Sprint
A quick and practical business read that is worth your time
What You Need to Know
Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days is a business book written by Jake Knapp (with John Zeratsky and Braden Kowitz) and published in 2016.
The authors are three design partners at Google Ventures, and the book covers a unique five-day process for solving tough problems using design, prototyping, and testing ideas with customers.
From Goodreads:
While working at Google, designer Jake Knapp created a unique problem-solving method that he coined a “design sprint”—a five-day process to help companies answer crucial questions. His ‘sprints’ were used on everything from Google Search to Chrome to Google X. When he moved to Google Ventures, he joined Braden Kowitz and John Zeratsky, both designers and partners there who worked on products like YouTube and Gmail. Together Knapp, Zeratsky, and Kowitz have run over 100 sprints with their portfolio companies. They’ve seen firsthand how sprints can overcome challenges in all kinds of companies: healthcare, fitness, finance, retailers, and more.
Why it’s a Recommendation
I recently ran an offsite for my team and was reminded again about some of the exercises that I’ve learned from this book. Brainstorming sessions can often be dominated by the loudest voice in the room, or just end up in a ton of ideas and no follow-up action. Sprint covers a tried and tested set of exercises to help prevent these issues, no matter what big problem you are trying to solve.
The main topic of the book is the full five-day design sprint, the principles behind it, and the practical steps to take if you want to successfully run one. I have done several of these sprints and they are usually extremely effective, productive, and fun. However, getting a full week of anybody’s time is hard, let alone enough people to do an exercise like this - the general course of business typically doesn’t allow for many design sprint opportunities.
Regardless though, this book is worth a look because inside the five-day program is a treasure trove of insights and practical methods that can improve the way your team works. The exercises and ideas can easily be adapted for use outside of the full design sprint context, as I’ve done successfully many times in the past.
Two of my favorite activities come from the Tuesday sessions:
Remix & Improve leans on the insight that “every great invention is built on existing ideas” and encourages team members to look at alternative products and companies for inspiration to bring back.
Working Alone Together rejects traditional group brainstorms and instead gives everybody the chance to develop solutions on their own. The catch is that by doing this individual work at the same time as part of a large group, it creates the social pressure to force every member of the team to get creative.
At my recent offsite, I tried the “Lightning Decision Jam” for the first time. This is a really quick single-session exercise that applies a lot of the same principles as the main design sprint. It’s a lot less commitment, but still very effective and a great way to dip your toes in to these types of exercise.
If any of this resonates, this is a short and easy read that will be well worth your time.
Learn More
Sprint Book
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