You don’t start the sprint with only the solution or process in mind. You also need to have the challenge in mind. Then you will need to reverse engineer the end result.For example, Jake Knapp tells us about Savioke, a robotics company that created a robot to help with hospitality in restaurants and hotels. To help them cope with the challenge, Jake asked them questions about the kind of customers/users they wanted to impact. Questions about the product usage and expectations and reactions of the users.

Reverse-engineering Your Roadmap

After this exercise, you will have enough blueprints of the solution you are trying to achieve. Next would be for you to work hard, get to the finish line and launch your solution.

The Finish Line

Jake Knapp’s idea of an ideal sprint can be broken down into three aspects:<ul><li>Have a very tight deadline: While Jake Knapp has tested different timelines for a sprint, a five day sprint works best.</li><li>Seven Person Team: Next, focus on gathering the right experts in the team. Engineers, marketers, designers, managers and other experts who will achieve the prototype in five days.</li><li>Have a concrete Prototype: On Friday, your team should have a concrete prototype which should be shown to your customers to check their reaction in real time. </li></ul>

Tight Deadlines, Seven People In A Room & A Prototype

Once Jake helped the Savioke team question and find the moment their product would need to meet and impress the end users, the team went hell-bent on brainstorming about that one ideal moment. Later, they found that they wanted to focus on the moment when the client would open the door and see the robot for the first time. Then, they tried adding some personality to the robot so clients wouldn’t get scared.This resulted in a successful prototype testing where the clients were happy to see Savioke’s robot delivering their toothbrushes.

Savioke’s Response

So what makes a sprint “The Sprint”? For Jake Knapp, the idea came to him when he was working on an important feature for Gmail that would help automatically sort messages. He only had a month before the lead member would pull the plug on the project. Jake Knapp and his members designed the sprint approach, focused on creating multiple prototypes and ended up managing the project successfully.Since then, he has perfected the structure and divides it into three aspects.

What Makes A Sprint?

We’ve found that magic happens when we use big whiteboards to solve problems. The room itself becomes a sort of shared brain for the team.

First and foremost, Jake Knapp is the brain behind Google Hangouts. He actually created the prototype working with his friend in a few days and then Google polished it and made it available to the world later on.Later, Jake Knapp joined Google Ventures, a division focused on helping promising start-ups with the vision to change the world.Now, Jake Knapp dedicates his time tot full-time writing.

Who Is Jake Knapp Actually?

While brainstorming alone may not be enough, it is still a very valuable part of a sprint. For example, you can use the concept of Lightning demos where each team member gets the chance to present existing solutions to match with different parts of the problem you are trying to solve.After the presentations, everyone will need to sketch simple visualisations of the solutions. This helps especially with:<ul><li>Seeing the bigger picture: Can solutions be merged to get a solution you need</li><li>Breaking down the project: Into stages so you can tackle them separately. </li></ul>

Using Existing Solutions To Coming Up With Something Original

And lastly, I was so mesmerised with the information packed in this one book that I immediately thought of replicating the process to my daily life as well. One piece of advice I should mention here is that an overnight sprint or 15 hours per day sprint rarely works the way it should. instead, you shoukd follow Jake Knapp’s sprint framework, divide your weekdays into 6 hours each and then work hard in a no-distraction environment to achieve the results.You will be amazed at what a non-distraction environment can do for you.

If you were to read just one book on project management and testing your product’s value in a very small time, pick up Sprint without any doubt. The book is full of invaluable insights and it really works wonder if you are product manager, entrepreneur or a project manager.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER "Sprint offers a transformative formula for testing ideas that works whether you're at a startup or a large organization. Within five days, you'll move from idea to prototype to decision, saving you and your team countless hours and countless dollars. A must read for entrepreneurs of all stripes." --Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup From three partners at Google Ventures, a unique five-day process for solving tough problems, proven at more than a hundred companies. Entrepreneurs and leaders face big questions every day: What's the most important place to focus your effort, and how do you start? What will your idea look like in real life? How many meetings and discussions does it take before you can be sure you have the right solution? Now there's a surefire way to answer these important questions: the sprint. Designer Jake Knapp created the five-day process at Google, where sprints were used on everything from Google Search to Google X. He joined Braden Kowitz and John Zeratsky at Google Ventures, and together they have completed more than a hundred sprints with companies in mobile, e-commerce, healthcare, finance, and more. A practical guide to answering critical business questions, Sprint is a book for teams of any size, from small startups to Fortune 100s, from teachers to nonprofits. It's for anyone with a big opportunity, problem, or idea who needs to get answers today.

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Marketing & Sales

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Problem Solving

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Books

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Product & Design

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Leadership & Management

Jake Knapp created the Design Sprint at Google, where he also helped build Gmail, cofounded Google Meet, and was a design partner at GV. He has since coached hundreds of teams on product strategy at places like Miro, Slack, Nike, LEGO, IDEO, the Wall Street Journal, and the Harvard Business School. Today, Jake is a cofounder at Character, where he helps startups find product-market fit with Design Sprints.


Jake Knapp

John Zeratsky is a design partner at GV and the co-author of Sprint. Before joining GV, he was a design lead at YouTube and an early employee of FeedBurner, which Google acquired in 2007. John has written about design and productivity for Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Wired, and Time. Originally from rural Wisconsin, John now lives in San Francisco with his wife.

John Zeratsky

Braden Kowitz is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Braden Kowitz has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Braden Kowitz's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.