November 26, 2024

CurledMark

curled up on the sofa

Sprint book is about how to solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days. The authors Jake John and Braden Kowitz of the book Sprint worked for Google Ventures.

Google Ventures takes 300 million dollars of Google’s money and invests that money in start-ups but they do not simply give the company’s money and walk away.

They are continually helping companies develop new products and solve big problems but because there are so many companies they invest in and so many products they can develop, needed to develop a rapid method for solving problems. So they came up with a refined Sprint method.

This is the method that you can use to solve problems that have high stakes, not enough time, or you are just completely stuck. This method can be used to test out the new business idea.

  1. Setup

Gather some supplies, a team of fewer than seven people, whiteboard, pens, and elect a decider.

The decider is the person who is ultimately responsible for the outcome. It is commonly the product manager.

Sprint Book Summary by Santwana Mohanty

  1. Schedule five days in a calendar from Monday to Friday 10 am to 5 pm.
  2. Lastly, you need to set up five interviews with end-users or target customers. This will be conducted on Friday, the last day of the sprint.

Sprint Methodology

A five-day sprint starts on Monday.

  • The team maps out in great detail the customer journey.
  • Then, invites experts to provide their input.
  • They finally decide on one well-defined objective for the week, one thing that’s critical and can be tested.

On Tuesday

  • Team sketches out possible solutions without criticizing or making any decisions.
  • All ideas are considered as a brainstorming session.

On Wednesday

  • The team decides.
  • Each member goes around and votes with a sticker on the ideas white boarded around the room.
  • The winning idea gets carefully storyboarded in even greater detail.

On Thursday

  • The storyboard gets converted into a prototype in the most efficient way possible.
  • You do not need to code or manufacture anything
  • Figure out the absolute minimum that will give your customers an accurate representation of the idea so they could provide feedback.

On Friday

  • The idea in any competing versions is put to the test.
  • A good interviewer guides the customers through the idea without imposing any biases.
  •  All the while the team watches the reactions through a camera, taking notes.
  •  At the end of the day, they compare notes and break down to lessons of the sprint.

Conclusion

The five-day sprint applies to pretty much any type of project and its success is predicated on getting the right team in place identifying the right challenge so it’s not too broad and setting aside the time and effort to focus on the problem.

Obviously, you cannot run every decision through a five-day sprint because you need to run a business but it can accelerate the key decisions and set your company on the right path.

Also, read

The Power of Patience

The Unfair Advantage

The Power of Now

Time Management Ninja Book

Learn Better

Emotional Intelligence

48 Laws of Power

Financial Freedom

Still Me

Think and Grow Rich

Make Time

So good they can’t ignore you

You are a Badass At Making Money

Man’s Search For Meaning

The Great Gatsby

The Forty Rules of Love Summary

The Norwegian Wood by Murakami Summary

Relentless Summary

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown Summary

The Book Of Five Rings Summary

The Blue Umbrella