Design sprint

No. A topic that has not yet been framed and whose main areas of work have not been established is not suited to a sprint. The format is used to settle an already identified question, not to explore uncharted territory. You therefore need a clear problem and a defined objective before starting the week.

The group is usually kept to around ten people at most, facilitators included. The team brings together different areas of expertise, marketing, business, product, technical, design, and can call on other experts occasionally, especially during the first days, spent gathering what is known about the topic. A decider able to make the call must be part of the group.

A facilitator, responsible for the frame and the timing. Their role is not to bring ideas but to move the group forward, to balance speaking time and to hold the tight pace of each day. On a sprint at Akiani, facilitation falls to the designer in charge, often supported by a second facilitator.

A prototype tested with real users and a validated direction, not a finished product. The outcome answers the question 'should we build this, and in which direction', but the detailed design and the development still have to be done afterwards. It is a solid starting point, not a deliverable ready to put online.

Design thinking is an overall approach to problem solving centred on the user, with no fixed duration. The design sprint is a condensed, timed application of it, a five-day format that takes up its main principles to reach a tested decision quickly. One is a design philosophy, the other an operational sequence.