At its core, a Design Sprint is a tool for answering a critical business question. Throughout the first day the team will explore the problem space from many angles. After generating a range of ideas, and before deciding what to prototype, we have found it valuable to list out all the assumptions that your concepts are based on; this helps to identify the key questions that your Sprint will help you answer.

The key benefit of a sprint is gaining Validation that the product ideas you have really meet your user’s needs. This Validation is what makes a sprint a time-saving device. Once you gain learnings and validate your concepts you know you won’t be wasting time building anything that your users won’t use.

Directions:

Time: 15 min
Activity: Group

1. After each person presents their Solution Sketch, as a group, list out the assumptions that are underlying the concepts.
2. Re-state them as questions you want to answer.
3. Prioritize as a group the top 3 that the team would like to answer with the sprint.

For example:
Assumption: This voice activated interface assumes users are comfortable speaking to their phone. Question: Do users feel comfortable speaking to their phone?