Sprint

by Jake Knapp

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

Sprints offer a path to solve big problems, test new ideas, get more done, and do it faster.

The sprint is GV’s unique five-day process for answering crucial questions through prototyping and testing ideas with customers. It’s

a “greatest hits” of business strategy, innovation, behavioral science, design, and more – packaged into a step-by-step process that any team can use.

we’ve optimized our sprint process to deliver the best results in the least time.

Instead of waiting to launch a minimal product to understand if an idea is any good, our companies get clear data from a realistic prototype.

On Monday, you’ll map out the problem and pick an important place to focus. On Tuesday, you’ll sketch competing solutions on paper. On Wednesday, you’ll make difficult decisions and turn your ideas into a testable hypothesis. On Thursday, you’ll hammer out a realistic prototype. And on Friday, you’ll test it with real live humans.

No problem is too large for a sprint. Yes, this statement sounds absurd, but there are two big reasons why it’s true. First, the sprint forces your team to focus on the most pressing questions. Second, the sprint allows you to learn from just the surface of a finished product.

Get that surface right, and you can work backward to figure out the underlying systems or technology. Focusing on the surface allows you to move fast and answer big questions before you commit to execution, which is why any challenge, no matter how large, can benefit from a sprint.

The Decider must be involved in the sprint.

We’ve found the ideal size for a sprint to be seven people or fewer.

Sprints are most successful with a mix of people: the core people who work on execution along with a few extra experts with specialized knowledge.

It often works well to bring in an outsider who doesn’t normally work with your team to be the Facilitator, but it’s not a requirement.

“Time Timer.”

To keep track of time left for any exercise

Monday’s structured discussions create a path for the sprint week. In the morning, you’ll start at the end and agree to a long-term goal. Next, you’ll make a map of the challenge. In the afternoon, you’ll ask the experts at your company to share what they know. Finally, you’ll pick a target: an ambitious but manageable piece of the problem that you can solve in one week.

“Why are we doing this project? Where do we want to be six months, a year, or even five years from now?”

Lurking beneath every goal are dangerous assumptions. The longer those assumptions remain unexamined, the greater the risk. In your sprint, you have a golden opportunity to ferret out assumptions, turn them into questions, and find some answers.

An important part of this exercise is rephrasing assumptions and obstacles into questions.

Q: To reach new customers, what has to be true? A: They have to trust our expertise. Q: How can we phrase that as a question? A: Will customers trust our expertise?

Each map is customer-centric, with a list of key actors on the left. Each map is a story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. And, no matter the business, each map is simple.

“What will make this project a success?” “What’s our unique advantage or opportunity?” “What’s the biggest risk?”

Ask the decider

ask the expert to tell you where you’ve got it wrong. Can she find anything on your map that’s incomplete? Would she add any sprint questions to your list? What opportunities does she see? Useful phrases are “Why?” and “Tell me more about that.”

you take notes in the form of a question, beginning with the words “How might we . . .?” For example, with Blue Bottle, we could ask, “How might we re-create the café experience?” or “How might we ensure coffee arrives fresh?”

sticky notes

Using thick markers on a small surface forces everyone to write succinct, easy-to-read headlines.

We’ve found limited benefit in looking at products from the same industry. Time and time again, the ideas that spark the best solutions come from similar problems in different environments.

Sometimes, the best way to broaden your search is to look inside your own organization. Great solutions often come along at the wrong time, and the sprint can be a perfect opportunity to rejuvenate them.

The exercise works best when you sketch several variations of the same idea.

Crazy 8

On Monday or Tuesday, we start the process of finding customers for Friday’s test. That means one person needs to do some extra work outside of the sprint. It takes all week – but only an hour or two a day – to screen, select, and recruit the best matches. Ideally, someone besides the Facilitator should take responsibility for recruiting, since the Facilitator will be busy enough as it is.

Note-and-Vote

It’s best if the Interviewer doesn’t work on the prototype. This way, he won’t be emotionally invested in Friday’s test, and won’t betray any hurt feelings or glee to the customer.

So Nielsen analyzed eighty-three of his own product studies.fn2 He plotted how many problems were discovered after ten interviews, twenty interviews, and so on. The results were both consistent and surprising: 85 percent of the problems were observed after just five people.

“how would you decide?” phrasing encourages her to act naturally along the way. We learned much more from this simple task than we would have if Michael had micromanaged her at every step.

When you ask debrief questions, your customers can help you sift through everything you heard.

SET THE STAGE

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