How do you know that you need a design sprint?

A proven method that will empower your organisation

Business development and success is on virtually everyone's mind. In that respect, we recommend a design sprint to any organisation searching to develop their products, services or work model. This method is used across many fields to solve existing problems or to find development opportunities. Here are three signs that you may need a design sprint and three reasons why your organisation may benefit from it.

Is a design sprint something for you?

Many organisations use design sprints to develop ideas and prototype new products, services or functionalities. What’s interesting is that it can be applied to any industry and any company type, from a SaaS startup employing five people to a global sportswear brand with 5000 employees globally. Anyone can benefit from this solution, as it brings answers to one of the most important questions businesses ask themselves: what should we do next?

So, who is a design sprint for? Consider organising one if you are:

• planning to introduce a new product or service to the market and wondering about its potential
• planning to add a new feature or change the design of an existing product or service that you offer, like modifying a digital product including a website, application or software, for example
• facing change on an operational or organisational level, like a change of roles, responsibilities or processes in your organisation

How could your organisation benefit from design sprints then? There are many answers to this question, but we’ve chosen to highlight three ways your company could benefit.

Benefit 1: Bringing a dedicated workgroup together

When it comes to working on a specific solution or project, many companies struggle to assemble a team composed of the right employees. The first benefit of the design sprint is that – once you’ve decided to use this method – our agency will help you select the employees that will meet to work intensively on the subject. In other words, the first step of a design sprint is to put together an internal team that will dedicate its time to a precisely planned problem-solving workshop. On our side, a dedicated team of experts will be responsible for leading the meetings, creating documentation and reporting on progress and results. Regardless of whether your team is working on a product, service or a change on an organisational level, everyone’s attention will be focused on this problem. Sometimes the first step to solving a problem is actually paying attention to it.

Benefit 2: Analysing the problem from all angles

Another advantage of a design sprint is that it allows for a complex and intense analysis of the problem, one which takes into account multiple inputs such as the ideas, but also the? doubts of the group. You can bring your own materials to the table: reports, numbers, sketches etc. Everyone will have time to brainstorm and evaluate the solutions. Along the way, the agency's team will lead and document the progress, acting as invaluable support. This will give you the opportunity to sift the good solutions from the bad ones before deciding on the direction you want to take going forward.

Benefit 3: Presenting a tested prototype

This approach gives you the possibility to test a prototype and see the result without having to involve the production team or investing significant resources. As part of this phase, the prototype will be shown to real people in order to collect and analyse their feedback. Our agency will then provide you with documentation that contains all the findings and conclusions. Testing a prototype in this manner is a safe way of evaluating an idea and deciding if it deserves to be invested in.

Three signs that you need a design sprint

To summarise, a design sprint may help if you:

• want to define ideas/want to give shape to ideas ?– during client workshops we spend time defining the needs of the team and of individuals, writing down ideas, fears, observations and any other relevant input connected to the topic
• want the opinion of your employees or team members – no matter how scary it may sound, the team selected for this process will need to be open and honest so that the group can pick the right solutions and agree on the next steps and direction
• want to see a tested prototype – after several rounds of intensive workshops you will get to see the tested prototype for the solution in question, which is an efficient way to explore the new project’s potential before investing in its development

Interested in finding out more about design sprints? Drop us a line and our Digital Team will be more than happy to go over your needs during a dedicated consultation.