Instead of aiming for constant success, businesses must realize that failure can happen at any time. Instead of looking at failure as unfavourable, however, businesses must know how to take advantage of failures to improve and create the perfect concept, product, or service. Know that an excellent way to take advantage of these failures is through design sprints.
Design sprints are developed for business startups to address the problems they face effectively. It’s a five-phase process that answers crucial business-related questions through design, prototyping, and user testing.
Design sprints started from Google Ventures, and they are now established as a well-structured process. Each stage of the process has a designated activity that will encourage participants to come up with actionable solutions.
Below is a structure of design sprints in five stages:
- Understand - This is the process where participants identify the users, the users’ needs, their strategy, and the context.
- Diverge - This is where participants get to ideate and envision possible solutions.
- Decide - This is where participants will select the best solution or idea and put it on a storyboard.
- Prototype - This is where participants will build their solution to present it to users.
- Validate - This is where participants will show their prototype to users and find out what works and what doesn’t.
The Benefits of Design Sprints
Design sprints allow for more collaboration within the workplace. It aims to bring the people in together and help them work towards a shared vision. The five-phase process of design sprints makes it ideal for companies working with new clients. Design sprints allow companies to identify key players and to ensure that everyone is on the same page.
One of the best aspects of design sprints is that it encourages creativity and originality. Process participants go through experimentation that helps them explore more ideas. Failing is more acceptable with design sprints because they often take place during the prototyping process, which is acceptable. Participants can try out the new solutions, and if they fail during this part of the process, they can always try again. It is vital that you see the prototyping process as a "pass" to fail because it allows you to improve.
When you’re done with your prototyping, it’s likely that users will be happy with the results. Because of this, you can tweak it a bit more to prepare it for its official launch in the market.
When to Use Design Sprints
Design sprints are best implemented when teams are stuck on a problem. This will push them to examine a problem in greater detail and come up with a modified solution that they had overlooked before because they were too focused on the results.
Using design sprints for new projects that will cost a lot of money is effective because you can’t afford to make a mistake. This will allow you to solve any problems regarding a product before it is launched in the market. Also, you can use design sprints when you need to break down problems into pivotal points.
Design sprints will change the mentality of your team and will encourage their creative and collaborative aspects. This method can shorten processes that typically take weeks and months on end. You’ll surely be impressed by its efficiency and how it can impact the overall workplace when it comes to problem-solving.
If you’re looking to use design sprints for your business, get in touch with us today! We’re happy to help.