The magic of design sprints

Who says actuaries are only reclusive backroom operative gurus? As an actuary working in microinsurance, particularly one who is working as part of the ILO’s Impact Insurance Fellowship programme, this is certainly not the case. More often than not, we are challenged to apply our creative juices and stretch our imaginations as part of our innovation projects.

At the beginning of the year, MicroEnsure formed Innovation Labs in Kenya, Ghana and India. As a Fellow I have had the valuable opportunity to work alongside the Kenya Innovation Lab team and to be part of several of their exhilarating design sprints.

So what exactly is a Design Sprint?

Developed by Google Ventures, a design sprint is a unique process to move from a challenging problem to a product prototype. All businesses are faced with big questions everyday: Where in our business should we focus our efforts, and how do we start? Will our new product idea excite our customers? How can we tackle the big problems faced by our industry?

A design sprint is a practical process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas with final users and customers. It is promoted as a fun and productive way to solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days.

So what’s so magical about a design sprint?

· The power of time constraints!

That’s right, you read it correctly: having a tight deadline is one of the reasons this works! With only four days to prepare for a real-life customer product test on Friday, the team must work as quickly and efficiently as possible. With little time on your hands, you can’t afford to overthink ideas or let your focus stray from the most important aspects of the design.

Surprisingly, the best work actually happens in short bursts and with a tight deadline.

· Stop brain-storming!

Whilst group brainstorming, where everyone shouts out ideas, is a lot of fun, the new ideas often don’t go anywhere. A key concept of a design sprint is shortcutting endless debate through “silent voting” for the best idea. With the right team in the room — including the most important decision makers for the project — a design sprint compresses months of work into a single week.

· Learn from real-life customers

Failing early is the key to success. The Design Sprint allows you to fast-forward to witness your finished product and customers’ reactions to it before making any expensive commitments. By interviewing your customers and watching them react to your prototype, the next steps become clear.

We are still learning, but, like us, I hope you and your product design team have a happy time sprinting!