Google use 5-day design sprints to map, sketch, vote on ideas, prototype and test designs with users. The design sprint is their battle-tested way to quickly answer critical business questions. Marc O’Connor and James Oliver talked about their experiences of using a design sprint. These slides broadly cover each day of the sprint, include a couple quick activities and show how they got team members and stakeholders to agree it was a good idea.

1. Design Sprints
Marc O’Connor & James Oliver
24 May 2018

2. Marc O’Connor
Marc is a Service Designer who designs coherent,
consistent integrated services based on user needs.
Marc defines the design strategy for end-to-end
services.
Before becoming a Service Designer, Marc was a user
researcher. He identified user needs and used insights
to make services better. A perfect foundation for service
design.
Marc focuses on building successful relationships with
stakeholders. He then works with them to define
problems and a vision that achieves policy intent and
meets user needs.
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3. James Oliver
James is a freelance User Experience Consultant
working with the Department for Work & Pensions.
He relocated to the North East in 2014 after 10 years
working in London as a graphic designer, web designer
and user-centred design and research specialist.
James has worked in many different industries. This
includes products and services for Penguin, EMI,
lastminute.com, Ancestry, Tesco, Marks & Spencer,
MOO, BBC, HM Revenue and Customs and Dept of
Health.
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4. WHAT IS A DESIGN SPRINT?
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6. Is a idea worth
pursuing?
Let’s test it quickly
in 5 days
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7. Google Ventures: The Design Sprint
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Image source: https://medium.com/@rnadworny/google-ventures-sprint-the-missing-sections-24dd8cda36c

8. Google Venture
Design Sprint
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10. PLANNING
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12. You need the right team...
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13. Clear calendar
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14. Gathering existing insights
● User insight?
● Personas?
● Business data?
● Maps of any older processes?
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15. Day-by-day planning
● Assigning roles amongst the team
● Sharing facilitation role across the 5 days
● Recording - iphone/tripod/time lapse
● Stationary
● Event checklist
● Have a stopwatch for keeping time
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16. Rules
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17. Rules
● No grades
● No phones
● No bad ideas
● Be collaborative
● *Remember* Decision-maker has final say
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18. Mapping
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19. THE 5-DAY EVENT
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21. Day 1 - Map
● Agree on a long-term goal (if known)
● Present any research findings
● Have your map framework ready… then create
● Map expert’s pain points
● ‘How might we’ statements… (write, organise, vote)
● Pick a BIG GOAL for this sprint
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22. Big goal:
How can I confidently
and quickly book a
package holiday?
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23. Activity
‘think about examples of
products or services to review
for inspiring solutions’
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28. Day 2 - Sketch
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29. Activity
Crazy 8s
‘Each person takes their strongest ideas and rapidly sketches eight variations in
eight minutes’
‘Ask yourself, what would be another good way to do this?’
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31. Day 3 - Decide
● Art gallery
● Sort sketches* (we had to as we had an exceptionally large quantity)
● Vote - Google Ventures recommend 20-30 blue/green dots each on specific
features you like, rather than entire drawings
● Heatmap - 2-3 red dots on your favourite overall ideas
● Note any concerns e.g. feasibility (good to have developers in room)
● Storyboard - use only best bits
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32. Day 4 - Prototype
● Flow diagram
● Sketch out your prototype
● We chose mobile-first & it helped to keep the concept/content concise too
● We used Marvel to create a quick interactive prototype from sketches
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34. Day 5 - Test
● User testing
● What is the measurement for success to see if we met our big goal?
● We travelled to London and met 5 users
● *Recruit right user types in advance if possible, saves time at the end
(2 week lead-time is normal in GOV for example)
● We wanted to have observers so needed a lab
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35. END OF THE DESIGN SPRINT
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38. DID WE ANSWER OUR BIG GOAL?
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39. WHAT NEXT?
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40. Post-event
● Overall excitement & enthusiasm generated for the project
● Brought everyone together quickly in terms of a shared goal
● Positive feedback from our business expert participants involved
● Our experiences were shared across wider government
● The recorded artifacts proved so powerful post-event
● We ran a retrospective - to learn & improve for next time
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41. WHEN?
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43. When is the best time?
● Discovery – *Design Sprint – Alpha – Beta – Live
● We advise before development starts, but after some basic insights have
already been gathered
● Avoid having existing live service bias
● Don’t start at very beginning without any background knowledge
● When you can ensure the attendance will include the right people
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44. WHY?
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46. Why do a design sprint?
● Experiment
● Rapid progress
● Prove a good/bad idea before it’s too late
● All about focus - more focus will provide better output
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47. “It’s a ‘greatest hits’ of
business strategy,
innovation, behavioural
science and design”
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48. “It’s not just about
speed. It’s about
momentum, focus, and
confidence”
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Thank you!

50. ANY QUESTIONS?
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51. Further reading
Google Ventures: Design Sprint
http://www.gv.com/sprint/
Some examples of different types of maps:
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-mapping-cheat-sheet/
Recommended rapid prototyping tool
https://marvelapp.com/
All GIFs kindly sourced from:
https://giphy.com/
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