The best way to learn how to do a Design Sprint is to do a Design sprint

Regional education center Noorderpoort asked us to teach them how to do Design Sprints. Well there is only one way: just do it.

Fans of Design Thinking

The digital communications ladies of Noorderpoort: Nelleke, Wil and Annemarie are big fans of Design Thinking. They first experienced it a few years ago when we introduced the methodology in a website redesign project we were doing together. Once they experienced a Design Sprint they knew they had to use this method more in their own organization so they came up with a plan to implement it.

The learning plan

They started by organizing 2 hour inspiration sessions to introduce Design Thinking. Every employee of Noorderpoort could enter to get a first impression. People that were interested could sign up to enter the learning program. The goal of the learning plan was to educate a group of people that could facilitate and participate in internal Design Sprints to solve all kinds of business problems.

Which skills did we need to teach?

In order to run a successful Design Sprint you need:

• A facilitator who exactly knows the steps and exercises
• A designer who can make a prototype
• A researcher who can discover what clients need

Don’t let the terms designer and researcher scare you. We believe everyone has those skills in them, it’s just useful to know what kind of tasks to do and what kinds of tools to use. For example: a designer doesn’t need to master a design tool like Photoshop or Sketch. We have seen the nicest looking prototypes been built with Powerpoint, Keynote or even Paint. You just need to visualize it in a way that you test it with users.

The learning program

The learning program we developed together with Noorderpoort was aiming for less talk and theory and more action and doing. We came up with a fake challenge and let the group experience a Design Sprint from beginning to end in just 2 days.

We deliberately chose a challenge that had nothing to do with their work field in order to make it clear that we were there to learn the methodology and that finding a solution came second in this case.

In those 2 days we walked them through the Design Sprint steps and exercises. It was even more of pressure cooker than a Design Sprint already is but it was a good first introduction.

Outcome

After the training everyone got a taste of how it feels to do a Design Sprint, the speed, the time pressure, the excitement and the creativity. The only thing they had left to do is to plan their first real Design Sprint week!

Sounds interesting?

Do you want to learn how to do a Design Sprint too? Or you want to you to plan a Design Sprint with your company? E-mail to renate@wemarch.nl or first have a look at our website.