---
name: wondelai/design-sprint
source: https://app.decimal.ai/s/wondelai-design-sprint@1/SKILL.md
source_sha256: 2a331783e1bb
---

# Design Sprint Framework

A five-day process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas with customers. Developed at Google Ventures and used by Google, Slack, Airbnb, and hundreds of startups.

## Core Principle

**Compress months of debate, design, and testing into one week — and test with real users before writing any production code.** The sprint replaces endless discussion with a fixed Monday-to-Friday spine, hard time-boxes, and a single Decider, so a high-stakes product question gets a real answer in five days instead of five months.

## Scoring

**Goal: 10/10.** Score a sprint plan or execution by awarding 1 point for each item present and correct (10 total). Report the score and the missing items needed to reach 10/10.

1. Decider committed for the full week; one Sprint Master facilitating.
2. Monday produces a target customer and moment (not a vague "test the product").
3. Hard time-boxes used (Crazy 8s in 8 min, 10am-5pm days, no open-ended sessions).
4. Solution sketches done alone and anonymous — no group brainstorming.
5. Wednesday ends with a single Decider Supervote, not consensus.
6. Storyboard specified before any prototype is built.
7. Prototype is a Goldilocks-fidelity facade, testable in 5-15 min, with a trial run done.
8. Exactly 5 target users recruited via screener (6 scheduled to absorb a no-show).
9. Friday uses the Five-Act Interview; users interpret the prototype unexplained.
10. End-of-sprint debrief converts the +/-/~ pattern grid into a decision on next steps.

A plan missing the Decider, real users, or a same-day prototype caps at 6 — those are the failure modes the sprint exists to prevent.

## The 5-Day Sprint Process

```
Monday → Tuesday → Wednesday → Thursday → Friday
  Map      Sketch     Decide      Prototype    Test
```

**Prerequisites:** a big challenge worth a week's focus; the right team (Decider plus 4-7 people with diverse expertise); five full days (10am-5pm) with no interruptions; a dedicated room with whiteboards. One **Sprint Master** facilitates, keeps time, and manages energy.

See [references/facilitation.md](references/facilitation.md) when you are the Sprint Master — it has the full facilitation guide, time-boxing tactics, and energy-management moves for keeping a stuck or low-energy room productive.

## Monday: Map

**Goal:** Understand the problem and choose a target for the week.

### Morning: Start at the End

- **Long-term goal:** Write the optimistic answer to "What do we want to be true in 2 years?" — e.g., "Customers use our product daily."
- **Sprint questions:** List obstacles and unknowns as questions on the whiteboard, whole team contributing — e.g., "Will customers trust us with payment info?"

### Afternoon: Map the Challenge

- **Customer journey map:** List the actors (customer types), then draw the journey left to right in 5-15 steps: "Hears about product → Visits site → Signs up → First use → Regular user."
- **Ask the Experts:** Interview teammates with specialized knowledge (CEO, design, engineering, support, sales); capture notes on the whiteboard.
- **How Might We (HMW):** Rephrase problems as opportunities — "Customers don't understand pricing" → "HMW make pricing immediately clear?" One per sticky note; vote and organize the best on the map.

### End of Day: Pick a Target

Choose which customer and moment on the map to focus on — the biggest risk or opportunity (e.g., "the first 10 minutes after signup"). The **Decider** (person with authority) makes the final call.

**Monday output:** long-term goal, sprint questions, journey map, expert insights, organized HMW notes, target customer and moment.

See [references/monday.md](references/monday.md) while facilitating Monday — step-by-step exercise scripts, HMW examples, and the target-selection method.

## Tuesday: Sketch

**Goal:** Generate solutions — each person sketches a detailed solution.

### Morning: Lightning Demos

- **Find inspiration:** 3-minute demos of competitors and analogous products ("Here's what I found, here's why it's interesting"); capture good ideas on the whiteboard. Borrow from any industry.
- **Divide or swarm:** Split the map between people if it has multiple parts; otherwise everyone tackles the same critical problem (most sprints swarm).

### Afternoon: The Four-Step Sketch

Everyone sketches alone — **no group brainstorming**. Individual work produces better, more diverse ideas.

1. **Notes (20 min):** Silently walk the room reviewing the map, HMWs, and inspiration.
2. **Ideas (20 min):** Rough doodles, mind maps, stick figures — quantity over quality.
3. **Crazy 8s (8 min):** Fold paper into 8 panels and sketch 8 variations in 8 minutes — forces you past your first idea.
4. **Solution Sketch (30-90 min):** A 3-panel storyboard of the customer experience (beginning, middle, end). Make it self-explanatory, give it a catchy title, and keep it **anonymous**.

**Tuesday output:** one detailed, anonymous, self-explanatory solution sketch per person.

See [references/tuesday.md](references/tuesday.md) before the Four-Step Sketch — Crazy 8s and solution-sketch templates plus worked examples to show the team.

## Wednesday: Decide

**Goal:** Critique solutions and choose the best one to prototype and test.

### Morning: Sticky Decision

- **Art museum:** Tape sketches to the wall; review silently (no talking) and mark interesting parts with dot stickers.
- **Heat map review:** Discuss each sketch for 3 minutes — the facilitator narrates while the anonymous sketcher stays silent; a scribe captures standout ideas on the whiteboard.
- **Straw poll:** Each person votes for one solution with one sentence of rationale (non-binding).
- **Supervote:** The Decider gets three large dots; their decision wins.

### Afternoon: Rumble or All-in-One

If multiple sketches win, choose: **Rumble** (competing prototypes testing different approaches) or **All-in-One** (combine the best ideas into one prototype — simpler, and what most sprints do).

- **Storyboard:** Draw a 10-15 panel comic of the test experience: opening scene (how the customer discovers you) → your solution in action → successful outcome. Keep it simple — stick figures, words, arrows — but get specific about the UI. Include just enough detail for Thursday's prototype.

**Wednesday output:** winning solution(s) and a detailed storyboard ready to prototype.

See [references/wednesday.md](references/wednesday.md) when running the Sticky Decision and storyboard — facilitation steps for the vote and a panel-by-panel storyboard template.

## Thursday: Prototype

**Goal:** Build a realistic facade in one day — you need something to test on Friday.

**Mindset:** Fake it; prototype only what you'll test. Aim for Goldilocks fidelity — sketches are too low for honest reactions, working code wastes time. It should look real without working for real (facades, click-throughs, video).

### Assign Roles

| Role | Responsibility |
|------|----------------|
| **Makers** (2+) | Build the prototype pieces (design, assets) |
| **Stitcher** (1) | Combines pieces into the final prototype (Keynote, Figma) |
| **Writer** (1) | All copy: headlines, button labels, descriptions |
| **Collector** (1-2) | Gathers photos, icons, competitor screenshots |
| **Interviewer** (1) | Writes and rehearses Friday's interview script |
| **Sprint Master** | Helps where needed, keeps energy up |

### Build the Prototype

**Tools:** Figma, Keynote, or PowerPoint linked slides for web/apps; video walkthrough or 3D-printed mockup for physical products; role-play video or scripted interaction for services.

Morning: divide the storyboard into scenes and assign them to makers. Afternoon: stitch together, review against the storyboard, rehearse the full flow, and run a trial with someone outside the sprint team.

**Prototype checklist:**
- [ ] Follows storyboard exactly
- [ ] Looks real enough to get honest reactions
- [ ] Can walk through in 5-15 minutes
- [ ] Interviewer knows how to present it
- [ ] Trial run completed

**Thursday output:** realistic prototype, interview script, prepared interview room.

See [references/thursday.md](references/thursday.md) while building the prototype — tool-by-tool techniques (Keynote/Figma facades, video, mockups) for hitting Goldilocks fidelity in a day.

## Friday: Test

**Goal:** Interview 5 customers; learn what works and what doesn't.

### Setup

Interview room: quiet space, laptop with the prototype, camera recording screen and customer's face. Observation room: live video feed where the whole team watches and takes notes on a whiteboard. One **Interviewer** conducts all five interviews.

### The Five-Act Interview

About 45 minutes per customer (the five acts run ~35 min plus setup and transitions), with 30-minute breaks between to discuss observations and adjust questions. See references/friday.md for the full 9am-5pm schedule.

| Act | Time | What to Do |
|-----|------|------------|
| **1. Friendly welcome** | 5 min | Greet warmly; explain you're testing the prototype, not them; get recording permission; encourage thinking aloud |
| **2. Context questions** | 5 min | "Tell me about how you currently handle [problem]" — understand mindset and current behavior |
| **3. Introduce prototype** | 5 min | "What's this? What do you think it's for?" Don't explain — let them interpret |
| **4. Tasks and nudges** | 15 min | Open-ended exploration, then storyboard tasks. When stuck: "What would you do next?", "What's going through your mind?" Don't help — watch them struggle |
| **5. Debrief** | 5 min | "What did you think overall?", "Who is this for?", "What worked? What was confusing?" |

### Five Is the Magic Number

Patterns emerge after 3-5 people and returns diminish after 5 — and five interview-plus-break slots fit one day (see references/friday.md). Recruit target customers via a screener survey and offer an incentive ($100-$200 B2B, $50-$100 B2C).

See [references/recruiting.md](references/recruiting.md) two weeks before the sprint — it has screener-survey questions, recruiting channels, scheduling logistics, and incentive guidance for locking in five on-target users.

### Take Notes: Pattern Recognition

Capture observations in a grid, one column per customer:

| Customer 1 | Customer 2 | Customer 3 | Customer 4 | Customer 5 |
|------------|------------|------------|------------|------------|
| notes | notes | notes | notes | notes |

Mark each observation **✓** (positive, success), **✗** (negative, failure), or **~** (neutral/mixed). After all five interviews, count marks per row and look for patterns — did all 5 struggle with the same thing?

### End-of-Sprint Debrief

Organize findings: **✓ what worked** (flows everyone understood, messaging that resonated), **✗ what failed** (confusing terminology, missing steps, wrong assumptions), **~ mixed** (some got it, some didn't). Then decide next steps:

- **Core concept validated:** build it, or run the next sprint on details
- **Major issues:** pivot, or sprint again on the problems
- **Total failure:** back to the drawing board — you just saved months

**Friday output:** interview recordings, pattern notes, a clear list of what works and what doesn't, decision on next steps.

See [references/friday.md](references/friday.md) before interviewing — verbatim Five-Act scripts, note-taking templates, the fuller next-steps decision table, and the common Friday mistakes to avoid.

## When to Run a Design Sprint

**Run when:** the decision is high-stakes, there's no time to build and test normally, the team is stuck in endless debate, multiple solutions compete, it's a new product/feature/major redesign, or you need to de-risk before investing.

**Don't run when:** the problem and solution are obvious and you just need to execute, the team isn't bought in, or you can't get the Decider for the full week.

See [references/case-studies.md](references/case-studies.md) for worked sprint walk-throughs (Slack, Blue Bottle Coffee, Savioke and more) when you need a concrete precedent for how a sprint played out in a domain like yours.

## Variations

- **4-Day Sprint:** Day 1 Map + Sketch (compressed), Day 2 Decide, Day 3 Prototype, Day 4 Test.
- **Remote Sprint:** Same schedule with Miro/FigJam whiteboards and Zoom. See [references/remote-sprints.md](references/remote-sprints.md) when the team is distributed — it adapts each exercise to digital whiteboards, sets remote time-boxes, and handles video-based prototype testing.
- **Multi-Sprint:** Sprint 1 chooses direction on a broad problem, Sprint 2 deep-dives the chosen solution, Sprint 3 refines details.

## Common Mistakes

| Mistake | Why It Fails | Fix |
|---------|-------------|------|
| **Skip prototyping** | Nothing to test | Always prototype, even if simple |
| **Over-engineer prototype** | Waste time on details that don't matter | Facade only, not working code |
| **Test with wrong users** | Invalid feedback | Screen for target customers |
| **Explain prototype to users** | Defeats the test; confusion is the data | Run Acts 3-4 as written — they interpret and struggle unaided |
| **No decision maker** | Can't commit to decision | Get Decider for full week or don't sprint |
| **Interruptions** | Breaks focus | Protect the week, no meetings/emails |

## Quick Diagnostic

Audit any sprint plan:

| Question | If No | Action |
|----------|-------|--------|
| Do we have a Decider for full week? | Sprint will fail | Get commitment or postpone |
| Is the problem important enough? | Waste of time | Only sprint on big challenges |
| Can we prototype in 1 day? | Wrong problem for sprint | Choose more concrete problem |
| Can we recruit 5 target users? | Can't test properly | Start recruiting now (2 weeks ahead) |
| Will team commit to no interruptions? | Won't maintain focus | Get buy-in from leadership |

## Further Reading

For the complete methodology, exercises, and case studies:

- [*"Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days"*](https://www.amazon.com/Sprint-Solve-Problems-Test-Ideas/dp/150112174X?tag=wondelai00-20) by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, Braden Kowitz

## About the Author

**Jake Knapp** created the Design Sprint at Google, where he ran sprints on Gmail, Chrome, and Google X, then refined the process across 100+ startup sprints as a design partner at Google Ventures. The sprint is now used at Google, Slack, Airbnb, LEGO, and thousands of companies worldwide. He is also the author of *Make Time*.