Description
Remember the Design Thinking guide? We jumped into FigJam, did research, came up with ideas and followed the double diamond. But to be honest, there was no real structure or schedule, we just went through it. Now it's time to change that, because soon YOU will be the one leading it.
In January, in the Sustainable Island group project, you will facilitate a design sprint with students who have NEVER done one before. They won't know what a "How Might We" is or why we vote with dots, so you need a plan that guides them through it step by step. That plan is your sprint schedule, and that's what we build in this guide.
How it works:
- You have 2 days to build your own schedule.
- In the group project the week after next, your group looks at everyone's schedules and picks ONE to use. So make yours good, it might be the one your whole group follows!
- In January you will facilitate with it for real.
What is a design sprint?
A design sprint is a short, time-boxed process where a team goes from a big problem to a tested idea in just a few days. The most famous version comes from Google Ventures and takes 5 days. The point is not to build the final product, the point is to LEARN fast and cheap if your idea actually works, before anyone spends weeks building it.
Our sprint follows the double diamond you already know:
Diamond 1: the problem
- Discover (go wide): research, interviews, "what do we already know?", How Might We notes. Ask questions, don't solve anything yet!
- Define (narrow down): group the notes, vote, and agree on ONE problem to focus on.
Diamond 2: the solution
- Develop (go wide again): lightning demos (everyone shows examples of products that solve something similar), Crazy 8s (8 ideas in 8 minutes), solution sketches.
- Deliver (narrow down): vote on the best idea, make a storyboard, build a quick prototype and test it with real users.
What makes a good schedule?
A schedule is not just "Day 1: Discover". When you facilitate, you need to know exactly what happens and when. For every activity write down:
- Time: when it starts and how long it takes (e.g. 10:00–10:20)
- Activity: what we do (e.g. Crazy 8s)
- Goal: why we do it, and what we have when it's done
- Instructions: what you, the facilitator, say to the team. Remember, they've never done this before!
- Material: the FigJam board, sticky notes, a timer, etc.
Some tips:
- Time-box EVERYTHING. A timer is the facilitator's best friend. Without it, one discussion eats the whole morning.
- Work alone, together. People write notes and sketch alone first, and then share. That way the loudest person in the room doesn't decide everything.
- Pick a Decider. When the votes are split, someone makes the final call, otherwise the group discusses forever.
- Plan breaks. A tired team makes bad decisions, and nobody can focus for 3 hours straight.
- Show an example first. Before every exercise show what a good result looks like. People who have never done it need to SEE it.
- Prepare the FigJam board before the sprint, with a section for every activity, so you don't waste the morning drawing boxes.
What about AI?
In today's day and age it would be weird not to use AI, and you should, it can make a sprint a lot faster. For example:
- Summarize research and interview notes before the Discover phase.
- Come up with more How Might We questions when the team is stuck.
- Write realistic content for the prototype, so you don't test with "Lorem ipsum".
- Prepare interview questions for the user testing and check that they're not leading.
- Help you plan your schedule: ask it how long an activity usually takes, or to check your timing.
But there are things AI CAN'T do for you:
- AI is not your user. "Pretend you are a 30 year old user" is not user testing. Talk to real people!
- AI doesn't decide. Your team and your Decider do.
- Don't let AI sketch for you. The whole point of sketching alone is to get YOUR ideas on the table, not the same average idea everyone gets from the same tool.
So when you plan your schedule, also plan WHERE in the sprint the team uses AI and where not. That's part of being a good facilitator!