Customer feedback is a crucial component in ensuring the success of any product or digital team. While agile teams have the advantage of being able to move quickly, obtaining high-quality customer feedback in a timely manner can be a challenge. This is where design sprints come in handy. Design sprints are a proven methodology for solving problems through designing, prototyping, and testing ideas with users. They quickly align teams under a shared vision with clearly defined goals and deliverables, making them a valuable tool in developing a hypothesis, prototyping an idea, and testing it rapidly with as little investment as possible in as real an environment as possible.

However, perfecting the process of prototyping, building an MVP, and iterating can be challenging for most teams in the South African market that practice agile in the real world. Even though other usability testing methods like gorilla testing and facilitated usability testing exist, they are still not as effective as design sprints in obtaining qualitative feedback within the time constraints of an agile sprint.

So how do design sprints solve everything? Well, not everything, but they come quite close. There are different variations of design sprints that teams can adapt to find a fit for how they want to work and how their agile sprints are structured. The variations of the design sprints below can be tweaked to accommodate time constraints and the availability of stakeholders.

What is the design sprint?

The Design Sprint is a proven methodology for solving problems through designing, prototyping, and testing ideas with users. It quickly aligns teams under a shared vision with clearly defined goals and deliverables. Ultimately, it is a tool for developing a hypothesis, prototyping an idea, and testing it rapidly with as little investment as possible in as real an environment as possible.

The 5-day design sprint

The 5-day design sprint is the original and most widely used across most user-centered product design teams in the South African market. However, it usually takes too much time to fit in the 1-2 week agile sprint structures that are most commonly used. Jake Knapp and Jonathan Courtney of AJ&Smart modified the 5-day sprint into a shorter 4-day design sprint that they call Design Sprint 2.0, which can save time and fit in with some agile teams. However, I still find it a bit too long for the majority of the agile teams running 1-2 week agile sprints. The Design Sprint 2.0 can be used by any team that wants to answer challenging questions in their design process and can help with spending more time unpacking the solution.

The 3-day design sprint

The 3-day design sprint is a more flexible and the shortest version of the design sprints that I have facilitated and tested within a 2-week agile sprint. In my view, the 3-day design sprint can answer usability questions quickly with enough detail to have actionable next steps on the product build. However, design sprints require good planning and buy-in from stakeholders, as you will need to get people out of their working hours and sit in a room for a day, two, or even three. Design sprints can be used to solve all kinds of challenges.

Best known for injecting speed and innovation into product development, the methodology can also be used to develop new processes, create or update a brand, or even define the vision for an organization’s strategy and impact in the market.

Design sprints are a valuable tool for teams looking to obtain customer feedback quickly and efficiently. By adapting the different variations of design sprints to fit their specific needs, teams can ensure that they are obtaining high-quality feedback without sacrificing the speed and agility that they need to succeed in today’s market.

If you are running design sprints in agile teams, we would love to hear about your experiences and which version of the design sprint works best for you. Please leave your tips and methods in the comments below.