Design Sprint Approach: Our 5-Step Secret Recipe For Effortless Innovation

We offer top-notch services for product strategy, design, innovation, workshop design and facilitation, as well as practical innovation training for businesses. We can help you build products or services based on real customer needs, enabling innovation-led growth. Our aim is to enable teams to achieve their best work without relying on luck or genius. We also offer consulting services to assist you in creating an MVP or implementing a new agile workflow. Furthermore, we will be your go-to consultant for any questions you have about completed workshops or training.

After our analysis conversation, we will create a detailed project plan that includes all the necessary steps. You will receive regular updates, and we will continuously coordinate to ensure that the result meets your expectations.

The cost of our services depends on the type and scope of the project. To provide you with a fair and transparent offer, we first discuss your individual requirements and preferences. After our analysis conversation, we create a customized offer that takes into account all costs and is tailored to your specific project.

Open and transparent communication is essential to us. We use email, phone, Slack, Notion, and possibly video conferencing tools to regularly exchange information and keep you informed about the project’s progress.

We can make adjustments at any time, as long as they are within the scope of the original project. However, the extent to which we can make changes depends on the project. For significant modifications, we will discuss the impact on the schedule and costs.

Once the project is complete, we are available to answer any questions and provide support. Depending on the agreement, we may also offer creative direction, process support, workshop facilitation, or optimization services.

Our top priority is your satisfaction. If you are not happy with the results, we will work together to find a solution that best implements your ideas. However, we have never had an unsatisfied customer before.

Design Sprints and other Design Thinking related workshops are a wonderful, structured, human-centered approach used for practical and creative problem-solving. They can, however, go completely wrong if you don’t have the right experts around, who can guide you through challenging decisions and bring in their perspective. In order to assist you, we draw on decades of real-world experience in the fields of design, entrepreneurship, and strategy in both startups and large corporations. Because we’ve been there too, we can identify with your situation. We know and understand what you’re up against, and we’ll do everything we can to help you succeed, guaranteeing you real added value and the highest quality in every aspect.

The sprint is a process for answering critical business questions by creating a realistic prototype of an idea, and testing it on real users – in under a week! Developed at Google Ventures, it encompasses business strategy, innovation, behavior science, design thinking, and more.

The Sprint process came out in 2016, and today, thousands of teams around the world have run sprints in startups (like Slack and Airbnb), big companies (like LEGO and Google), agencies (like IDEO and McKinsey), schools (like Stanford and Columbia), governments (like the UK and the UN), and even museums (like the British Museum and the Smithsonian).

Yes, there is a difference. Design Thinking is a toolkit, mindset, and philosophy, while a Design Sprint is a specific recipe, with exercises and a step-by-step guide for executing Design Thinking principles.

If you want to learn more about Design Thinking, Design Sprints, and Agile Sprints, check out our dedicated article where we break down the similarities and differences between each framework and when to use each one.

Unorganized brainstorms tend to favor extroverts over introverts and to place importance on quantity over quality. In summary, they are an unsuitable choice for coming up with necessary solutions.

Below are the main reasons you should opt for a Sprint Workshop approach instead:

✅ In sprints, group and individual tasks can coexist peacefully and effectively. Structured, timed exercises promote a variety of perspectives and developed ideas (with distractions reduced to the barest minimum).

✅ You get a tangible and reproducible problem-solving process that you can use whenever you want to advance your business ideas.

✅ Obtaining authentic feedback from your target users allows you to advocate design based on data and not bias or intuition.

✅ Before investing a lot of time and money, you can secure buy-in from stakeholders right from the start.

✅ As a result, you will get a solution that has been prototyped and tested.

Can we, for example, use Sprints for challenges like organizing promotional campaigns, defining marketing strategy, or crafting strong content ideas? Yes, we can! In fact, Jake Knapp himself (the inventor of one of the most effective workshops – the Design Sprint!) uses Sprints for marketing campaigns whenever possible…

“I like to use workshops for marketing campaigns whenever possible, even when the main question is about the product. Getting the marketing right is crucial to getting the product right. In fact, you should figure out the marketing first before you figure out the product.” Jake Knapp

The basis of the Marketing Strategy Campaign Workshop uses the exercises from the trusted Design Sprint method, while matching it to the specifics of working on a marketing challenge. It merges numerous profound exercises and techniques, making it an all-encompassing tool for marketers which is effective in tackling challenges such as defining marketing strategy, organizing promotional campaigns, or crafting strong content ideas.

Here are just a few examples of what we can use a Marketing Strategy Campaign Workshop for:

✅ Defining the overall marketing strategy for a product

✅ Crafting high-converting landing pages

✅ Devising efficient advertising campaigns

✅ Planning out full-circle marketing plans for a product launch

✅ Giving your brand a re-fresher

…and so much more!

Using our method, you have planned out a complete marketing strategy campaign in just a few hours, including its timeline, all the deliverables required (as well as those responsible for them), and a concept for your most valuable asset. What would usually have required long hours of open-ended discussions, countless painfully unproductive meetings, and never-ending back and forth was completed with ease and momentum. Pretty good, if you ask us.

The core of all our workshops uses exercises from tried and tested Design Sprint method while adapting it to the specifics of each challenge. Besides the Design Sprint, we also do offer workshops for brainstorming, ideation, and problem-solving or even for marketing challenges. We recommend using our workshop methods anytime your team needs to make decisions, solve problems or discuss challenges fast + find quick direction. It will prevent your team from losing focus and replace your open, unstructured discussion with a simple process.

Yes! Many top designers and consultancies around the world have adapted the time-boxed sprint model to special cases. Every situation that demands change can benefit from a tailor-made approach. All organizations, as well as us, have to deal with different situations. There are many different target groups, change requirements, possibilities, and so on. That is why we offer tailor-made workshops to respond to such individual situations and, of course, to keep our clients happy. So if you have a specific issue, we can tailor a workshop or training for your specific needs.

1. Working Together Alone (removing personal biases and levelling the playing field)

➡️ The group works in the same room, while each person has time and space to form their own individual ideas and thoughts.

☝️ Why? To equalize different personalities and levels of hierarchy.

2. Tangible (ideas) over Discussion

➡️ Instead of discussing and trying to convince others of our point of view, we let the ideas speak for themselves by writing, sketching or showing examples.

☝️ Why? To avoid different interpretations & misunderstandings.

3. Getting Started over Being Right

➡️ Rather than waiting until we all agree that everything is “perfect”, we make decisions, move forward, and test our hunches quickly.

☝️ Why? To break the cycle of decision paralysis & make some progress!

4. Don’t rely on creativity

➡️ Instead of expecting each person to “feel” creative at the right moment, we use the process to inspire, inform and prepare for idea generation.

☝️ Why? Because creativity is unpredictable.

You may have heard a thousand times that designers started Design Sprints. While that may be true, anyone in any industry can use this method. Anybody who is hoping to advance their business can run Design Sprints.

Read on to find out more about the biggest misconception about Design Sprints.

Every company faces complicated times, big problems, or risky situations. Teams need to take important decisions and make alignment fast. As facilitation specialists, we are here to support you in an unbiased and structured manner. Using an external facilitator or consultant allows you to avoid potentially explosive situations and smoothly manage difficult personalities and emotions within a group. Please read our comprehensive article on why an external facilitator should run your next Design Sprint to learn more.

Yes, we can. Three years ago, it would have been impossible to offer such a service, but the tools are here. We are using simple tools, so for sure, the virtual Design Sprint team doesn’t need to have specific skills or experience regarding remote work. Participants will be guided through the process and introduced to each exercise and every tool we are using for our remote Design Sprints.

Dispersed teams can collaborate to solve problems fast, using a proven process that delivers precise results without using an extra budget for accommodation & traveling, renting a venue, food, etc.

There are even more benefits of running a Remote Design Sprint:

1. Take action now instead of waiting for the perfect time “when the stars align”

2. Easier to organize, even with distributed teams

3. Same quality as in an in-person sprint… if not better!

4. Easier to get busy people in who might otherwise not be able to join

5. Fully digitized – benefits of not having to type everything up

6. No need to organize a workshop room – or having to deal with subpar rooms

7. No need to buy materials – and you never run out

8. Yes, we can work on different time zones without messing your day up

9. Lower stress with fewer variables

10. We can sprint worldwide! No travel costs, no jetlag, no environmental impact

11. Show your team how to collaborate remotely, and that it’s even easier than on location

12. Build a remote collaboration culture

Conclusion: As you can see, there are a lot of benefits to running a Sprint remotely!