Sprint book notes

March 1, 2021
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Book Notes

By Jake Knapp
Amazon

  • Map/target - stories, problems, experts
  • Sketch - remix & improve
  • Decide - Rumble, storyboard
  • Realistic Prototype
  • Real test - Learn

See book for checklists/shopping list

  • Intro
  • Can have multiple prototypes
  • Start with the end - what’s the question you need answered? use design Sprints for very tough issues
  • High stakes - big problem, make sure you’re pointed in the right direction
  • Not enough time - deadline, good solutions fast
  • Stuck - hard to start, lost momentum, need a fresh approach
  • prototype - test - feedback
  • Team
  • Decider (or two) - core values, mission, make sure it’s the right project
  • Finance expert (CEO, CFO BD) - how to make $$$
  • Marketing (CMO, PR, community manager) - messaging/story
  • Customer (research, sales, VOC, support)
  • Tech/logistics (CTO, engineer x2)
  • Design (designer, PM)
  • Bring the troublemaker
  • Bring a facilitator (nonvoting, unbiased, just process + summarization)
  • Outside experts
  • 7 max day to day!
  • Time & Space
  • No interruptions, no devices
  • 10am-5pm (9am Friday)
  • Whiteboards make you smarter + markers + timer
  • The “shared brain"
  1. Monday
  2. Start with the end - make a map - ask the experts - pick a target
  3. Define your long-term goal and write it on the board
  4. ie More patients enrolled in trials
  5. Sprint questions - write below goal
  6. i.e. Can we find matches fast enough, and Will clinics change their workflow?
  7. What questions do we want to answer
  8. What has to be true to meet our long term goal
  9. Pre-mortem (travel into the future, what caused your project to fail?)
  10. Find assumptions and turn them into questions
  11. To reach customers, what has to be true? They have to trust our expertise.
  12. Phrased as a question: “Will customers trust our expertise?"
  13. Make a map on a new board
  14. Simple, customer-centric
  15. Start with the END - long-term goal, turn problems into questions (above)
  16. Key actors / story w/ beginning, middle, end
  17. 5-15 steps
  18. List of actors (put in arrowed boxes)
  19. Write the ENDING
  20. Word + arrows, very simple!
  21. Ask for help/confirmation
  22. Ask the experts
  23. Bring in people who didn’t make the team for 30 minute consults on your questions, map, etc.
  24. Strategy (decider interview), VOC (support), How Things Work (baristas, oncologists, experts)
  25. Introduce the sprint, review the white boards with them, open the door (have them tell you everything), ask questions - “Why” “Tell me more about that” “Remind Me"
  26. Use “How Might We” phrasing (IDEO) - convert into questions
  27. Open ended, optimistic
  28. Keeps you from jumping to conclusions too quickly
  29. Puts all ideas on a level playing field - easy to read, can digest the whole wall at once
  30. 30-100 sticky notes at the end of all interviews
  31. Organize into Themes on a board, including a “Misc” theme - should only take 10 minutes
  32. Dot voting - two per person, four for the Decider - vote on the most useful HMW questions - can vote twice for the same note
  33. Take the notes that win and put them on your Map in the right place
  34. One Target area will start to jump out
  35. Target
  36. Should jump right out
  37. One customer, one moment on the map
  38. Place on the map w/ the biggest opportunity
  39. Should match one of the sprint questions
  40. Tuesday
  41. Remix and improve on existing ideas - Sketch (4 step process)
  42. Remix & Improve
  43. Make a list of favorite products from new industries, shelved projects, etc
  44. Lightning demos - post-its for features
  45. Remix & Improve - focus on one or a few parts of the map
  46. 10-70 ideas total
  47. Sketch
  48. 10-12 total
  49. Paper + pen is a great equalizer
  50. Makes it concrete, w/ details, easier to convey, no miscommunication
  51. Work alone, together - No group think!
  52. Notes (20 mins), 2) Ideas (20 mins), 3) crazy-8s (8 mins), 4) Solution Sketch (30+ mins)
  53. Notes on goal, map, HMWs, lightning demos
  54. Look at references: materials on computers if needed
  55. Ideas: doodles, sample headlines, diagrams, etc
  56. circle your favorites
  57. Crazy 8s: Sketch a few variations of each of your favorites, 60 seconds each - consider alternatives (fold a piece of paper 3 times, into 8 squares)
  58. Solution sketch: Self-explanatory, anonymous, words matter, catchy title
  59. Don’t review until tomorrow!!
  60. Facilitator: Find Customers for Friday
  61. Craigslist
  62. Network
  63. 5 interviews, 60 minutes
  64. $100 gift card
  65. Screening survey - thesprintbook.com
  66. Wednesday
  67. Decide on one solution - storyboard
  68. Decide
  69. No back and forth - solutions, critique, decide, all silently
  70. The sticky decision
  71. Art museum - sketches stuck up on the wall w/ tape
  72. Heat map - small stickies for good ideas/interesting parts
  73. Don’t talk - put dots next to parts you like - write questions/concerns on stickies below - move on to next sketch and repeat
  74. Speed critique + stickies for Big ideas
  75. 3 minute timer - Facilitator talks through the sketch and calls out standout ideas, review questions/concerns (recorded on stickies below sketch if necessary) - creator reveals identity and explains any missed ideas
  76. Straw poll - big dots
  77. Everyone gets one vote with a big dot
  78. Remind everyone of long-term goal and sprint questions
  79. err on the side of risky ideas with big potential
  80. 10 minute timer
  81. Private write down your choice - whole sketch or just one idea from a sketch
  82. Place votes on sketches
  83. Explain each vote (1 minute per person)
  84. Supervote from Decider
  85. Decider gets 3 supervote dots
  86. Any sketch with a supervote, even if it’s the only vote, goes into the prototype
  87. Rumble
  88. 2 prototypes battle it out with customers
  89. Note and vote - brainstorm substitute if you need to get quick ideas and elect a winner (i.e. a fake brand name or something like that)
  90. Each team member gets a piece of paper and a pen
  91. 3 minutes to write down ideas
  92. 2 minutes to edit list of ideas into top 2-3
  93. Write top ideas on board
  94. 2 minutes to review
  95. Each person votes for favorite with one dot
  96. Decider makes final decision
  97. Storyboard
  98. 10-15 panels, 2x a piece of printer paper each (17”x11”)
  99. Go 1-2 steps upstream for the start (i.e. blog post, app store)
  100. Present alongside competitors
  101. Avoid new ideas and non-critical stuff
  102. Just enough detail, decider decides - take risks!
  103. Keep the story to 15 minutes or less
  104. Avoid decision fatigue - be quick
  105. Thursday
  106. Realistic Prototype - fake it!
  107. Fake it
  108. Just enough to learn, get real reactions
  109. Storyboard - it’s a facade
  110. Prototype mindset - illusion, build in a day, just real enough, don’t get invested/fall in love with your solution - learn fast
  111. Disposable, but must appear real
  112. Goldilocks quality - people must react, not realize it’s fake and move into feedback mode
  113. Keynote - for fake iPad apps
  114. Prototype
  115. Pick the right tools - fast
  116. Keynote, templates, InVision, 3D Printing, brochures
  117. Divide & Conquer
  118. Makers (2), stitcher (1), writer (1), asset collector (1), interviewer (1)
  119. Stitch it together
  120. Tight, coherent, believable
  121. Trial run
  122. 3pm, interviewer is the audience
  123. Keep them objective - invite the Decider
  124. Friday
  125. Interview and Learn
  126. Small data
  127. 5 is the magic number of interviews (Nielsen)
  128. 1 hour each, 1:1, whole team watches in a different room (webcam), 30 minute debrief breaks
  129. Capture the why - why things do or don’t work - just ask them!
  130. Interview
  131. The Five-Act Interview
  132. Friendly welcome
  133. Thanks for coming! This is informal, not testing you, testing the product, will start with background questions
  134. General, open-ended context questions
  135. What kind of work do you do, how long have you been doing that, what do you do when you’re not working - get more specific towards your individual product/the industry it’s in
  136. Intro to prototypes
  137. Would you look at some prototypes? Some things might not work, I’ll let you know, I didn’t design this so it won’t hurt my feelings, please think aloud,
  138. Detailed tasks to get them reacting
  139. Open-ended, how would you decide if you want to try this, what is this, what is this for, what do you think of that, what do you expect that will do, what’s going through your mind, what are you looking for, what would you do next/why
  140. Quick debrief on overall thoughts/impressions
  141. How does this compare to what you know, what do you like, what do you dislike, how would you describe this to a friend, if you had three magic wishes to improve the product, what would they be, how would you compare this to different products, pros/cons, which parts would you combine to create a new/better version, which one worked better for you/why
  142. Be a good host, smile a lot
  143. Ask open-ended questions - avoid multiple-choice questions
  144. Ask who what when where why how
  145. Ask broken questions
  146. Customer: Hmm!
  147. Interviewer: So, what….is….(trail off into silence)
  148. Curiosity mindset
  149. Always ask why
  150. Make yourself friendlier - smile, lean in, don’t cross your arms
  151. Learn
  152. Listen together, take notes
  153. Board notes w/ stickies - one box per interview, organize by prototype sections or sprint questions
  154. Quotes, observations, interpretations - pros/cons/neutrals in green/red/black
  155. Take breaks
  156. Look for patterns - take your own detailed notes on the board
  157. Answer your sprint questions! Yay!
  158. Plan for what’s next
  159. Liftoff!
  160. Map out the problem
  161. Agree on an initial target
  162. Work independently
  163. Make crisp decisions
  164. Prototype
  165. Test!