Template

Design sprint kickoff template

The first morning of a design sprint: agree the long-term goal and the questions that could sink it, map the problem, hear from experts, and choose the one moment to work on this week.

90 minutesFor A decider, a facilitator and five to seven people from product, design, engineering and the businessAgenda room
Change the agenda first

The agenda, with a time for each part

  1. The long-term goal15 min
    • Two years from now, why will this have worked?
  2. Questions that could sink it15 min
    • To meet that goal, what has to be true?
    • What could stop us?
  3. Map the problem20 min
    • Who are the customers, and what steps do they take to reach the goal?
  4. Ask the experts25 min
    • What do you know about this that the rest of us do not?
  5. Choose the target15 min
    • Which customer and which moment on the map do we focus on this week?

How the notes read afterwards

A made-up example, so you can see the shape. In a real call each line carries the words that were said and who said them.

Goal. Twice as many new customers still active after 30 days.

Sprint questions. Will people finish setup without help? Will they invite their team?

Target. A new customer on day one, between signing up and their first real project.

Friday. Test a prototype of a guided first project with five new customers.

Running it well

Ways to change it

Four daysCombine mapping and sketching on the first day, and test on day four.
RemoteShorter days over a longer week, with a shared board and timers visible to everyone.

When to skip it. If the answer is already known and only needs building, a sprint is a week spent confirming it.

Questions

What is a design sprint?

A five-day process for answering a big product question by mapping the problem, sketching ideas, choosing one, building a realistic prototype and testing it with customers.

Who created the design sprint?

Jake Knapp developed it at Google and then Google Ventures, and described it in the book Sprint.

Who should be on a design sprint team?

A decider who can make the call, a facilitator, and five to seven people with different skills — product, design, engineering, marketing or sales, and customer-facing staff.

What happens in the room

Everybody joins from the link, with no account. The agenda sits beside the call and each item fills in with what was said about it, under the name of the person who said it.

More templates

Team charter workshopA team writes down, together, why it exists, what it is responsible for, how it makes decisions and how it works — so new people and other teams know what to expect.BrainstormLots of ideas first, judging second — and pictures drawn from what people say.Training sessionTeach one thing so that people can do it by the end — shown, tried, and checked.SWOT analysis workshopStrengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats — written by everybody, sorted together, and turned into three things to do.PremortemBefore a project starts: imagine it has failed badly, write down every reason why, and change the plan to stop the likeliest ones.Customer journey mapping workshopMap every step a customer goes through — from first hearing about you to renewing or leaving — with what they do, feel and need at each one, and find the worst moments to fix first.Feature kickoffBefore work starts on a feature: everyone who will build, test, launch and support it hears why it matters, what done looks like, and what is deliberately left out.Launch planning meetingA few weeks before a launch: who hears about it, in what order, through which channels, what each team must have ready, and the one date everyone works back from.

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