Understanding the Core Principles

Before diving into the daily breakdown, remember these foundational principles:

• Timeboxing: Allocate specific time slots for each activity and stick to them rigorously. Time constraints foster focus and decisiveness.
• Facilitator as Timekeeper: The facilitator’s role includes enforcing the agenda and keeping the team on schedule. Gentle but firm reminders are crucial.
• Decision-Making Process: Predefine how decisions will be made. Voting, dot voting, or expert opinion can be employed. Clarity eliminates roadblocks.
• Breaks: Schedule frequent short breaks (5-10 minutes every hour) and longer lunch breaks. Rested minds are more creative and productive.
• Materials Preparation: Ensure all necessary materials (whiteboards, sticky notes, markers, prototyping tools) are readily available before each day starts.

The Five-Day Agenda Breakdown

Day 1: Understand (Mapping the Problem)

The goal of Day 1 is to clearly define the challenge and set the stage for the rest of the sprint.

• Morning (9:00 AM – 12:00 PM):
  • Welcome and Introductions (30 mins): Kick off with a brief overview of the Design Sprint process, roles, and goals. Have each team member introduce themselves and their relevant expertise.
  • Sprint Goal Definition (60 mins): Define the long-term goal – what do you hope to achieve in the next six months, a year, or longer? Write it in an aspirational but realistic manner. (e.g., “Increase user engagement with our mobile app”).
  • Sprint Questions (60 mins): Frame the challenge as a set of questions you want to answer during the sprint. These are framed as questions that could derail your progress if not addressed. (e.g., “Will users understand the new feature?”).
  • Map the Problem (60 mins): Create a customer journey map, visualizing the user’s experience from initial contact to achieving their desired outcome. Identify key pain points and opportunities. Focus on a specific segment or persona to keep the scope manageable.
• Afternoon (1:00 PM – 5:00 PM):
  • Ask the Experts (90 mins): Invite subject matter experts to share their knowledge and insights on the problem. Encourage questions and open discussion. Record the session for future reference.
  • How Might We (HMW) Notes (60 mins): Transform the problems identified in the map into “How Might We” questions. This reframing fosters a solution-oriented mindset. Write each HMW on a separate sticky note.
  • Organize and Prioritize HMWs (90 mins): Group similar HMWs and then vote on the most important or impactful ones to focus on. This narrows the scope to the most critical areas.

Day 2: Sketch (Exploring Solutions)

Day 2 is about generating a wide range of potential solutions through sketching and brainstorming.

• Morning (9:00 AM – 12:00 PM):
  • Lightning Demos (60 mins): Each team member researches and presents inspiring examples of solutions from other products, industries, or even unrelated fields. This provides a diverse range of ideas to build upon.
  • Sketching Warm-Up (30 mins): A quick exercise to loosen up and get creative juices flowing. Examples include Crazy 8s (sketching eight different ideas in eight minutes).
  • Note Taking (30 mins): Review the insights from Day 1 and the Lightning Demos, taking notes and capturing key ideas.
• Afternoon (1:00 PM – 5:00 PM):
  • Solution Sketching (3 hours): Each team member independently develops a detailed solution sketch. This should include:
    • Four-Step Sketch: Notes, Ideas, Crazy 8s, Solution Sketch (detailed).
    • Focus on visual representations and clear descriptions.

Day 3: Decide (Choosing the Best Solution)

Day 3 focuses on objectively evaluating the sketches and selecting the best solution to prototype.

• Morning (9:00 AM – 12:00 PM):
  • Art Museum (30 mins): Display all the solution sketches on a wall, creating an “art museum” for everyone to view.
  • Heat Map Voting (30 mins): Each team member places dot stickers on the parts of the sketches they find most promising.
  • Speed Critique (60 mins): Each sketch is briefly presented and critiqued, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses. The facilitator leads the discussion and keeps it concise.
• Afternoon (1:00 PM – 5:00 PM):
  • Straw Poll (30 mins): Silently choose one or two top solutions. This helps to narrow the focus.
  • Supervote (60 mins): The Decider (typically the project owner) gets a limited number of “supervotes” to use on the features or solutions they believe are most crucial.
  • Storyboard (2.5 hours): Create a step-by-step visual narrative of the user interacting with the chosen solution. This provides a clear roadmap for the prototype.

Day 4: Prototype (Making it Real)

Day 4 is dedicated to building a realistic prototype of the chosen solution. Focus on creating a facade that users can interact with, rather than a fully functional product.

• Full Day (9:00 AM – 5:00 PM):
  • Divide and Conquer: Assign roles and tasks to team members (e.g., content creator, interaction designer, visual designer, stitcher).
  • Prototype Creation: Focus on the user interface and key interactions. Use tools like Figma, Sketch, InVision, or even low-fidelity methods like paper prototyping.
  • Emphasis on Realism: The prototype should look and feel as close to the real product as possible within the given timeframe.

Day 5: Test (Learning from Users)

Day 5 is about testing the prototype with real users and gathering valuable feedback.

• Morning (9:00 AM – 12:00 PM):
  • Recruit and Prepare Interviewers: Brief interviewers on the testing protocol and ensure they are comfortable conducting user interviews.
  • Set Up Testing Environment: Create a comfortable and distraction-free environment for testing.
  • Dry Run: Conduct a practice interview to refine the testing process.
• Afternoon (1:00 PM – 5:00 PM):
  • User Testing (3 hours): Conduct one-on-one user interviews. Observe user behavior and gather feedback on the prototype. Aim for at least five interviews.
  • Pattern Recognition and Reporting (1 hour): The team analyzes the user feedback, identifies patterns and insights, and prepares a report summarizing the key findings.

Tips for Agenda Optimization

• Tailor the Agenda: Adapt the agenda to the specific project and team. You might need to adjust the time allocation for certain activities based on complexity.
• Communicate Clearly: Ensure everyone understands the agenda and the goals for each day.
• Flexibility is Key: Be prepared to adjust the agenda if unexpected issues arise or if the team needs more time on a particular activity.
• Retrospective: At the end of the sprint, conduct a brief retrospective to identify what worked well and what could be improved for future sprints.