Book profile

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

A step-by-step playbook for running a five-day 'sprint' that lets teams answer their most important questions by prototyping and testing ideas with real customers before committing significant time and money.

Sprint distills the methods Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, and Braden Kowitz developed and refined across 100+ engagements at Google Ventures into a practical, day-by-day guide for solving big problems fast. Instead of endless meetings, churning email, and months-long projects built on untested assumptions, a sprint compresses the work into a single focused week: Monday you map the problem and pick a target, Tuesday you sketch competing solutions, Wednesday you decide which to test, Thursday you build a realistic façade-style prototype, and Friday you put it in front of five target customers and learn. Rich with stories—a hotel-delivery robot, a coffee company's online store, a cancer-trial matching tool, fitness software, and workplace messaging—the book shows that any challenge, no matter how large, can benefit because you solve the surface first and learn the hard way without the hard way. It's a book for experts and beginners alike who have a big opportunity or problem and need to start with confidence.

The model

A causal framework in which structured design levers and team conditions produce focused team states (shared understanding, concrete solutions, honest customer reactions) that drive validated learning and confident decisions, ultimately reducing risk and accelerating progress toward business goals.

Frameworks you can use

Solve the surface first, then work backward to underlying systems.
Nobody knows everything—unlock distributed knowledge through expert interviews.
Concrete beats abstract: sketch ideas to evaluate them fairly.
Work alone together instead of group brainstorming.
Adopt the prototype mindset: anything can be prototyped, prototypes are disposable, build just enough to learn.
Get honest reactions, not feedback, by making prototypes appear real.

Chapters

Set the Stage — This chapter argues that effective problem-solving begins with a clear understanding of the challenge and assembling the right team in an optimal environment.
Monday — This chapter concentrates on establishing a concrete framework for kick-starting a productive workweek by emphasizing the importance of setting long-term goals and targeted actions.
Tuesday — This chapter focuses on the importance of remixing and improving upon existing ideas rather than relying solely on original concepts, urging professionals to sketch detailed solutions to foster innovation.
Wednesday — In the quest for innovation, Wednesday's process emphasizes structured decision-making, the vitality of competing ideas, and a clear storyboard to ensure that prototypes effectively address user needs while avoiding the pitfalls of groupthink.
Challenge — This chapter explores how the Blue Bottle Coffee team leveraged a design sprint to navigate the complexities of launching an online store, transforming a significant business challenge into an opportunity for innovation.
Team — A successful sprint requires the right mix of team members, led by a decisive leader, to navigate complex challenges efficiently.
Time and Space — In a world of constant interruptions and fragmented attention, this chapter argues for the structured approach of design sprints to reclaim productivity and foster meaningful work.
Start at the End — This chapter emphasizes the importance of establishing a clear long-term goal and addressing potential pitfalls before diving into problem-solving, drawing inspiration from the Apollo 13 mission's structured approach in crisis.
Map — Creating a simple map to visualize complex business challenges can significantly improve understanding and streamline processes, much like how a physical map guides readers through the intricate world of "The Lord of the Rings."
Ask the Experts — This chapter argues that assembling a diverse pool of expert insights is essential for tackling complex challenges, emphasizing that distributed knowledge across a team can significantly enhance understanding and solution-generation.
Target — This chapter discusses the process of identifying a critical focus for a design sprint, emphasizing the importance of selecting a specific customer and key moment around which all subsequent project work revolves.
Remix and Improve — This chapter argues that true innovation often arises from remixing and improving existing ideas rather than attempting to create something entirely new, emphasizing a structured approach to gather inspirations through techniques like Lightning Demos.
Sketch — In this chapter, the focus on sketching as a collaborative and individual tool challenges traditional brainstorming methods, advocating for a structured approach to generating concrete solutions from abstract ideas.
Decide — In an era where endless discussions often lead to indecision or dissatisfaction, this chapter presents a structured decision-making process designed to foster efficiency and clarity in team settings.
Rumble — This chapter introduces the concept of the "Rumble," a testing method that allows teams to explore multiple conflicting ideas simultaneously through prototyping, enabling data-driven decision-making without premature compromises.
Storyboard — The process of crafting a detailed storyboard is crucial in ensuring that prototypes not only function well but also resonate with user expectations before the testing phase.
Fake It — This chapter argues for the pragmatic value of creating a realistic façade or prototype to test ideas quickly, emphasizing the benefits of early feedback over attachment to a long development process.
Prototype — In this chapter, the authors present a structured approach to prototyping that emphasizes the importance of selecting the right tools and effectively collaborating within a diverse team to create a realistic, functional representation of an idea.
Small Data — This chapter argues for the power of small data, advocating that even a handful of user interviews can reveal critical insights into customer behavior and preferences, as demonstrated through a compelling anecdote about the publishing of Harry Potter.
Interview — This chapter demystifies the art of conducting effective customer interviews, centered around Michael Margolis's structured approach that illuminates user experiences and uncovers critical feedback.
Learn — The culmination of a design sprint involves gathering insights from real customers, allowing teams to learn rapidly whether their prototypes meet user needs or require swift iteration.

Key terms

Big Challenge Selection: The choice to direct the sprint at an important, high-stakes, urgent, or stuck problem worthy of the team's full effort.
Decider Engagement: The active, authoritative involvement of an empowered decision-maker who provides vision and makes binding decisions.
Team Diversity and Expertise: The cross-functional makeup and relevant knowledge of a small sprint team.
Focused Time and Space: The structural conditions—cleared week, timeboxed days, no devices, whiteboard-rich room—that concentrate attention.
Problem Framing and Target: The Monday alignment artifacts—long-term goal, sprint questions, map—and the single chosen target customer and moment.
Shared Understanding: Aligned, common comprehension across the team of the problem, customer, opportunity, and risk.
Concrete Solution Generation: The individual creation of detailed, self-explanatory solution sketches that make abstract ideas concrete.
Structured Decision Making: The disciplined Wednesday process for selecting solutions quickly without groupthink.