Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

by Jake Knapp

Then, in 2007, I got a job at Google, and there, I found the perfect culture for a process geek. Google encourages experimentation, not only in the products, but in the methods used by individuals . . . and teams.

So I reviewed the outcome of the workshops I’d run. And I noticed a problem. The ideas that went on to launch and become successful were not generated in the shout-out-loud brainstorms. The best ideas came from somewhere else. But where?

Individuals were still thinking up ideas the same way they always had—while sitting at their desks, or waiting at a coffee shop, or taking a shower.

My best work happened when I had a big challenge and not quite enough time.

First, there was time to develop ideas independently, unlike the shouting and pitching in a group brainstorm. But there wasn’t too much time.

Looming deadlines forced me to focus.

I reconsidered those team workshops. What if I added these other magic ingredients—a focus on individual work, time to prototype, and an inescapable deadline? I decided to call it a design “sprint.”

It was exciting. The sprints worked. Ideas were tested, built, launched, and best of all, they often succeeded in the real world.

Startups usually get only one good shot at a successful product before they run out of money. Sprints could give these companies a way to find out if they were on the right track before they committed to the risky business of building and launching their products.

Michael Margolis encouraged us to finish each sprint with a real-world test. He took customer research, which can take weeks to plan and execute, and figured out a way to get clear results in just one day.

“It sounded like a bunch of management mumbo jumbo.” But he agreed to try one. “In that first sprint, we cut through the BS and made something ambitious in just a week.

To our surprise, the five-day process held up. It worked for all kinds of customers, from investors to farmers, from oncologists to small-business owners. It worked for websites, iPhone apps, paper medical reports, and high-tech hardware.

We’ve used sprints for prioritization, for marketing strategy, even for naming companies.

Time and time again, the process brings teams together and br...

We’ve run more than one hundred sprints with the startups in the GV portfolio. We’ve worked alongside, and learned from, brilliant entrepreneurs like Anne Wojcicki (founder of 23andMe), Ev Williams (founder of Twitter, Blogger, and Medium), and Chad Hurley and Steve Chen (founders of YouTube).

It’s all too easy to get stuck in churn: endless email, deadlines that slip, meetings that burn up your day,

It doesn’t have to be that way. Sprints offer a path to solve big problems, test new ideas, get more done, and do it faster. They also allow you to have more fun along the way.

First, the team cleared a full week on their calendars. From Monday to Friday, they canceled all meetings, set the “out of office” responders on their email, and completely focused on one question: How should their robot behave around humans?

On Monday, Savioke reviewed everything they knew about the problem. Steve talked about the importance of guest satisfaction, which hotels measure and track religiously.

With only five days in the sprint, you have to focus on a specific target. Steve chose the moment of delivery. Get it right, and the guest is delighted. Get it wrong, and the front desk might spend all day answering questions from confused travelers.

On Tuesday, the team switched from problem to solutions. Instead of a raucous brainstorm, people sketched solutions on their own.

And it wasn’t just the designers. Tessa Lau, the chief robot engineer, sketched. So did Izumi Yaskawa, the head of business development, and Steve, the CEO.

In all, we had twenty-three competing solutions. How could we narrow them down?

We used voting and structured discussion to decide quickly, quietly, and without argument.

We used two tricks to finish our prototype on time:

Much of the hard work had been done already. On Wednesday, we had agreed on which ideas to test, and documented each potential solution in detail. Only the execution remained. 2. The robot didn’t need to run autonomously, as it would eventually in the hotel. It just needed to appear to work in one narrow task: delivering one toothbrush to one room.

For Friday’s test, Savioke had lined up interviews with guests at the local Starwood hotel in Cupertino, California. At 7 a.m. that

“This is so cool,” she said. “If they start using this robot, I’ll stay here every time.” But it wasn’t what she said. It was the smile of delight that we saw over the video stream. And it was what she didn’t do—no awkward pauses and no frustration as she dealt with the robot.

They even took selfies with the robot. But no one, not one person, tried to engage the robot in any conversation.

At the end of the day, green check marks filled our whiteboard. The risky robot personality—those blinking eyes, sound effects, and, yeah, even the “happy dance”—was a complete success.

But they were only confident in that gamble because the sprint let them test risky ideas quickly.

Good ideas are hard to find. And even the best ideas face an uncertain path to real-world success. That’s true whether you’re running a startup, teaching a class, or working inside a large organization.

As partners at GV, it’s our mission to help our startups answer these giant questions.

To help them solve problems quickly and be self-sufficient, we’ve optimized our sprint process to deliver the best results in the least time.

The sprint gives our startups a superpower: They can fast-forward into the future to see their finished product and customer reactions, before making any expensive commitments.

This book is a DIY guide for running your own sprint to answer your pressing business questions.

On Monday, you’ll map out the problem and pick an important place to focus.

On Tuesday, you’ll sketch competing solut...

On Wednesday, you’ll make difficult decisions and turn your ideas into ...

On Thursday, you’ll hammer out a realistic prototype. And on Friday, you’ll test ...

You won’t finish with a complete, detailed, ready-to-ship product. But you will make rapid progress, and know for sure if you’re headed in the right direction.

This is a book for experts and beginners alike, for anyone who has a big opportunity, problem, or idea and needs to get started.

Before the sprint begins, you’ll need to have the right challenge and the right team. You’ll also need time and space to conduct your sprint. In the next three chapters, we’ll show you how to get ready.

The bigger the challenge, the better the sprint

If you’re starting a project that will take months or years—like Blue Bottle and their new online store—a sprint makes an excellent kickoff. But sprints aren’t only for long-term projects. Here are three challenging situations where sprints can help:

High Stakes Like Blue Bottle Coffee, you’re facing a big problem and the solution will require a lot of time and money. It’s ...

A sprint is your chance to check the navigation charts and steer in the right direction bef...

Not Enough Time You’re up against a deadline, like Savioke rushing to get their robot ...

Just Plain Stuck Some important projects are hard to start. Others lose momentum along the way.

When we talk to startups about sprints, we encourage them to go after their most important problem.