Sprint – How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

I finished recently Sprint – How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days (Jake Knapp with John Zeratsky & Braden Kowitz, 2016, 288 pages). And I think this is a great book, that fits perfectly well in the bibliography for Product Discovery, which I’ve been fascinated about in recent times.

To start with, the book is based on lots of first-hand experience by the authors running over 100 sprints in total, and having adjusted several details on how to go about doing it.

The book brings not only the rationale behind why one should to run such a Design sprint, but it also breaks the sprint down to the hour level describing all the activities involved.

Behind the idea for a sprint lays the strategic value involved in picking some great hypothesis about a product or service, prototyping one or two possible solutions, and testing them against real users. This is at the core of Product Discovery, but this book makes it very concrete for someone looking for where to start.

I love how the process goes away from group thinking and traditional brainstorming sessions to actually cater for both learning from the experts, to sketching of solutions individually, to reviewing them efficiently in group, to gathering real feedback from real potential users.

Add to it some sprinkles of good stories from real-life sprints the authors have run themselves, and the mix is a great book for anyone trying to move away from “old” practices into modern ways of organizing tech product teamwork.