How to run your Design Sprint when Remote Work is the new order.
And you only have two days to get ready… Go!
It has been a while since Jake Knapp spent a morning teaching us the value of Design Sprints and how we can use this powerful framework for building great products. We, on the other hand, shared our learnings following the approach within our Innovation Program and the challenges and outcomes we experienced along the way; some positives and others, to be honest, not so compelling.
It was 2017, I had already ran half a dozen of this sort, naturally making tons of mistakes along the way, and I was so eager to get to the Q&As section to finally ask some pressing questions to the creator and author of the New York Times best selling book. The question, though, was raised from the other side of the room:
What are your thoughts around running Remote Design Sprints⁉️
Back then, my team composed of talents across Berlin, Dublin and Helsinki, made the question undoubtedly of major relevancy to me. Weeks before I sliced a chunk of my project budget flying my Product Manager, App Developer and UX Designer to join us for the sprint week.
The answer was rather straight forward:
Remote sprints are harder than in-person sprints. Part of the sprint magic is being in the same room. So, they are possible but I don’t fully recommend them.
I’m a firm believer of face-to-face interactions and the magic that is in the air when you run a Design Sprint with all the team in the same room; it’s a special atmosphere. It gets even much more especial and magical when you do this with different teams at the same time!
Until that point in 2017, the only part we’ve tried doing virtually was “Expert Interviews” and “User Testing” which turned out to work quite well and left room for us to think which other parts of the sprint we could experiment and try out remotely. Sadly, it never happened.
It’s 2020 and I couldn’t say no to remote this time.
Exactly one week before the sprint, I got a message with some sense of urgency:
I interpreted the message this way:
Luis, we needed to plan a Sprint one week ago. Are you up for helping us out?
…
Oh and by the way, all flights are cancelled because of COVID-19 and I’ll join remote. Is that fine?
This situation was completely new from me.
The shortest time I’ve ever taken to plan a Design Sprint was at least three weeks before Day 1. From getting everything sorted out: logistics, interviews, research, user testers, recruitment, etc., until getting to know the team personally and making some pre team building activities.
This time, that was not the case. The clock was ticking and all pieces of the puzzle were spread waiting to be sorted out and organized. I was late but…
Challenge accepted.
The set-up was not proposed to be remote at first but based on the current situation in the world, and knowing that a team member was already abroad, there were very few chances that the sprint was going to take place in-person. In less than 12 hours since my first interaction with the startup CEO the decision was taken and we got the ball rolling.
So… How do you get yourself ready for a Remote Design Sprint when time is against you and you only have 2 days to get everything ready?
Here, I’m going to share with you some ways for getting started with your Remote Design Sprints if you encounter this situation. I’m adding some additional guidances at the end of this article so you can have more practical and actionable next steps. Here we go:
1. Act Fast.
Not even think about waiting. Once you know that the remote sprint is on, write down your “concerns check-list” and start with the hardest part of the preparation; make that your top priority to solve first. In my case was:
- How do we communicate?
- How do we collaborate?
- How do we keep the energy up?
And most importantly,
- When do we make all these decisions?
As a Sprint Master, you’re always one step ahead so since my time was shorten considerably I kicked off the research in no time and actively communicated the results as I sorted them out. Here’s a quick overview:
2. Ask for hand-overs: info/documents, experts/testers interactions, recruiting screeners, softwares’ user accounts, etc.
If you’re in my case, that some work was spread around different people, for instance: sprint brief, contact with experts, contact with potential testers, team’s scheduling, etc, ask right away that these documents and emails are handed over to you as soon as possible.
This is paramount so you are able to identify gaps in your preparation and you start building up your confidence, take charge of your role as a Remote Sprint Master, deliver on your responsibilities and positioning yourself as the go-to-person for any information and requirements. Here’s one example of this interaction between the CEO and an Expert for our sprint.
3. Time-box your internet search. Trust your own resources.
It gets overwhelming to browse many blogs and online resources and navigate the myriad of information about the topic, especially in these current times.
While it’s still important to get some inspiration of what’s out there and follow and listen to the best practices by specialists in the space, I’d recommend that you treat this part as a “Lightning Demo” for yourself. Set a prudent time to browse the web, take notes, make some screenshots, write down the added-value of using “x approach” or “y tool” and move on. Time is running out.
The second part of the title above is even more important: trust your own tools and resources. You are an experienced Design Sprint Master, you have the knowledge and the resources at hand and you are able to do an excellent work. Everything that is out there is, as we said in my country, is “the same thing but with a different wrapping paper”. So take your own tools and bring them your new “knowledge distribution channel” as soon as you can.
5. Choose one tool for a specific purpose
You need to create clarity up front of the standard communication tools you’re going to use and it’s critical that your team is on board with this.
This was straight forward to me, just three: Basecamp, Zoom and Miro.
- You have to communicate: use Basecamp (avoid emails at some point).
- You have to make video calls: use Zoom and pay the 14 EUR plan.
- You have to present slides, brainstorm, take notes, plot user journeys, make dot-voting decisions, embed videos, images, etc: use Miro.
- You have to schedule participants, send surveys and any others: stick to your current tools.
For the last one, I relied on my same resources for an offline sprint. Google Calendar for inviting participants and Google Form for recruiting screeners.
6. Build momentum, even if you don’t know the participants yet.
This is one was a tough one for me. We were a team of seven people and I’ve never seen the faces of five of them.
This is where I think that in-person sprints is at least easier in the sense that you’re able to look at people’s eyes, see their body language and feel the whole atmosphere in the room as you go and correct direction as needed.
There was a feeling I experienced in my early times in the internet while using ICQ in the 90s’ (there goes my age revelation, hehehe). I was not sure who I was talking to and if my words were being read or understood. But again, I didn’t have time to question this. I assumed I was being heard and I had a little trick too (*). Here’s an overview of my onboarding message the team:
Bonus: prepare a check-list for your team! ❤️
(*) Trick revelation: my team joined our Basecamp group right after the email, the checklist was being used, the team was exploring our Miro Board. (Phew… Huge relief and I could keep going!)
7. Check-in with Decider constantly.
This is a no-brainer. You need validation and reassurance that you’re on the right track. So keep things flowing and communicate constantly with the Decider. For this, I’d recommend asking directly the Decider the best communication means to talk with each other. In our case, WhatsApp made the work for us.
Talking about the Decider, there was one key question he asked just a couple hours before kick-off:
Luis, do you think this will really work?
Two days before my answer would have been entirely different but at that point I was already feeling positive and optimistic. My reply was:
Well, all the preps is ready at this point.
I don’t know why yet, but I have a great feeling about this.
I can foresee that it will be successful. Every sprint, not matter the outcome, results on a super-fast learning opportunity and it’ll provide you with clear actionable next steps for your Product Development.
I could anticipate some things right now:1) You’re doing it! So any work at this point in time will be rewarded afterwards.
2) Everything is documented real time! There’s no need for me to help with a final report or sharing the learnings. This work stays there for you, forever.
3) We have a great team! And they’re from the comfort of their home and eager to be productive and accomplish something meaningful this week.And last but not least, we are in this together, right?.
So, what’s against us right now?
The remote journey has just begun.
Today is already 3 days after the conclusion of the Sprint. I still haven’t met the other 5 people in person but we are beyond happy with the results.
I believe spreading further what I/we learned and how we did it in more detailed after this publication makes total sense and it would help anyone to be confident to do it and have the necessary materials, templates and resources require to do your own planning and execution.
I’d love to close with my dear Jake again:
Remote sprints are harder than in-person sprints. Part of the sprint magic is being in the same room. So, they are possible but I don’t fully recommend it.
I can attest first-hand that:
Yes, they are harder than in-person.
Yes, the sprint magic is being in the same room.
Yes, they are possible.
However, I can fully recommend them.
I’m a now firm believer of face-to-face interactions and, now, in remote ones too. And this is where the world is heading to. Our job as Remote Sprint Masters or any facilitator of a session is to still make these interactions as human as possible and make everyone feel included.
Get yourself started with your kick-off on Day 1 with the following board:
Feel free to contact me through my LinkedIn in case you need any further guidance.
Thanks for reading until the end.
