Design Sprints: What Are They and How Do They Work?

Published on
April 18, 2022
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One concept that has become the subject of regular conversation in the field of brand marketing is the Design Sprint, especially after the release of “Sprint” by Jake Knapp. As the book grew to top the New York Times Best Seller list charts, many agencies began to change how they build brands.

What is it and how does it work?

The design sprint is a concept that came out of the venture capital arm of a company called Alphabet Inc. It is a five-day process used to kick off digital projects, such as digital marketing campaigns and social media campaigns, to build brand identity.

Generally, the process is as follows:

  • Monday: The sprint’s ultimate goal is identified, and the challenge is mapped out for the week. Possible objectives include reducing bounce rate, increasing conversions, and building a brand, among others.
  • Tuesday: A variety of solutions are explored by looking at sources of inspiration and outlining various strategies that can be employed.
  • Wednesday: The strategies devised on Tuesday are explored, and the team decides which ones have the highest probability of fulfilling the week’s target. The chosen solutions are then expanded into storyboards.
  • Thursday: The storyboards are turned into a working prototype designed to mimic the final approach. It also needs to be ready for testing at this point.
  • Friday: The final prototype is shown to prospective users, and its viability is examined.

Design Sprint Explainer

The ensure five-day process is quick and laser-focused. It is highly interactive, experimental, and user-focused. Ultimately, the design sprint was created with design thinking principles and maximized the productivity and efficiency of the solution and design process.

What are its benefits?

One of the most important benefits of the design sprint is its capacity to break the committee-based decision-making pattern, which can slow down and make the creation process tedious and inefficient. The great thing about this process is that they promote collaboration, bringing stakeholders together from varied fields to work on a goal.

Design sprints are a great way to work with new clients. It helps all parties involved get to know each other and create a single vision of their goal together. Furthermore, it helps foster that shared understanding far better than design briefs and specifications documents.

Over the years, it has created a culture of innovation in companies that have adopted this process. The focus on sketching and prototyping has made it possible for revolutionary ideas that would normally be rejected to be developed. The whole process also shrinks the cost of failure, especially since it features quick experimentation at the end of the week.

The fact that stakeholders are involved in the process makes it easier to get projects approved. After all, they were included in the design process and had some investment in it. The end result is not something that is just offered to them by a third party organization, but it is something that they have some ownership of, especially since they had a hand in its creation.

Conclusion

The design sprint process isn’t perfect yet. Keep in mind that it doesn’t apply to every situation, and often those who are new to it have trouble managing expectations and setting goals that are too difficult to solve in a week. That being said, it is still an effective way to produce quick and innovative solutions for a wide array of problems, with brand marketing being just one of them.

If you need professional help in your brand marketing from a creative agency, send us a message at Grapheec. We employ all the latest innovative technologies and techniques to ensure desirable outcomes — design sprints included. Visit our website today, and enter your email address for a free consultation!