Compress months of debate into one week by prototyping and testing a high-stakes idea with real users.
Run a five-day Design Sprint to compress problem framing, ideation, prototyping, and user testing into one intense week of validated learning.
A Design Sprint is an intensive five-day process developed at Google Ventures that compresses problem understanding, solution ideation, prototyping, and real-user validation into a single week. Product teams, startup founders, and enterprise innovation groups use it to answer critical business questions through designed experiments rather than prolonged debate. Each day has a distinct focus: Monday maps the challenge, Tuesday generates solutions through individual sketching, Wednesday makes decisions, Thursday builds a realistic prototype, and Friday tests it with five target users. The method is particularly powerful for high-stakes decisions where the cost of building the wrong thing far exceeds the cost of a week spent testing the idea first. A skilled facilitator, called the Sprint Master, guides the team through structured exercises that prevent common pitfalls like groupthink, scope creep, and analysis paralysis. By the end of the week, the team has concrete user feedback on a realistic prototype, clear evidence about what works and what does not, and enough momentum to move forward with confidence rather than assumption.
In this step, the team gathers together to clarify the problem, define the long-term goal, and identify the target audience. Key stakeholders participate in discussions to provide input and share background information. It's essential to understand contextual factors, business objectives, and user needs.
Based on the problem statement, generate a list of questions that the design sprint aims to answer. Key decision-makers then prioritize these questions, and the team chooses a target question to be addressed in the sprint.
Brainstorm potential solutions by sketching them on paper individually. This is a rapid idea generation phase, where each team member works independently to come up with their best ideas. These are informal and low-fidelity sketches meant to encourage a broad range of solutions.
Evaluate and critique the sketches to determine which ideas offer the best chance at achieving the goals of the sprint. As a team, discuss the merits of the sketches, and vote for the top ideas. Select one solution, or combine elements from multiple sketches, as the focus for the prototyping phase.
Create a realistic prototype of the selected solution using tools like wireframes, user flows, or mockups. The goal here is to bring the idea to life with enough fidelity for users to understand its intention without spending too much time refining it. This prototype will be used in the Validate phase.
Test the prototype with real users to gather essential feedback on its usability and effectiveness in addressing the problem. Observe how users interact with the prototype and ask questions about their experience. After testing, gather as a team to analyze the results and determine what works and what requires improvement. Use this information to iterate on the design and make informed decisions moving forward.
After completing a Design Sprint, your team will have tested a realistic prototype with five real users and collected concrete feedback on what works and what needs rethinking. You will leave the week with clear evidence about whether the proposed direction resonates with your target audience, which specific elements they valued, and where friction or confusion arose. The team will also have a storyboard, sketches, and the prototype itself as tangible artifacts to guide next steps. Perhaps most importantly, the sprint builds shared context and conviction across disciplines, reducing the back-and-forth that typically slows product development. Whether the prototype succeeds or fails, the team gains weeks or months of learning compressed into five days.
Don't forget preparation and plan for it, as it will take at least as much time as the sprint itself. Only a carefully thought out and prepared design sprint brings results.
Choose a sprint master - the main facilitator of the entire sprint.
Before the sprint, take the time to define the design challenge. It should be relevant, inspiring, and focused on the given segment.
Recruit and schedule your test users before the sprint begins - Day 5 testing is critical and cannot slip.
Include a 'Decider' with authority to make decisions - sprints stall without clear decision-making power.
Ban devices during sprint activities to maintain focus and equal participation from all team members.
Sketch individually before group discussion to prevent groupthink and encourage diverse solutions.
Document sprint learnings immediately - insights fade quickly after the intensive week ends.
Without someone who has authority to make final calls, sprints stall at decision points. Identify and commit a Decider before the sprint begins, and ensure they attend every day.
Sprint preparation takes as long as the sprint itself. Recruiting test users, gathering research inputs, and booking rooms must happen weeks in advance. Unprepared sprints produce weak results.
Teams sometimes spend too long making the prototype pixel-perfect, leaving no time for iteration. The prototype needs just enough fidelity for users to understand the concept and give honest feedback.
Including only designers misses critical perspectives. The sprint team should include engineering, product, business, and customer-facing roles to ensure solutions are feasible and commercially viable.
When Day 5 testing reveals problems, some teams rationalize the results away. Treat negative feedback as the most valuable outcome because it prevents costly development of a flawed concept.
Clear problem statement defining the opportunity to explore during the sprint.
Fictional profiles of key user groups with goals, demographics, and pain points.
Visual maps of user experience highlighting touchpoints and emotional states.
Review of competitor products, features, and strategies for market context.
Visual narrative showing the user's experience within the proposed solution.
Low-fidelity visual representations of screens and interface elements.
Tool ranking features by user value, effort, and strategic alignment.
Interactive representations of the proposed solution for user testing.
Summary of usability test findings, problems identified, and insights.
List of changes and next steps based on user feedback and test results.
Presentation summarizing the sprint process, insights, and recommendations.