Hypersprints™ will blow your mind and increase your lifespan

Or at least help your design team efficiently create concepts.

I think we can all agree: design sprints are great. Their virtues have been extolled in many an article and rightfully so.

The problem is that they don’t always work.

Sometimes, our design team here at Granify needs a quick solution to a problem we can’t really devote five days to. So we came up with an obvious solution: shorter sprints. We christened these frenetic mini sprints Hypersprints™.

With Hypersprints™, we have a system for resolving issues and coming up with quick concepts in only one afternoon. A mere four hours! That includes half an hour of break times, and by the end of the sprint, we have mockups to accompany our glorious ideas.

As an added bonus, the frantic pace is invigorating. Really makes you feel alive. At this point, you are probably asking yourself, “How can I implement such an impressive process at my organization?” And, “How could this possibly make me live longer?” To find the answer to these questions and much more… read on, dear reader.

Before I get too much further, a bit of background on Granify: We are a small startup based in Edmonton, Alberta with teams in Austin and New York. Despite our diminutive stature, we do some pretty huge things. Leveraging such impressive buzz words as “big data”, “machine learning” and “artificial intelligence”, we work with some of the biggest eCommerce clients around. Our data science and development teams do the real wizardry with that stuff, but the design team is tasked with crafting innovative messages to address shoppers’ concerns in real time.

The benefit of getting to work with big clients is that we have access to data… a lot of data. We are busy bees creating these messages for a wide range of clientele that obviously have different needs because their shoppers are all quite unique. With that in mind, we are always experimenting with what works best, refining, and then trying new stuff. Sometimes though, we are asked to come up with a new experiment very quickly.

Seems like a perfect time for a… Hypersprint™. Here’s how it breaks down:

STEP 1: Determine the problem. Time allocated: 70 minutes

• Using methods previously established by our UXWG (User Xperience Working Group, pronounced UHX-WIG), we set out to tackle the problem head on. These previously determined methods allow us to iterate quickly and effectively, and we’re always exploring new ways to ascertain the problem.
• Make sure you don’t start thinking of solutions during this step. It can be very tempting to think of a problem and go off on a tangent about how to solve it. That isn’t the objective of this step! You should be exploring a lot of different problems until you figure out exactly what the main issue is.
• To kick off the sprint, the facilitator (person in charge of the sprint) gives a bit of background on the client, informs the team of what they are hoping to accomplish and shares any relevant research thus far.
• In our case, we need to figure out why a shopper might not buy from a particular online retailer. We take 10 minutes to write down any potential barriers to a customer. Prepare to use a lot of sticky notes, folks.

• Review and sort the barriers as a team. Group the similar objections and rank the top three based on the number of stickies.
• Once you’ve established the top three objections, drill down even further and determine what the number one problem is through group discussion. Be open and honest with each other! Everyone should get a chance to speak.
• Once you’ve figured out the main problem, it’s time to move on to step 2! But first, take a 10 minute break to keep fresh. Stretch to keep the mind and body firm and limber.

STEP 2: Find a solution. Time allocated: 70 minutes

• Using methods previously established by our PSWG (Problem Solving Working Group, pronounced PISS-WIG), we dive into the basis of the entire design sprint: solving a problem.
• Designate someone to capture all of the genius on a whiteboard.
• We’ll typically start off with a group brainstorm. Keep it loose and freewheelin’. There are no bad ideas here! Someone could say something completely off the wall that sparks an incredible idea in someone else. That being said, the facilitator should keep everyone on track.

• One of my favourite methods of problem solving is “concept inversion”. Basically, for every proposed solution, consider what would happen if you took an inverse action/emotion. So if you come up with a solution that is based around fear (“Don’t miss out on this amazing sale!”), ask what would happen if you took the opposite approach and figured out a solution based around hope instead? For example: “You’ll look great in this top, and you’ll save money since it’s on sale!”
• After figuring out some possible solutions to your problem, have a quick discussion/recap to make sure everyone is on the same page and make a decision on which one you’ll pursue.
• Time for a 10 minute break before the final step! Grab some water and go for a quick walk around the office to stay hydrated and limber.

STEP 3: Create mockups. Time allocated: 70 minutes

• By now you may have guessed that we have a Visual Design Working Group and an accompanying acronym. VDWG (pronounced VID-WIG) is responsible for establishing guidelines on how to most efficiently use this time.
• I’d recommend taking a couple minutes to use the whiteboard with a big marker to figure out the wireframes and figure out the logistics of how your solution will be visually implemented.
• Then, split up and create some mockups using your favourite graphical design software. We here at Granify use Figma, which means we can simultaneously be working in the same file. It’s amazing. More information about it here.
• We take about 45 mins to do some quick mockups independently, and then we all come together in Figma and start riffing on each other’s stuff until the time is up. By that point, we have a fairly fleshed out mockup that can be polished later.

• Celebrate by eating something healthy like celery and dancing around the office to keep limber. Take a moment to reflect on all you have achieved in your life.

That’s it! Obviously your organization may need to alter things slightly, but if you follow these three simple steps you too can embrace the power of Hypersprint™ to find solutions to all of your problems. As an added bonus, by keeping hydrated, eating plenty of celery and most importantly staying limber: your lifespan will surely be dramatically prolonged.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let me know down below! I’d love to hear if you try a Hypersprint™, mostly so that I can collect royalties. This is my first blog post so don’t forget to hit that ‘Recommend’ button to validate my existence!