Starting to prepare for your first Google Design Sprint can be both and exiting and overwhelming venture. Developed by Jake Knapp at Google Ventures, the Google Design Sprint is a five day process that helps businesses, large and small, solve critical problems through ideation, prototyping, and testing. Being fully prepared for your sprint is crucial to ensure that your sprint activities are efficient and impactful. It will set you up for success and allow you to navigate any issues that come up.

Here’s how to get started:

Understand the Sprint Framework

Before you start planning, you have to understand the structure of a design sprint. Sprints are usually a five day process where each day tackles one piece of the process:

• Monday: Map out your problem and pick a target to focus on.
• Tuesday: Brainstorm and sketch out competing solutions.
• Wednesday: Decide on the best solution to your problem.
• Thursday: Build a medium to high fidelity prototype.
• Friday: Test your prototype with real users/customers.

If you want to delve deeper in your understanding of the sprint process, consider reading Jake Knapp’s book Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days. You can also take a look at Google’s Design Sprint Kit for more resources and templates for each phase.

Assemble the Right Team

A successful sprint relies on a diverse and cross-functional team. Knapp recommends to keep your team limited to five to seven members. Any more than that can get overwhelming and stall the process. A solid sprint team should include at least one of the following:

• Facilitator: The facilitator guides the team through the sprint process. They must remain unbiased and can be hired outside of your company.
• Decider: The decider makes final decisions and has a deep understanding of the problem. They are usually the company’s CEO or other leaders.
• Designer: The designer is the one who brings the ideas visually to life.
• Engineer: The engineer offers technical know-how and helps to create realistic solutions to the problem.
• Product Manager: The product manager ensures the sprint outcome aligns with the business’s goals.
• Marketing Expert: The marketing expert provides insights to customer engagement and marketing trends.

It’s important that all members of your sprint team are fully available for the entire duration of the sprint. Try to schedule your sprint for five consecutive days, as time off in between can stop any momentum.

Define a Clear Challenge and Do Your Research

A sprint can only be successful if you set yourself up with a clear and reasonable challenge. Use your sprint to solve one, critical problem that the business is facing. This will allow your sprint team to have a direct goal and ensure a productive outcome.

The first phase of a sprint includes a research phase, but as the coordinator of the sprint you should come prepared with preliminary research for your team to get a head start. Gather existing product data, user feedback, and market analysis related to the problem you’re trying to solve. Having good background information will jump start discussions and help your team make educated decisions.

Prepare Your Workspace and Materials

Set up a dedicated, distraction free workspace for your team to collaborate in everyday. Conference rooms or secluded offices with ample seating and whiteboard space work the best. Knapp also recommends setting a no device rule when in the sprint space. That means no checking emails, Slack messages, or working on other projects. If they need to check in with other projects, they may do so on breaks or to step outside of the room. This ensures that your team is fully dedicated and focused on the sprint tasks.

Before the start of your sprint prepare your space with the following materials:

• Large whiteboards and markers
• Sticky notes in various colors
• Voting dots in various colors
• Prototyping tools whether digital or physical
• Healthy snacks and plenty of water to keep energy levels high

If you are conducting a remote sprint, make sure all digital tools are prepared and accessible to all team members.

Schedule User Testing in Advance

User testing is done on the final day of the sprint, but recruiting test subjects can take a lot of time. Having the process complete before the start of the sprint means that you will have your users locked in and ready for when Friday comes. It also gives you a bit of a buffer to find new participants in the event someone can’t make it anymore. Aim to have a diverse group of your target audience as participants in order to get comprehensive feedback.

Adopt the Right Mindset

Engaging in a sprint can feel overwhelming when it’s your first time. Going in to the process with an open mind is imperative to its success. There will be uncertainty and diverse perspectives, but remember that the goal is to learn and improve. Nothing will be perfect on the first try. When you come prepared with your research and materials, you will be well equipped to drive meaningful innovation.