design-sprint

---
name: design-sprint
description: Use when the user wants to prototype and test a product idea with real users fast, mentions a "design sprint," or a team is stuck debating a high-stakes product decision.
category: Design
version: 1.0.0
tools: []
---

# Design Sprint Framework

A five-day process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas with customers. Developed at Google Ventures and used by Google, Slack, Airbnb, and hundreds of startups.

## Core Principle

**Compress months of debate, design, and testing into one week — and test with real users before writing any production code.** The sprint replaces endless discussion with a fixed Monday-to-Friday spine, hard time-boxes, and a single Decider, so a high-stakes product question gets a real answer in five days instead of five months.

## Scoring

**Goal: 10/10.** Score a sprint plan or execution by awarding 1 point for each item present and correct (10 total). Report the score and the missing items needed to reach 10/10.

1. Decider committed for the full week; one Sprint Master facilitating.
2. Monday produces a target customer and moment, not a vague "test the product."
3. Hard time-boxes used (Crazy 8s in 8 min, 10am-5pm days, no open-ended sessions).
4. Solution sketches done alone and anonymous, no group brainstorming.
5. Wednesday ends with a single Decider Supervote, not consensus.
6. Storyboard specified before any prototype is built.
7. Prototype is Goldilocks-fidelity, testable in 5-15 min, with a trial run done.
8. Exactly 5 target users recruited via screener (6 scheduled to absorb a no-show).
9. Friday uses the Five-Act Interview; users interpret the prototype unexplained.
10. Debrief converts the +/-/~ pattern grid into a decision on next steps.

A plan missing the Decider, real users, or a same-day prototype caps at 6 — those are the failure modes the sprint exists to prevent.

## The 5-Day Sprint Process

```
Monday → Tuesday → Wednesday → Thursday → Friday
  Map      Sketch     Decide      Prototype    Test
```

**Prerequisites:** a big challenge worth a week's focus; a team of Decider plus 4-7 people with diverse expertise; five full days (10am-5pm) with no interruptions; a dedicated room with whiteboards. One **Sprint Master** facilitates, keeps time, and manages energy.

## Monday: Map

**Goal:** Understand the problem and choose a target for the week.

- **Long-term goal:** the optimistic answer to "What do we want to be true in 2 years?" (e.g., "Customers use our product daily").
- **Sprint questions:** list obstacles and unknowns as questions on the whiteboard, whole team contributing (e.g., "Will customers trust us with payment info?").
- **Customer journey map:** list the actors (customer types), then draw the journey left to right in 5-15 steps ("Hears about product → Visits site → Signs up → First use → Regular user").
- **Ask the Experts:** interview teammates with specialized knowledge (CEO, design, engineering, support, sales); capture notes on the whiteboard.
- **How Might We (HMW):** rephrase problems as opportunities — "Customers don't understand pricing" → "HMW make pricing immediately clear?" One per sticky note; vote and organize the best on the map.
- **Target:** choose which customer and moment on the map to focus on — the biggest risk or opportunity. The **Decider** (person with authority) makes the final call.

## Tuesday: Sketch

**Goal:** Generate solutions — each person sketches a detailed solution.

**Morning — Lightning Demos:** 3-minute demos of competitors and analogous products for inspiration ("Here's what I found, here's why it's interesting"), captured on the whiteboard; borrow from any industry. Then divide the map between people if it has multiple parts, or swarm the same critical problem together (most sprints swarm).

**Afternoon — The Four-Step Sketch:** Everyone sketches alone — **no group brainstorming**. Individual work produces better, more diverse ideas.

1. **Notes (20 min):** silently review the map, HMWs, and inspiration.
2. **Ideas (20 min):** rough doodles, mind maps, stick figures — quantity over quality.
3. **Crazy 8s (8 min):** fold paper into 8 panels, sketch 8 variations in 8 minutes — forces you past your first idea.
4. **Solution Sketch (30-90 min):** a 3-panel storyboard (beginning, middle, end), self-explanatory with a catchy title, kept **anonymous**.

## Wednesday: Decide

**Goal:** Critique solutions and choose the best one to prototype and test.

**Morning — Sticky Decision:** **Art museum** (tape sketches to the wall, review silently, mark interesting parts with dot stickers) → **Heat map review** (discuss each sketch for 3 minutes, sketcher stays silent) → **Straw poll** (one non-binding vote each, one sentence rationale) → **Supervote** (Decider gets three dots; their decision wins).

**Afternoon:** If multiple sketches win, choose **Rumble** (competing prototypes testing different approaches) or **All-in-One** (combine the best ideas into one prototype — simpler, and what most sprints do). Then draw a 10-15 panel **storyboard** of the test experience: opening scene (how the customer discovers you) → your solution in action → successful outcome. Keep it simple — stick figures, words, arrows — but specific about the UI, with just enough detail for Thursday's prototype.

## Thursday: Prototype

**Goal:** Build a realistic facade in one day — you need something to test on Friday.

**Mindset:** Fake it; prototype only what you'll test. Aim for Goldilocks fidelity — sketches are too low for honest reactions, working code wastes time. It should look real without working for real (facades, click-throughs, video).

**Roles:** Makers (2+, build the pieces), Stitcher (1, assembles the final prototype in Keynote/Figma), Writer (1, all copy), Collector (1-2, gathers photos/icons/screenshots), Interviewer (1, writes and rehearses Friday's script), Sprint Master (fills gaps, keeps energy up).

**Tools:** Figma, Keynote, or linked PowerPoint slides for web/apps; video walkthrough or 3D-printed mockup for physical products; role-play video for services.

Morning: divide the storyboard into scenes and assign to makers. Afternoon: stitch together, review against the storyboard, rehearse the full flow, and run a trial with someone outside the sprint team.

**Prototype checklist:** follows storyboard exactly; looks real enough for honest reactions; walkable in 5-15 minutes; interviewer rehearsed; trial run completed.

## Friday: Test

**Goal:** Interview 5 customers; learn what works and what doesn't.

**Setup:** interview room with the prototype and a camera recording screen and face; observation room with a live video feed where the team watches and takes notes. One **Interviewer** conducts all five interviews.

**The Five-Act Interview** — about 45 minutes per customer, with 30-minute breaks between to discuss observations and adjust questions:

| Act | Time | What to Do |
|-----|------|------------|
| **1. Welcome** | 5 min | Explain you're testing the prototype, not them; get recording permission; encourage thinking aloud |
| **2. Context** | 5 min | "Tell me how you currently handle [problem]" — mindset and current behavior |
| **3. Introduce prototype** | 5 min | "What's this? What's it for?" Don't explain — let them interpret |
| **4. Tasks/nudges** | 15 min | Open-ended exploration, then storyboard tasks; when stuck, ask "What would you do next?" — don't help |
| **5. Debrief** | 5 min | "What did you think? Who's this for? What was confusing?" |

**Five is the magic number:** patterns emerge after 3-5 people and returns diminish after 5, and five interview-plus-break slots fit one day. Recruit via a screener survey; offer an incentive ($100-$200 B2B, $50-$100 B2C).

**Pattern Recognition:** capture observations in a grid, one column per customer, marking each ✓ (positive), ✗ (negative), or ~ (mixed). After five interviews, count marks per row and look for shared patterns.

**End-of-sprint debrief:** organize findings into ✓ what worked, ✗ what failed, ~ mixed, then decide next steps:

- **Core concept validated:** build it, or run the next sprint on details
- **Major issues:** pivot, or sprint again on the problems
- **Total failure:** back to the drawing board — you just saved months

## When to Run

**Run when:** the decision is high-stakes, there's no time to build and test normally, the team is stuck in endless debate, multiple solutions compete, it's a new product/feature/major redesign, or you need to de-risk before investing. **Don't run when:** the problem/solution is obvious, the team isn't bought in, or you can't get the Decider for the full week.

**Variations:** 4-Day Sprint (Day 1 Map+Sketch compressed, Day 2 Decide, Day 3 Prototype, Day 4 Test); Remote Sprint (same schedule, Miro/FigJam + Zoom); Multi-Sprint (Sprint 1 chooses direction, Sprint 2 deep-dives the solution, Sprint 3 refines details).

## Common Mistakes

| Mistake | Why It Fails | Fix |
|---------|-------------|------|
| **Skip prototyping** | Nothing to test | Always prototype, even if simple |
| **Over-engineer prototype** | Wastes time on details that don't matter | Facade only, not working code |
| **Test with wrong users** | Invalid feedback | Screen for target customers |
| **Explain prototype to users** | Confusion is the data | Run Acts 3-4 as written, unaided |
| **No decision maker** | Can't commit | Get Decider for full week or don't sprint |
| **Interruptions** | Breaks focus | Protect the week, no meetings/emails |

## Quick Diagnostic

| Question | If No | Action |
|----------|-------|--------|
| Decider committed for full week? | Sprint will fail | Get commitment or postpone |
| Problem important enough? | Waste of time | Only sprint on big challenges |
| Can prototype in 1 day? | Wrong problem for sprint | Choose more concrete problem |
| Can recruit 5 target users? | Can't test properly | Start recruiting 2 weeks ahead |
| Team commits to no interruptions? | Won't maintain focus | Get buy-in from leadership |

Based on the Design Sprint methodology by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, and Braden Kowitz (*Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days*).