Sprint Quotes

“We’ve found that magic happens when we use big whiteboards to solve problems. As humans, our short-term memory is not all that good, but our spatial memory is awesome. A sprint room, plastered with notes, diagrams, printouts, and more, takes advantage of that spatial memory. The room itself becomes a sort of shared brain for the team.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“By asking people for their input early in the process, you help them feel invested in the outcome.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“It’s what work should be about—not wasting time in endless meetings, then seeking camaraderie in a team-building event at a bowling alley—but working together to build something that matters to real people. This is the best use of your time. This is a sprint.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“great innovation is built on existing ideas, repurposed with vision.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“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. Execution”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint

“Being in a curiosity mindset means being fascinated by your customers and their reactions.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“Longer hours don't equal better results. By getting the right people together, structuring the activities, and eliminating distraction, we've found that it's possible to make rapid progress while working a reasonable schedule.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“Nobody knows everything, not even the CEO. Instead, the information is distributed asymmetrically across the team and across the company.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“Lurking beneath every goal are dangerous assumptions. The longer those assumptions remain unexamined, the greater the risk.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“When our new ideas fail, it’s usually because we were overconfident about how well customers would understand and how much they would care.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“Goldilocks quality. Create a prototype with just enough quality to evoke honest reactions from customers.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“Prototype mindset. You can prototype anything. Prototypes are disposable. Build just enough to learn, but not more. The prototype must appear real.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“Solve the surface first The surface is important. It’s where your product or service meets customers. Human beings are complex and fickle, so it’s impossible to predict how they’ll react to a brand-new solution. When our new ideas fail, it’s usually because we were overconfident about how well customers would understand and how much they would care. 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.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint

“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.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint

“What questions do we want to answer in this sprint? • To meet our long-term goal, what has to be true? • Imagine we travel into the future and our project failed. What might have caused that? An important part of this exercise is rephrasing assumptions and obstacles into questions. Blue Bottle Coffee assumed they could find a way to convey their expertise through their website, but before the sprint, they weren’t sure how. It’s not difficult to find an assumption such as Blue Bottle’s and turn it into a question: 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?”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“Your goal should reflect your team’s principles and aspirations. Don’t worry about overreaching. The sprint process will help you find a good place to start and make real progress toward even the biggest goal. Once you’ve settled on a long-term goal, write it at the top of the whiteboard. It’ll stay there throughout the sprint as a beacon to keep everyone moving in the same direction. • • • Okay, time for an attitude adjustment. While writing your long-term goal, you were optimistic. You imagined a perfect future. Now it’s time to get pessimistic. Imagine you’ve gone forward in time one year, and your project was a disaster. What caused it to fail? How did your goal go wrong? 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. Savioke assumed their Relay robot would create a better guest experience. But they were smart enough to imagine a future where they were wrong, and the robot was awkward or confusing. They had three big questions: Can we make a smooth delivery? (the answer was yes). Will guests find the robot awkward? (the answer was no, except for the sluggish touch screen). And the long shot: Will guests come to the hotel just for the robot? (surprisingly, some people said they would). Just like the goal, these questions guide the solutions and decisions throughout the sprint. They provide a quasi-checklist that you can refer to throughout the week and evaluate after Friday’s test.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“The lesson? 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.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“Interruptions are a wasp's next dropped into the picnic of productivity.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“El lunes, crearemos un mapa del problema y elegiremos un punto importante en el que centrarnos. El martes, realizaremos un boceto con las posibles soluciones. El miércoles, llega el momento de tomar decisiones difíciles y convertir las ideas en una hipótesis que se pueda poner a prueba. El jueves, construiremos un prototipo realista y el viernes, lo probaremos con seres humanos.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: El método para resolver problemas y testar nuevas ideas en solo 5 días

“If you could jump ahead to the end of your sprint, what questions would be answered? If you went six months or a year further into the future, what would have improved about your business as a result of this project?”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“If you could jump ahead to the end of your sprint, what questions would be answered?”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“Monday begins with an exercise we call Start at the End: a look ahead—to the end of the sprint week and beyond. Like Gene Kranz and his diagram of the return to planet earth, you and your team will lay out the basics: your long-term goal and the difficult questions that must be answered.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“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.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“I’m going to use this timer to keep things moving. When it goes off, it’s a reminder to us to see if we can move on to the next topic. If you’re talking when the timer beeps, just keep talking, and I’ll add a little more time. It’s a guideline, not a fire alarm.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“If you’re the Facilitator, using the Time Timer comes with two extra benefits. First, it makes you look like you know what you’re doing. After all, you’ve got a crazy clock! Second, although most would never admit it, people like having a tight schedule. It builds confidence in the sprint process, and in you as a Facilitator.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“We use Time Timers in our sprints to mark small chunks of time, anywhere from three minutes to one hour.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“office supplies, including sticky notes, markers, pens, Time Timers (see below), and regular old printer paper. You’ll also need healthy snacks to keep up the team’s energy.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“At minimum, you’ll need two big whiteboards.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“The simultaneous visibility of these project materials helps us identify patterns and encourages creative synthesis to occur much more readily than when these resources are hidden away in file folders, notebooks, or PowerPoint decks.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

“Check the whiteboards before the sprint starts.”
― Jake Knapp, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days