Better Meetings. Stronger Teams. Faster Products.
Let’s face it, traditional companies are slow to adapt to the rapidly changing digital business world. They stick to outdated practices and methodologies that no longer yield results in today’s fast-paced environment.
These companies often face intense competition from more agile, innovative firms that are better equipped to thrive in this new landscape. This inability to quickly pivot and embrace new methods puts traditional companies at a significant disadvantage, making it difficult for them to maintain their market position and achieve sustainable growth.
As the saying goes, innovate or die. This means constantly evolving while staying true to your core identity. This involves not only embracing new technologies and trends but also regularly reviewing and enhancing internal processes and strategies.
But how can organizations innovate effectively when faced with longstanding, unproductive practices?
The Problem: Unproductive Meetings Stifle Innovation
One such internal process that has faced criticism is the traditional meeting structure. Recent studies indicate that traditional meetings are a major barrier to productivity, team efficiency, and product improvements, as this standard collaboration method has fundamental flaws. Read more about it here and here.
Design Sprints Studio: A Better Way to Work
Design Sprints Studio, founded by Martin Backes with the motto Better Meetings. Stronger Teams. Faster Products. flips the script on the conventional agency model by helping businesses do more valuable work, faster.
We are:
✅ Digital: We embrace the latest technologies, tools and methods.
✅ Lean: We have a small, efficient core team and specialists for specific needs.
✅ Agile: Our way of working allows us to respond to change quickly and efficiently.
Our approach is all about focus and efficiency. From the beginning, we help establish clarity, set priorities, make decisions, and deliver concepts that users love and businesses value. We support clients deliver higher-value work faster through enhanced team collaboration, strategic thinking, and effective product development.
From Meetings to Workshops: A More Productive Approach
How are we achieving that?
We basically transform your critical meetings into structured workshops. These interactive sessions are not just discussions; they’re platforms for collaborative problem-solving and decision-making.
Our workshops are:
✅ Structured: Clear frameworks ensure everyone is on the same page.
✅ Engaging: Active participation keeps everyone focused and motivated.
✅ Productive: We achieve concrete results through well-defined exercises.
Flexible and Adaptable for Any Team
Our workshops are designed to be scalable and adaptable. They cater to small businesses and large corporations alike, with tailored approaches for different team structures and company sizes.
Every workshop leverages proven methodologies:
💡 Design Sprint
💡 Design Thinking
💡 Service Systems Design
💡 Strategic Management
💡 Innovation Process Models
💡 Behavioral Science
… and many more.
We adapt these methods to your specific challenges, ensuring maximum impact.
Businesses today need to make quick decisions, deliver products fast, learn from the market, and constantly iterate. Our workshops help you achieve exactly that.
These workshops foster team collaboration and usually focus on topics like project initiation, innovation discovery, problem-solving, strategy refinement, product enhancement, and technology streamlining.
The Power of Focus: 80/20 Rule in Action
Here’s the beauty of our approach: 80% of the improvement comes from 20% of the effort. We focus on this “low-hanging fruit” to deliver the most significant benefits for your company.
And we confidently state that we will improve your business meetings by 72% with ease by transforming your meetings from mundane to meaningful, driving collaboration, innovation and producing tangible results.
Let’s ditch the unproductive meetings and embrace workshops that foster teamwork, drive results, and propel your business forward.
MOTIVATION
Why Design Sprints Studio?
1️⃣ We run and teach Sprint Workshops full time, not as a side hustle or a hook for a larger engagement. This means you get an effective, battle-tested process.
2️⃣ We’re practitioners first. We use our experience in strategy, design, lean, UX, agile and workshop design to customize Sprints according to your needs. This means you have the best chance of success.
3️⃣ We run Sprint Workshops for large companies, governments, social enterprises, and educational institutions. We can compete with the largest agencies in the world, which means you get world-class talent without the inflated egos or prices.
4️⃣ We love what we do and have dedicated our most valuable resource – our time – to building a company that allows us to pursue our life’s work. As a result, you’re treated as a partner and receive our promise to deliver our very best work.
We are passionate. We are driven by purpose. We Are Design Sprints Studio.
TEAM
Workshoppers
The core team
Martin Backes
Innovation Facilitator & Consultant, Product Strategist, and Sprint Coach
Design Sprints Studio is run by award-winning designer & consultant Martin Backes. He is a certified Design Sprint Facilitator by Jake Knapp (the creator of the Sprint at Google Ventures) and AJ&Smart. Additionally, he is co-founder of aconica, a design studio specialised in the fields of UX & IxD design, branding, sound & media design, media-enhanced scenography, and multi-sensory marketing. His portfolio comprises over ten years of experience in consulting and designing for brands, mobile and website platforms, in-vehicle infotainment systems, music soft- and hardware, financial services, and museums. His passion for design spans all known (and some unknown) forms of media, for major companies such as VW, Škoda, Miele, Bayer, Google, YouTube, Linde, MINI, BMW, Native Instruments, and Blinkist. Since 2009 he has been working as a lecturer at various universities worldwide. Martin founded Design Sprints Studio as a way to apply Design Thinking, Business Strategy, Innovation, Behavior Science, and of course Design Sprints to larger-scale problems.
Mikko Milz
Creative Director, UX & Product Designer, and Workshop Facilitator
Mikko Milz is an UX designer and creative director with 20 years of experience in visual and interaction design. Experienced in leading teams from concept to the final product, he has designed a variety of platforms and award-winning digital products for financial institutions and corporations to startups and government departments, namely Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Audi, Postbank, and many more. Analyzing problems and developing user-centric, future-proof solutions is exactly his cup of tea. By asking the right questions, listening carefully, and methodically approaching every step along the way, he creates delightful and user-friendly experiences. Besides user experience design and co-facilitating Sprints here at DSS, Mikko helps to turn our clients promising ideas into products and services. No matter if you are designing digital products like intuitive car configurators, modern online banking, or complex and future-proof design systems, he is convinced that Design Sprints are clearly the best way to develop solutions quickly and effectively.
Liza Sander
Future Strategist, Workshop Facilitator, and University Lecturer
Liza Sander is a future strategist, workshop facilitator, and university lecturer for social-ecological design processes with strong visionary, conceptual, and executional skills with over 10 years of experience working in multi-disciplinary environments including educating, coaching, life cycle design, product development, research, and marketing. She especially loves to share her expertise in circular economy & design, open-source economy, zero waste principles, and design thinking. Besides working in cooperation with the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), and The German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE), she teaches at various universities on social-ecological design processes, with a focus on circular economy and design. Here at Designs Sprints Studio, Liza supports design innovative and sustainable products and services or optimizes existing processes besides facilitating Design Sprints or other workshop formats. She is definitely the right person to make your business future-fit and ready for the Circular Economy.
Amazing workshop training experience fully remotely
Martin Backes and his team are undoubtedly skilled and qualified innovation practitioners who know what they are talking about. They gave us a great foundation in facilitation techniques and Design Sprint methodology. The quality of their teaching and facilitation and the attention to detail in the way they present their approach set them apart. There is no doubt the methodology works and it’s impressive that we could do it all remotely without a hitch. We would definitely recommend their service to everyone who wants to change their way of working and foster team collaboration with innovative ways of problem-solving, decision-making, all while de-risking strategic projects.
Working with Martin Backes and his studio was great. Awesome results!
We hired him to direct and consult us in our vision of becoming a worldwide-leading audio product. He used some custom-made Sprints to effectively align the Blinkist stakeholder team on the company’s brand and supported us in the process of becoming an audio-first company. The workshops were highly engaging and super productive. I was impressed by the amount of output we generated as a group, what would have taken months, took days. The Sprints gave our project the right boost to then go ahead and execute, bringing it to market only a few months later! In the end, we were even awarded the German Design Award for this project.
Highly recommend Martin for any training, or workshop facilitation role
I am happy to recommend Martin for his excellent work as a UX & Usability teacher, trainer, and workshop facilitator at XDi. Martin has a talent for explaining complex concepts in a clear and simple way, making it easy for students to understand. He is also skilled at tailoring learning programs to meet the unique needs of his students, providing actionable and practical takeaways for immediate application. I highly recommend Martin for any training, or workshop facilitation role. He is an exceptional educator and a valuable asset to any organization.
Martin is an exceptional UX & UI Design mentor, teacher, and workshop facilitator
Martin is an exceptional UX & UI Design mentor, teacher, and workshop facilitator. He has a remarkable talent for engaging and motivating his students while equipping them with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed. As a creative and dynamic instructor, Martin is constantly seeking new ways to make learning fun and engaging. His passion for teaching and his commitment to helping his students reach their goals is unparalleled. He is a great asset to StartSteps, and I highly recommend him.