Design Sprint is a development method which is mainly used for development or improvement of digital products. Google Ventures (GV) created the Sprint process which has been used by countless successful startups and companies. Design Sprint is a 5 days process which covers getting insights, ideation, selection, prototyping, and testing if new ideas.
On GV’s website, the Design Sprint is explained as follows:
It’s a “greatest hits” of business strategy, innovation, behavior science, Design Thinking, and more, packaged into a battle-tested process that any team can use.
Introduction to Design Sprint:
Before the Sprint process, companies – including Google itself – were spending a huge amount of time and money following the traditional ways of making products. In the conventional method, you may launch a product based on an idea. Then you collect the customers’ feedback and start implementing changes or improvements. This is a time consuming process and requires significant amount of investment.
The idea behind the Design Sprint (or just Sprint as its short form) is to reduce the required resources during this process. At the same time, collect validated customer feedback as preliminary market evaluation. This is how Design Sprint shows successful results in the majority of cases even in the very first product launch.

Compared to the traditional methods, Design Sprint tends to be very short and quick. That is actually why it is called a “Sprint”. It is like a shortcut to collect the market feedback, learn from it and make noticeable improvements and adjustments in the first product launch. Implementing customer feedback, at the earliest possible rather than investing time, money and other resources to achieve to the same point the hard way!
Working together in a sprint, you can shortcut the endless-debate cycle and compress months of time into a single week. Instead of waiting to launch a minimal product to understand if an idea is any good, you’ll get clear data from a realistic prototype. The sprint gives you a superpower: You can fast-forward into the future to see your finished product and customer reactions, before making any expensive commitments.
_ Quotation from Google Ventures’ official website for Design Sprint.
Quick History:
In 2010, former Google Ventures design partner Jake Knapp begins running design sprints at Google. He worked with teams like Chrome, Google Search and Google X. In 2012, Jake brings sprints to GV and the rest of the GV team chipped in their expertise to perfect the process.
Braden Kowitz added story-centered design. It’s an unconventional approach that focuses on the customer journey instead of individual features or technologies.
Michael Margolis took customer research which can typically take weeks to plan and often delivers confusing results. In return, he figured out a way to get crystal clear results in just ONE day.
John Zeratsky helped the process with his “start at the end” concept. He put the focus on measuring results with the key metrics from each business.
Daniel Burka brought firsthand expertise as an entrepreneur to ensure every step made sense in the real world.
Applications:
Many companies and startups have successfully used Sprint in their products. Google, Facebook, Slack, Flatiron Health, Nest, and Blue Bottle Coffee are among more than 150 tech giants who run Sprints. You can read more about whom and how have used this process in their product in Sprint Stories website.





Content credits for slides: Google Ventures
There are many online resources like websites and media as well as books and articles taliking about Sprint, explaining it or even trying to teach the process. All these materials seem to be helpful for individuals or organisations searching for development methods. However, it should be reminded that running a successful Sprint session is a professional skill and requires extreme experience.
So if Design Sprint sounds the right tool for you, don’t forget about the most important parameter for getting reliable results and achieve what you were planning for! “Collaborate with companies or organisations who are professionally running Sprint sessions as a service”.
For more information on the method and to check the availability of workshops, see this page.