The AI Design Sprint™ workshop aims to close the gap between business and AI technology by collaboratively improving or transforming products or services using artificial intelligence in just a few days.
Building on the principles of the Google Design Sprint, this approach combines Design Thinking, Service Systems Design, and Artificial Intelligence. It is widely adopted by leading companies and institutions, including Bayer, Porsche, Fraunhofer, SAP, Microsoft, Mercedes-Benz, VW, and many others!
BEFORE OUR COLLABORATION
In the current fast-paced business landscape, it is common for many companies to encounter similar challenges.
The tech industry is evolving rapidly, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence, which can create uncertainty about where to begin.
Companies often overlook AI’s potential and its impact on product success, resulting in missed opportunities across industries and companies of all sizes.
Innovation in AI without a structured method can result in a “Wild West” mindset, which is marked by confusion, inefficiencies, and a lack of progress.
Businesses often lack awareness of AI and the opportunities it brings. Furthermore, insufficient time is dedicated to this topic.
Achieving the optimal business and technical fit for your products using artificial intelligence (AI) can be challenging.
Companies often lack the required skills and motivation to invest in new technologies, especially in AI, because they perceive it as risky.
AI empowers you to transform or enhance your products and services, unlocking growth and innovation while bringing remarkable advancements to your organization.
ACCELERATE AI ADOPTION
The AI Design Sprint™: Products & Services offers participants playful and structured experiences that produce impressive results. How?
This simple innovation framework, which includes elements of Design Thinking, promotes collaboration across different teams and produces reliable results effortlessly.
With our extensive knowledge in AI technologies and innovative approaches, we create engaging and fun workshops, whether conducted online or in-person.
The AI Cards are an incredibly valuable and innovative tool that can greatly assist individuals in easily exploring the potential of AI and generating application ideas using the card-sorting method.
These cards encompass a broad range of use cases and offer a thorough overview, enabling users to easily comprehend and explore how to apply them to their business, job, or any other activity.
AI Design Sprints™ offer a quick return on investment by eliminating costs related to context switching, communication challenges, inefficient knowledge transfer, and unnecessary back and forth.
AI Sprints keep the team focused exclusively on a specific challenge: the AI Products & Services challenge, leading to impressive results.
PROCESS AND MODULES
The Product and Services AI Design Sprint module has a specific timeline. The initial phases, AI Mapping and Concept Development, are two different options to start your next AI project (please check also FAQs below). These phases help uncover valuable product opportunities and create AI solution concepts. This is followed by the Tech Check and Prototype phases, during which the solutions generated in the workshop are carefully evaluated by AI experts to create an initial prototype roadmap and develop the prototype in the next step.
Set aside the technology and discover how the AI Design Sprint™ combines business and AI thinking to create additional value.
AFTER OUR COLLABORATION
You will get a general understanding of the current status of artificial intelligence.
You identify and explore potential use cases of artificial intelligence (AI) in your company.
You are the driving force behind innovation and your teams have a clear starting point.
A quick implementation time is essential to remain competitive in a rapidly changing market.
Our frameworks will greatly reduce the risk for your AI product and service development.
Using AI in products or for automation can reduce time and resource costs.
Leads to improved processes, increased success, better communication, and greater innovation.
Use our repeatable methods to turn innovative AI concepts into practical and impactful solutions.
Adapt and succeed in a continuously changing business world by improving products and services.
HOW IT WORKS
The AI Design Sprint™ builds upon the Design Sprint method created by Google Ventures. It further incorporates elements from design thinking, service systems design, and artificial intelligence, thanks to our Danish AI Design Agency Partner, 33A. However, it places a specific emphasis on enhancing or transforming products/services through artificial intelligence. We use a thoughtfully curated set of user-friendly tools and techniques as a framework to empower your team to efficiently explore, learn, and collaboratively develop AI solutions. This strategy ensures successful results for your team.
We work together to explore and identify the products or services that offer the most value for improvement or transformation using AI.
We work together to create AI solution concepts, taking into account user testing, ethical perspectives, and evaluating various approaches.
We evaluate the feasibility of the ideas by conducting structured SME interviews with you, along with creating an implementation roadmap.
A prototype can be developed as a proof of concept and tested with real users, either as a web application or a similar solution.
At the end of the collaborative process, you will have developed 1 or 2 AI product solution concepts that effectively create value in your target area. You will have successfully identified important AI tasks, integrated them into a logical and value-driven workflow, and named the final product. Depending on the module scope, you will also have gained a complete understanding of the necessary data and conducted thorough ethics checks for your use cases.
After performing a technical check in a standardized manner, an AI project roadmap can be created. The technical feasibility check can be conducted by your experts or by our team. Following that, a technical prototype can be developed, beginning with data exploration and concluding with a web app or a similar solution, in approximately 7 days.
OUR OFFER
We are a dedicated Design Sprint Studio with a team of skilled experts who excel in the dynamic environment of an AI Design Sprint. Here’s what we provide:
Pre-flight AI
Sprint Research
1-2 Weeks AI
Design Sprint
1-2 AI Solution
Concepts
AI
Prototype
Accomplished
AI Product
Al Project
Roadmap
AI Ethics
Check
Project Handover
from DSS
We will assist you in optimizing the advantages of your AI Design Sprint. Simply bring your ideas, expertise, and enthusiasm.
Project Leader
or Decider
Business Idea or
Challenge
Mixed Team
of your Experts
2 Days of
your Time
We empower your business to confidently discover new ways of working, make better decisions, uncover opportunities for AI product innovation, and create more efficient processes.
RIGIT MINDSET
In the fast-paced business world, businesses need to innovate in order to stay ahead. However, any moment of inaction or misdirection is a missed opportunity.
FAQs
If you are unfamiliar with AI Design Sprints or innovation methods in general, this section provides answers to the most commonly asked questions about the AI Design Sprint: Products & Services. If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us via phone, chat, or email.
The AI Design Sprint™ is inspired by Google’s Design Sprint. It has been enhanced with additional methods from design thinking, service systems design, and artificial intelligence, courtesy of our Danish AI Design Agency Partner, 33A.
The primary goal of an AI Design Sprint is to fast-track AI process or product development, validate ideas, and reduce the risk of failure without building and launching the actual product. Additionally, you can eliminate complex technical jargon and adopt a straightforward, efficient framework designed by experts. This approach is both playful and practical, and no technical expertise is required, just an open mind and a desire to revolutionize your business.
If you want to learn more, we have an article that covers AI Design Sprints in detail.
Based on the principles of the Google Design Sprint, the AI Design Sprint™ workshop format aims to bridge the gap between business and AI technology. Its goal is to improve or transform products or services using artificial intelligence and develop AI solution concepts as a team, in just a few days, without requiring technical knowledge. The AI Sprint combines Design Thinking, Service Systems Design, and Artificial Intelligence.
If you want to transform your products or services using AI, whether you have identified them or not, there are two possible starting points for your AI project.
A: The first option is to use AI Opportunity Mapping, which means looking at the entire product and service portfolio to identify the ones that are most valuable for improvement or transformation with AI.
B: Finally, if the product or service that requires transformation using AI is already clear, we can proceed directly to concept development.
No matter your situation, there is a suitable approach for incorporating AI into your products or services.
In the following paragraphs, we will provide a more detailed description of the potential entry points and the general course of the process.
1. AI Opportunity Mapping
🔄 Entry point A: You might be unsure about where to start implementing AI in your products. As a leading member of the product team, you have a comprehensive understanding of the entire range of products and services. Another possibility is that you are part of an in-house transformation team seeking the next AI project, and you wish to conduct an AI evaluation of the entire product portfolio.
💡 Our method: The first step is to look at simplified customer journeys of all products and services. Then, the team determines which ones can benefit the most from AI improvements or transformations.
2. Concept Development
🔄 Entry point B: Together, we have already specified a product or service. Alternatively, you may have come from previous phases where you identified the product or service to transform using AI.
💡 Our method: The starting points for this process include a pre-defined persona, their needs, and their customer journey, as well as a product map and the company’s value proposition. The team then focuses on developing comprehensive solution concepts for the product, utilizing our AI Cards (or ChatGPT Cards if necessary). Next, the team visualizes and defines the remodeled product, and conducts an ethical evaluation.
Once the concept development phase is complete, we will conduct an assessment together. This assessment is always the final step in the workshop, regardless of where you started. The team responsible for developing the AI solution concept will also evaluate its technical feasibility, as well as its value for the business case.
Yes, there is a difference. The purpose of the AI Design Sprint: Products & Services is to collaboratively develop AI solution concepts and enhance or transform products or services using artificial intelligence, without requiring technical expertise.
In contrast, the Design Sprint by Google is a unique approach for answering crucial business questions by creating a realistic prototype of an idea and testing it with real users.
We conduct AI Design Sprints™ with individual companies or with mixed company and industry clusters. During an initial discussion, we will clarify the specific requirements and collaboratively determine which workshop elements are necessary for you.
Yes, the AI Design Sprint is ideal for challenges in start-ups, medium-sized businesses, or large corporations. All you need is a relevant product or service challenge and an interdisciplinary team.
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 the AI Design Sprint 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 process automation 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 anAI solution that has been prototyped and tested.
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 hopes to advance their processes and business can run Design Sprints.
Below you will find an article that discusses the issue, but it focuses on Design Sprints in general rather than AI Design Sprints specifically.
Read on to find out more about the biggest misconception about Design Sprints.
Every company encounters complex situations, significant challenges, or risky circumstances. Teams must make critical decisions and achieve alignment quickly. As facilitation specialists, we are here to provide unbiased and structured support. Utilizing an external facilitator or consultant enables you to prevent potentially explosive situations and effectively manage difficult personalities and emotions within a group.
For more information, please read our comprehensive article on why an external facilitator should run your next Design Sprint.
Organizations and companies often face the challenge of maintaining a rapid pace of innovation while working with distributed teams. Fortunately, a fully remote AI Design Sprint can provide an ideal solution.
With the availability of necessary tools, we guide you through each step using simple tools. This ensures that the remote AI Design Sprint team does not require any specific skills or prior experience with remote work.
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!
It’s important for each participant to have essential equipment: a computer with a proper microphone or headset, a webcam and a fast internet connection. The participant should also use a modern browser such as Google Chrome or Firefox. During the sprint our co-facilitator deals with minor technical issues related to the internet connection or tools without disturbing others.
AI Sprint teams should consist of 3-6 participants. We need the people responsible for making decisions, your organisation’s experts, preferably with different backgrounds. These can be stakeholders or employees from marketing, design, IT, management, or any other department. Additionally, there will be a AI Design Sprint facilitator and, if necassary, a prototyping expert from our side.
Yes, we provide various workshop formats, including different types of Design Sprints. For example, if your business is not interested in developing AI solution concepts for both existing and new products and services, we offer an AI Design Sprint that specifically focuses on process automation within your company. The result of this workshop is a tested and evaluated AI solution concept, accompanied by a technical brief.
The core of all our workshops involves using exercises from the tried and tested Design Sprint & Design Thinking method, while adapting it to the specific needs of each challenge. For more information, please refer to our service page or contact us directly.
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.
Here are some examples of workshops we frequently conduct for companies of all sizes.
🧩 For 1-3 day workshop formats, we offer:
↳ Scoping Workshop: A workshop to scope business challenges, define strategies for desired results, and align with stakeholders.
↳ Innovation Sprint: It quickly identifies the problem space, helping focus on the main challenge for your next innovation project.
↳ Growth Hacking Workshop: This workshop will guide your team in creating actionable growth hacking experiments in a structured manner.
↳ Marketing Campaign Sprint: For tasks such as crafting marketing strategies, promotional campaigns, and content ideas.
↳ OKR Sprint: This simple and effective OKR workshop will help your team gain clarity on which goals to focus on and how they will be measured.
↳ Challenge 360 Sprint: This helps a team align on exactly what to work on or solve, and what to ignore for now.
↳ Strategy Signal Sprint: This helps a team define an end goal and a straightforward strategy for solving a selected challenge.
↳ Plan-O-Rama: This helps a team execute their strategy.
↳ Decision Sprint: This is a general-purpose problem-solving and decision-making workshop that provides tangible, actionable results.
↳ Leadership & Executive Team Retreat: Enhance strategies, teamwork, and leadership skills in a focused workshop retreat that condenses planning into a few action-oriented days.
🧩 For 3-5 day workshop formats, we offer:
↳ Strategy Sprint: For leadership teams to design a successful strategy that positions their company advantageously.
↳ Product Strategy Sprint: Develop a coherent approach to product development, articulated in a Product Strategy with actionable steps.
↳ AI Design Sprint – Process Automation: Quickly identify easy-to-automate processes with AI and develop valuable team solutions.
↳ AI Design Sprint – Products & Services: Confidently infuse AI technology into business products or services for innovative and valuable solutions.
↳ Design Sprint: Before investing time and money, validate ideas and solve complex business issues as a team through prototyping and user testing.
and more.
Yes! The time-boxed sprint model has been embraced by countless top designers and consultancies around the globe for unique scenarios. Any situation that demands alteration can truly gain an advantage from a personalized approach. Each organization, including ours, encounters distinctive circumstances such as diverse target audiences, change demands, and opportunities. To tackle these individual situations and guarantee client contentment, we offer bespoke workshops. If you have a particular concern, we are more than capable of crafting a workshop or training program that is precisely tailored to your specific requirements.
Yes, our AI Design Sprint Training empowers you with the most up-to-date version of the AI Design Sprint™ for products and services, utilizing industry-leading facilitation techniques. Drawing from our extensive experience in running AI Design Sprints, we tailor the training package to seamlessly integrate with your organization’s workflow, specifically catering to the unique needs of your team and product. Our training Bootcamp is suitable for challenges encountered in start-ups, medium-sized businesses, or large corporations. All you need is a relevant challenge and an interdisciplinary team.
Martin Backes, a certified expert AI Design Sprint facilitator, will provide comprehensive explanations of each workshop step and generously share his invaluable insights. By the end of this training, you will possess the capabilities to confidently facilitate your AI Sprints, recruit the ideal team, and acquire comprehensive knowledge of testing and prototyping tools.
Maximize efficiency and minimize risk by generating innovative ideas for AI products. Empower your team to take the lead and create the best AI products and services possible.
The AI Design Sprint™ is a framework for conducting AI workshops. It is inspired by the Google Design Sprint and has been further developed by our Danish AI Design Agency Partner, 33A, who has also certified us.
If you have any further inquiries regarding the AI Design Sprint or any other workshop method, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We are excited to get to know you better.
CONTACT
If you want to develop AI solution concepts and improve or transform your products/services using artificial intelligence, or if you simply want to accelerate innovation within your team, we’ve got you covered. Find out more and request a consultation by filling out this form or booking an AI Design Sprint session with us.