Like riding a bike — designer metaphors.

I love it when metaphors or mental models suddenly emerge from everyday situations like a surprise. It feels like a magical moment of full clarity when I think “Oh! This is just like …”

I’m very much drawn to those metaphors especially when they are inspired by the world of science. When they are about movement and energy, friction and inertia, impulse and response.

So today I would like to explore one of those metaphors through my lens as “a designer” with the privilege of innocent naivety to see if it resonates.

The inspiration

A while back I was on a bike tour with my partner. I could feel that she was not too happy with the profile and distance of our tour so to brighten her mood and to motivate her a little, I started pushing her on the upwards slopes. At one point I pushed her forward with all my arms could offer and even though I could hear her joyful laughter about this pleasant uptake of speed, to me it felt like someone pushed a brake pad into me and sucked out all my energy.

“This is like introducing design thinking.”

As a result she was in front of me, still enjoying the free speed. But I fell more and more behind and it took me quite some time and energy to catch up to her.

But when we were back at the same level she had slowed down again because of course she didn’t maintain the momentum. So I either had to keep going another time and another time until it went downhill again, or come up with a different approach.

Here come the metaphors

This situation reminded me a lot of what it’s like to introduce a design sprint to a project. Above all, this visceral feeling of energy being sucked out of me and the struggle to catch up again triggered a lot of associations.

In a way projects are like a one way bike ride. There is a goal, ideally a shared one. There is a route with stages or at least directions. And we need to invest work to get there.

Also like with a project there are a lot of outside conditions we can’t control that can make our journey a lot harder or even put an end to it.

And just like a project, the best way to do this is in a group.

But this is just for setting the scene for the metaphor. Even though it would be fun to see how a bike ride would play out when it would be organised like some projects without a clear goal or directions. With people not riding in a group and helping each other out but everyone on their own like a relay race with none knowing the handover locations.

A design sprint is like pushing someone uphill…

Just like this experience of pushing my partner up the hill it takes a lot of work and conviction to introduce design sprints to a project.

First we need to find support and convince sceptics. We need to dig for time in slammed calendars and motivate people to make time to participate, which often means they need to ask for permission and support and convince sceptics themselves.

Of course we also design and prepare the workshop itself. We make sure we have access to the right knowledge and information for the “Understand” phase of our design sprint. We set the mood and help the participants overcome their anxiety about this unfamiliar kind of open and therefore vulnerable creativity. Then during the workshop we facilitate, motivate, encourage, mediate and constantly adjust and adapt.

In short: we will do everything to make it work and give people the strongest push we can. And from my experience I can say, for this push, it will work and everyone will really enjoy the experience or even get enthusiastic about the process and the incredible sense of perspective and purpose that comes with it.

But at the end of this stage, we will have less energy and it will be difficult for us to catch up and keep up the momentum. And we need to continue pushing forward to the top of the hill. Otherwise, this whole endeavour will just end up as an idea in an archive and a private memory of a good time.

The top of the hill

The top of the hill is the moment the first real user has our idea in their hands. But to get there, we have to make a few more pushes. We have to turn our idea into a testable prototype and recruit users and organise testing sessions. The biggest challenge here is to keep people motivated and engaged. Because the second time being pushed up a hill is never as exciting as the first time.

What I have learnt from this

What I like about metaphors is that they really help me to explore and expand my understanding of a topic. With this metaphor I have two main takes aways.

Choose your hills carefully

The steepness and height of the hill represent the challenge we are facing. Are there factors we can’t control like pressing deadlines, opposing business expectations, stakeholder politics, interpersonal conflicts or personal agendas? How great is the inertia? Are people actually interested, supportive and willing to participate? Maybe this hill is actually a mountain.

So it is also important to wait for a good opportunity to initiate a design sprint. Otherwise, there is a risk that we won’t make it to the top of the hill and our efforts will simply fizzle out.

It takes time to catch up

Especially in the early days of my design thinking career I thought that having a short design sprint is better than having no design sprint. So I would try to run a full sprint in two days or less.

Now my guiding principle is: If there is no time for a design sprint, then it is not time for a design sprint.

Not just because a design sprint is mentally exhausting for everyone but also because we as facilitators need time to catch up with the group after each push and still have energy for the next one. If we overpace ourselves, we won’t make it.

There are no shortcuts up a hill. So if there is no time for a design sprint, then it is not time for a design sprint.

Creativity needs consent

A last realisation is that for a design sprint we absolutely need the trust of supporters and participants. To use the metaphor again: If I were to simply ride up to a random person and start pushing them up a hill, it would certainly not go down well.

As I mentioned earlier, to be creative and curious in front of each other needs some courage to be vulnerable. And this requires a certain level of trust and psychological safety.

But when the conditions are right, introducing design sprints to your ways of working will turn your project into the best and most satisfying bike ride of your life.