At Google Ventures, we have a five-day process for taking a product or feature from design through prototyping and testing. We call it a product design sprint. This is the third in a series of seven posts on running your own design sprint.
Now that you know when to get your team together for a sprint and how to set one up, it’s time to tackle the first day of the sprint: understanding.
Chances are that everyone involved in the sprint has different perspectives on the problem — and different information that might be helpful. The goal of the first day is to encourage everyone to share what they already know and develop a common understanding with the rest of the group. By starting at the beginning (even if some people are already familiar with the problem), it nudges the group into a beginner’s mindset and leads to fresh solutions. (This is where an outside facilitator can come in handy: since they’re truly new to the problem, their questions can keep the group in a beginner’s mindset.)