experiences to predict how industries may shift in the near future. They can also make recommendations to help the company change along with consumer trends. For example, they may recommend an auto repair company build a social media presence if it doesn’t already have one. This kind of recommendation would come from experience in other industries, where social media presence is important to survive.

Just By Hiring One, You’re Changing Your Company Culture

The most important part of any company is its culture. The way employees and managers interact needs to be conducive to a healthy work ethic. It also needs to be accepting of new ideas, from anyone at any rank.

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By investing in an innovation facilitator, you’re sending the message that you care about these kinds of things. By showing you’re willing to invest in innovation consulting, you’re saying you want people to feel comfortable thinking outside of the box.

The next steps would be following the recommendations the innovation facilitator may make. For example, innovation facilitators may identify an issue with how power is distributed in the company. They may notice that employees aren’t voicing new ideas out of fear. To address this, they may recommend managers adopt a new power structure and give employees a space to share their thoughts.

Managers should listen to recommendations like these because there are consequences for not following them. By not following the recommendations of a trained professional, you send the signal that you don’t care about the culture. It can demoralize employees since it shows you may not trust them.

Facilitators Are Trained — They Know What They’re Doing

It can be hard to let somebody into your company just to change it. It can feel risky and you may be afraid that after the facilitator leaves, it will be too hard to implement their suggestions.

Innovation is a messy, confusing process. If you’re used to working neatly with everything staying the same, you may be intimidated. It’s only natural to resist the things you may not fully understand.

Know that by hiring an innovation facilitator you are taking a crucial first step in addressing and fixing a problem.

Innovation Facilitators Do More Than Innovate — They Facilitate Success

Hiring an innovation facilitator gives you an edge against your competition and sets you up for success. Innovation facilitators can adapt to any industry and bring value. They address problems most people may not see and leave companies working better than ever before. When they’re done, the company isn’t just a workplace — it’s a cradle for new inventions, products, and ideas.

Contact us, and we can help you connect with an innovation facilitator who will ensure you change more than your company.

FAQ Section

How does facilitation training at Voltage Control improve leadership skills?
Our facilitation training focuses on developing leadership skills by equipping leaders with effective facilitation techniques. These leadership development programs help participants lead brainstorming sessions, manage innovation sessions, and overcome challenges for trainers, setting them up for long-term success.

What is the role of design thinking in your workshops?
We incorporate design thinking tools in our design thinking workshops to encourage creative problem-solving. Our design thinking facilitators and design thinking training facilitators guide teams through the entire process, from ideation to implementation, ensuring innovative solutions are developed for business innovation.

What kinds of innovation training does Voltage Control offer?
Voltage Control offers a range of innovation training programs, including online workshops and in-person innovation project workshops. These sessions focus on enhancing facilitation skills, tackling creative processes, and supporting innovation professionals to manage innovative products effectively.

How do your programs support business innovation and management?
Our programs for training in innovation management and innovative facilitation equip teams to manage digital product management teams and lead innovation project workshops. This includes tackling business challenges, streamlining the innovation process, and encouraging creative collaboration.

Why is innovation facilitation important for long-term success?
Innovative facilitation ensures that teams not only tackle immediate business challenges but also establish practices for long-term success. By engaging in innovation sessions, utilizing design thinking tools, and embracing innovative products, companies can continually adapt and lead in their industries.

The post Thinking Outside the Box: How an Innovation Facilitator Can Help Your Team appeared first on Voltage Control.