Adapting the design sprint
methodology for enterprise

Adapting the standard design sprint framework requires a pragmatic approach - leveraging executives’ expertise where needed and producing actionable insights whilst not disrupting business as usual.

The approach

The design sprint was pioneered by Google Ventures, the venture capital branch of Google. The traditional methodology takes place over 5 days with active participation from all stakeholders throughout. The result? A well understood and validated product, idea or process that can be built quickly.

Design sprints at an enterprise level require an adapted approach. Busy calendars, high priority work and business continuity mean key decision-makers cannot afford to be away from their day-to-day work for too long. Innovation requires effort, experimentation, and time – a luxury executives and decision-makers don’t often have.

Adapting the standard design sprint framework requires a pragmatic approach – leveraging executives’ expertise where needed and producing actionable insights whilst not disrupting business as usual.

The following methodology takes place over the course of 3 weeks. The facilitation team engages in analysis, prototyping and testing, whereas decision-makers are involved at critical moments in the process: validating the business use case, understanding as-is context, evaluating final outcomes, and deciding on how to move forward.

Level the playing field

It is important to prime the understanding of the problem space before the design sprint commences.

This provides a foundation for the sprint to focus on the aspects of the problem that matter. The goal is to make sure key participants and facilitators are well-briefed on the contextual nuances that exist within the problem domain. Creating a picture of organisational structure, departmental responsibilities, target markets and product offerings will empower sprint participants to spend more time honing-in on the specifics of the problem and not waste time understanding context.

Supplement this knowledge with user interviews and research engagements, such as product walkthroughs and demos to build on this picture and create a familiarised problem landscape. Collate these findings into artefacts that can be critiqued early on in the design sprint. Personas, competitor analysis, empathy maps and organograms are some of these artefacts. These will give practical insights into user sentiment, competitor landscape and business unit functions.

Invite the right people

Every Steve Jobs needs a Steve Wozniak.

Inviting the right people is critical to the success of the design sprint. Invite too many people, and you will end up with a forum where discussions and distractions prevail. Invite too little and your outcomes will lack the relevant opinions and viewpoints.

Include experts from all facets of the business who are close to the problem. When trying to create a seamless digital experience; include sales, customer support and IT services. Creating and piloting a new product will require the expertise of your legal team as much as IT, sales, and marketing.

This multidisciplinary approach will reduce the organisational gaps inherent in any solution, which are often the result of varying strategies present within siloed departments.

Tailor the participants to make sure you are addressing all aspects of the problem and your outcomes will be more comprehensive. Now you are ready to sprint.

Building a shared understanding

Spend time in the problem space. The first phase of a design sprint should incorporate understanding and empathising with users and business.

Too often, enterprises jump into the solution mindset: “How will we solve this problem?”; where as focus should be shifted to interrogating the problem first.

The purpose is to create alignment within the group and ensure everyone’s challenges and aspirations are considered as we agree on what the problem is.

By bringing participants together physically in one shared space, you can begin to facilitate more fluid conversations. The goal should be to create a clear picture of the problem domain by interrogating the problem statement, investigating as-is processes and utilising research done to gain insights on user expectations and challenges.

This will cultivate common empathy for the prevailing business challenges within each department, empathy for the user base and provide a goal to work towards, i.e. a shared brain. Mapping is a tool used to document a critical user journey through a particular process. Creating a map serves as a guide to interrogate the gaps, challenges, and opportunities, whilst also acting as a tool to keep participants aligned. The journey should be indicative of the ideal pathway which would solve the problem end-to-end.

For example, creating a new product offering would entail identifying the onboarding process, how does the product engage with the customers over the course of their customer-lifespan and how does offboarding work. The map gives an opportunity for sprint participants to debate their view on how they think these processes should work.

Inspire and Ideate

There are often many barriers present in enterprises that constrain true innovation.

Governance, technical limitations, and corporate politics suffocate creativity and inspiration. The ideation phase of a design sprint utilises a diverge and converge strategy. Creating an environment where wild and wacky ideas are built upon and empowered rather than shot down and restricted. These ideas are then synthesised into implementable concepts. It begins by spotlighting insights from previous phases to keep ideation aligned with the problem. And to keep the group aligned with user and business expectations.

Diverge thinking and ideate as many ways as possible to solve the problem. Utilise interactive exercises such as lightning demos, storyboarding and sketching to establish an environment that fosters creativity. The idea is to go broad.

Solutions often lie within the subconscious of participants, and it is the facilitators’ role to extract those solutions.

Keep ideation broad and open. Avoid falling into the trap of investigating details of implementation. Often, enterprises get bogged down in the intricacies of execution, falling back on known processes and limitations that inhibit their creativity. Maintain a limitless scope during the ideation phase to ensure that ideas are not constrained.

Following broad ideation, converge and align participants on what ideas they think have potential. Structure these ideas into hypotheses that can be tested in the next phase. Voting and prioritisation are exercises that determine which concepts to explore and where the group’s focus should be directed.

Put ideas to paper

Often, there is a plethora of barriers present in enterprises that constrain true innovation.

Sketching is an exercise where participants split into smaller groups to sketch out their version of the solution. This method creates the basis of a prototype that can be used to test ideas. Creating low fidelity paper prototypes will also provide a visual aid which complements the initial idea, aligning and removing assumptions for how participants think the process could work.

Every group has the opportunity to present their sketched journey. This is followed by another voting and prioritisation session in which participants vote on the best concepts which should be validated and tested. The voting sessions emphasise the ability to make quick decisions and forces participants to choose a direction and stick with it.

Building out the vision

The main goal of the analysis and prototype phase is to enhance the sketches generated previously into a testable state.

The aim is not to build out every feature discussed in the previous phase, but to align on what are the friction points, the market differentiators and the value proposition in the journey, and how they will impact the overall end-user experience. Then, prototype these points. Choose a medium that aligns with what the problem you are trying to solve is. For example, when building a digital experience, tools like Figma and Miro are ideal for creating wireframes that can be used to test with users. Investigate the technical feasibility of the solution. Understanding the technical limitations and capabilities reduces the risks and assumptions associated with implementation. Gaining these insights whilst building out the prototype, ensures the prototype stays within the boundaries of the technologies it will utilise.

Do not spend weeks building out the perfect prototype. Utilise the mantra of fail fast, learn quick.

Innovating by this mantra entails building something quickly, validating and testing it, then refining based on the feedback.

Test fast, learn faster

Arguably one of the most important phases in the design sprint. The test phase aims to validate or disprove the hypotheses developed throughout the design sprint.

This interrogation reduces uncertainty in the solution and makes sure the team is building the right thing in the long run, reducing the cost of mistakes. Insights are gathered by presenting the prototypes to users and asking them to complete specific objectives. A typical example when developing a new digital product, would be asking a user to sign up for the product and interrogate the onboarding process. Asking the user to speak their thoughts out loud will give insights on whether the journey follows a logical process and where the journey could be improved.

Employing a blend of quantitative and qualitative metrics, including time-on-task analysis, and soliciting specific feedback post-testing, ensures reputable data to inform refinements. Prioritise and rank the feedback critical to the success of the solution; for example, changing the colour of a button does not hold as much weight as redesigning a confusing user flow.

It is important to test the prototype with business stakeholders, as well as real customers, as this will help bridge the gap between user and business expectations and generate buy-in.

The concept of test and learn should be reiterated throughout the implementation of the project.

Repolish, renew, refine.

Utilise prioritised feedback to inform refinement of the prototype.

The goal is to get to an acceptable level of confidence that best depicts the solution.

The refined prototype does not necessarily serve as a final solution, but as a platform to springboard into real implementation. It serves as a validated idea to address the problems surfaced during mapping, and is a guiding light as the project moves into implementation.

Conclusion

The design sprint needs to be adapted to the constraints of the organisation, not the other way around.

An adapted approach ensures enterprises still reap the benefits from the principles and methodologies of design thinking: keeping the organisation agile and sparking innovation.

Furthermore, these methodologies can be adopted to drive continuous innovation long after the design sprint. Modern design sprints are beginning to follow less structured formats as enterprises have to adapt to the constraints of their organisation.

Value is the key driver above all else.

Understanding when and where involvement, time and effort is best used is critical to the success of design thinking within larger organisations

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