Google Design Sprints are becoming more and more popular in our agency and globally as technology, communication, marketing and device challenges expand into more sophisticated landscapes to cut through and stand out. When BIG questions or opportunities arise in your organisation / market, a strategic session (or sessions) are often the only way to future-proof the larger investment on a project. A Google Design Sprint is a 5-day process to answer business or organisational questions through mapping, sketching solutions, decision making, prototyping and real testing. Like all strategic planning, the Google Design Sprint leverages the best of innovation, behavioural science, design methods and technology mindsets for ongoing and highly beneficial outcomes.
&Mine, a long time Google partner, follows the Google Ventures Design Sprint Methodology closely and combines learnings from our long history of strategy, planning, VC (venture capital) decks and presentations, commercialised software engineering and design projects. &Mine have applied a range of commercial paradigms to successfully develop market-ready, customer centred projects. Alongside the core architecture of the Google Design Sprint, we draw from other seasoned methods which have formed part of our innovation, business and design thinking for over a decade including; the MoSCoW method (Must have, Should have, Could have, and Would like but won’t get) for prioritisation of deliverables and the Lean Canvas 1-Page Methodology for its focus around commercialisation of products.
As a Google Design Sprint may be out of scope for some projects or budgets, our current offering across strategic commercialisation include a wide variety of like services, including;
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Initial Planning and Strategic Meetings
(1 or a few hours, 1 or a few sessions)
These often culminate into clear briefings and define the digital landscape with respect to a market segment, product and or service proposition. These are great sessions to include during a long term project to realign expectations and understand how projects are moving towards clear commercial or communication goals.
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Commercialisation Sessions & Documentation
(10 – 50 hours, multiple days, over a week or up to a month)
Leveraging the Google Design Sprint, but tightening up the hours required (as often a full week with 5-7 people in a design sprint is unmanageable for time-poor businesses), &Mine have developed a leaner strategy process which can be run consecutively or spread out over multiple weeks to account for key stakeholders’ availability. The emphasis of our commercialisation sessions is to draw out our client’s intentions and align them with digital and business reality, the focus strongly orientated to &Mine delivering venture capital (VC) documentation, digitally-orientated business plans, or design and functional specifications.
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Mini Design Sprints
(10 – 20 hours, usually over 1 or 2 days maximum)
Our mini-sprints leverage some of the key aspects of Full Google Design Sprints and leverage other teaching and commercial strategies to shortcut the overall Sprint recommendation. A full Google Design Sprint will explore the challenges in finer detail and render more rounded results, but the Mini Design Sprints were born out of a necessity for clients to benefit from the Sprint Methodology when resources and time are major barriers. Our facilitation differs significantly in the Mini Design Sprints, where the Facilitator also helps lead decisions, on behalf of or with the Decision Maker from a typical 5 day sprint.
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Google Design Sprints
(100-160 hours, 5 Days)
Our Google Design Sprint facilitation seamlessly manages the process and team, develops tailored schedules and keeps the time and outcomes aligned. We have run sessions internally and externally, and we have built and refined our custom boardroom specifically to handle Google Design Sprints, but ultimately we leave venue choice up to the client. Once the joint project team is clear and venue selected, roles are defined and shared before the meeting as part of the design sprint setup documentation. Facilitation is aligned with our clients’ brief and manages the Sprint only shaving a few aspects out of the Google Ventures process, which are often overkill (for example, prototype naming: as long as we are all agreed on positive names, chewing up 15 minutes voting on names is precious time better used elsewhere). We also foster a positive room atmosphere, as Sprints are intense and deal with a lot of content. We tap into and retain the positive momentum from the first minute to the last.
All of our strategic sessions encompass &Mine’s philosophy to maximise online and offline strategies. We are invested in our clients’ goals and we set clear paths for future-proofing, adaptability, measurement and attribution, but most importantly real-world results.
To find out more about the Full Google Design Sprint, visit Google Ventures, Design Sprint http://www.gv.com/sprint/ or better still, grab a copy of SPRINT by Jake Knapp – Buy on Amazon
To facilitate your own Google Design Sprint, but get a little help or direction on how to conduct a sprint, we are more than happy to help build the innovation landscape in Australia. Let’s grab a coffee and we will share what we know.
If you would like to discuss a strategic session or project at &Mine, please contact us to discuss the opportunity. We are also black and white, sounding out ideas and new concepts to see if they are good ones or not. If they warrant further time and strategy, we can give you very quick and clear reasons why they might not be worth pursuing, and save you a ton of money / effort.
Google Design Sprints in Melbourne, Sydney at &Mine