It used to take companies weeks to brainstorm, write specs, publish RFPs, and get started on projects. With a design sprint, it’s possible to accomplish all that—plus sketching, prototyping, and validating big ideas—in just 5 days. Sound too good to be true? We partnered with InVision to help teams learn how exactly to run their own design sprint. Follow these tips and by the end of your sprint, you’ll have live, targeted customer validation so you know exactly what to prioritize in your product roadmap.

1. www.newhaircut.com
Preparing Your First
Design Sprint

2. Jay Melone
CEO

4. To help you understand the
process of a design sprint.
OBJECTIVE

5. What is a
Design Sprint?

6. A 5-day design framework for
validating ideas and solving big
challenges.

7. Under what
conditions should
you run a sprint?
When you’re trying to move fast
When big challenges need solving
When you’re stuck

8. How can a sprint
help with digital
projects?
To validate new features
To validate entirely new solutions
To validate new markets

9. Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri
UNDERSTAND IDEATE DECIDE PROTOTYPE TEST
DESIGN SPRINT WEEK

10. FACILITATOR MARKETING EXPERT
TECH EXPERT DESIGN EXPERTFINANCIAL EXPERT
DECIDER
DESIGN SPRINT TEAM

11. 2Honor the
Facilitator’s
directions.
DESIGN SPRINT RULES
The Decider
ultimately
decides.
No devices in
the room.
1 3

12. Improve the gift shopping
experience
A SPECIFIC CHALLENGE: GIFTY

13. Why was this worth
solving?
We all buy gifts for friends & family
We’ve all forgotten to buy at least 1 gift
Buying gifts is time-consuming
Buying the perfect gift is hard

14. Monday = Map

15. Imagine where you want to be in 6-12
months from now. Remove all limitations.
SET A LONG TERM GOAL

16. Help people buy the perfect gift for
every occasion.
GIFTY'S LONG TERM GOAL

17. ? ? ?
SPRINT QUESTIONS
To meet our long-
term goal, what has
to be true?
What would both
success and failure
look like?
How will we
measure success
(KPIs)?

18. ? ? ?
“HELP PEOPLE BUY THE PERFECT GIFT FOR EVERY OCCASION”
? ?
Will the app
recommend suitable
gifts?
Will we be able to
get the best deals?
Will people share
their personal
information?
Will the users trust
the app?
Will searching be
easy?

19. Make a map
Keep it simple: five to fifteen steps.
Cus󰉃󰈡󰈛󰇵r 1 Ste󰈥1
Ste󰈥1 Ste󰈥2
Ste󰈥2 Ste󰈥3 Pro󰇷󰉉󰇸t G󰈢a󰈗
Cus󰉃󰈡󰈛󰇵r 2

20. “HELP PEOPLE BUY THE PERFECT GIFT FOR EVERY OCCASION”
Cus󰉃󰈡󰈛󰇵r
Set 󰉇󰈸󰈎󰇵󰈞d󰈻 &
Fam󰈎󰈗󰉙 Pr󰈢fi󰈗e󰈼
Set E󰉏󰈩󰈞t󰈻
Get 󰉂󰈎󰈃
Sug󰈇󰈩󰈼t󰈏o󰈝󰈼
Buy 󰉂󰈎󰈃

21. Ask the experts
Interview experts on your sprint team and guests
from the outside.
How might we?
With this technique, you take notes in the form of a
question, beginning with the words “How might
we . . . ?”
???
!!!

22. Cus󰉃󰈡󰈛󰇵r
Set 󰉇󰈸󰈎󰇵󰈞d󰈻 &
Fam󰈎󰈗󰉙 Pr󰈢fi󰈗e󰈼
Set E󰉏󰈩󰈞t󰈻
Get 󰉂󰈎󰈃
Sug󰈇󰈩󰈼t󰈏o󰈝󰈼
Buy 󰉂󰈎󰈃
“HELP PEOPLE BUY THE PERFECT GIFT FOR EVERY OCCASION”
Pick a target

23. Tuesday = Sketch

24. Lightning Demos
Research and collect outside inspiration.

25. The Four-Step Sketch
EVERYONE SKETCHES
1.
1.
2.
2. 3. 4.
TAKE NOTES DODDLE IDEAS CRAZY 8s SOLUTIONS

26. Crazy 8s
Each person takes his or her strongest ideas and
rapidly sketches 8 variations in 8 minutes.

27. Solution Sketch
Make it self-explanatory
Keep it anonymous + catchy
Ugly is ok
Language is important

30. Wednesday = Decide

31. Picking Winners
Hang solutions on walls, silently review, stickies ftw,
critique as a group, vote.
Storyboard
Turn the winning sketch(es) into a storyboard.

33. Thursday = Prototype

34. Prototype
Turn the storyboard into a realistic prototype.

35. Try tools the whole team is familiar with.

36. Assign Prototyping Roles
ASSET COLLECTOR BUILDER STITCHER
A...A...
WORDSMITH INTERVIEWER

37. Friday = Test

38. Test Prototype
Five 1-on-1 customer interviews will reveal patterns.

40. What are the
possible outcomes
of a sprint?
Successfully validated
Partially validated
Invalidated

41. Meet Duco
Your practical guide to running your own
design sprints.
duco.newhaircut.com

42. Q&A
newhaircut.com/services/design-sprint
designsprint.newhaircut.com
@jaymelone | jay@newhaircut.com
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